Ford Q1 Certified Infastech: India & Indonesia Are Booming Automotive Fastener Markets

One of 25 Cooperative Factories of US Stanley Engineered Fastening

Ford Q1 Certified Infastech: India & Indonesia Are Booming Automotive Fastener Markets

by Tanya Shih, Fastener World Inc.

Infastech/Tri-Star Limited Taiwan Branch (“Infastech”) specializes in the development and production of automotive fasteners (90%) and high speed rail / solar fasteners (10%). It is certified by TS 16949:2002, ISO 17025, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001. To a professional automotive fastener manufacturer, there is nothing more honorable than being certified by car manufacturers. In 2012 Infastech passed the auditing of Ford and received the certificate of Q1. Since then, 60% of Infastech’s capacity has been utilized to produce automotive fasteners which are supplied directly to car manufacturers in the US and Asia (Tier 1), while the remaining 40% of capacity is utilized to produce for customers and traders of Stanley Engineered Fastening Group (Tier 2).  

We are very pleased to invite General Manager Tony Kuo and Supply Chain Manager Kman Chen of Infastech to share their business strategy and vision for the automotive fastener market.

What!? Ford Requested Submission of 300 New Items Within 3 Months? Infastech: We Made It!

【Employees】The employees of Infastech are mostly at the age of 30, which is rare in factories of Taiwan. “One should have the required talents before he gets the job, but after getting the job, the most important part will be his personality,” said General Manager Kuo. Kuo, who once spent his career in the IT industry and now works for the fastener industry, has a totally different management and hiring strategy which other leaders in the same industry usually won’t adopt. Some of the employees in Infastech’s factory have the doctoral degree of NCKU or master degree of NTHU. “Who says genius can be only found in the IT or finance industry? Even in the traditional manufacturing industry, if manufacturing procedures and mold design can be improved and upgraded, Taiwanese fastener industry will take the lead. So, employers must learn how to train newcomers.”

【Associated Partners】Fasteners in sizes of M3-M16 provided by Infastech are made in carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, and copper. It has had 3-month order backlog waiting to be processed and its monthly capacity is about 800 tons. “Taiwan has a mature fastener industry, with a well-settled and professional work division. There are about 200 companies that cooperate with Infastech, and they make our service more reliable to customers,” said Supply Chain Manager Chen. 

Ford once requested Infastech submit 300 new products within 3 months, and thanks to the team of Infastech who are always energetic with new ideas and to the associated partners working together, Infastech can be highly flexible in R&D, quality and production.   

Common Feature of Indonesia and India: High Population Implies Potential Automotive Market

General Manager Kuo said that in 2015 he is going to increase the employment and capacity by 10% in order to accelerate the service provided to customers. And the markets in Indonesia and India will be the focus of Infastech in 2015. In addition to the direct inquiry from an Indian car manufacturer, Infastech will also try to find more business partners and opportunities via the help of the Group’s cooperative companies in the local markets. For example, whether a company is Dun & Bradstreet D-U-N-S Registered ™ or not will be one of the conditions Infastech uses to audit its cooperative partners.