TAICHUNG, Taiwan – Bicycle parts supplier Marwi Taiwan Industrial Co., Ltd., known as Marwi Group, started

production at its new‘smart’ production facility late last year. Since then, production has been gradually

ramped up. At Eurobike, Marwi founder and chairman Patrick Pai and his daughter, Marwi president Coco Pai

told Bike Europe that fully automated production at the facility will start by the end of this year.

In order to continue to be and remain globally competitive with ‘Made in Taiwan’, the supplier relies fully

on automation for both its mass and customised production. Marwi was one of the first parts makers in

Taiwan to install robots in its production lines, and rising demand made Marwi decide to step up production

with new investments . According to Patrick Pai, the new factory is on the gradual path from semi-automation

to full automation: “The payback period for such fully automated production can be very long in the world of

the bicycle components industry. But we are thinking in the long-term. We have well established sales-channels

that have grown over the years as well as stable orders.”

With a total production capacity of over 11 million pairs of pedals and 2 million saddles per year, Marwi Group,

with its brand names Union and Xerama, is one of the very big players in the international bicycle components

sector. In addition to pedals and saddles, the company also produces other products such as gear-hangers, chains,

water bottle cages, lighting systems and stainless steel and titanium spokes. Marwi’s ‘Industry 4.0 The Smart

Factory’ has been built directly behind the company headquarters and the already existing semiautomated

production facility in Dajia/Taichung. With this new facility Marwi Group created about 40 new jobs, bringing

the total employees to around 170 people in Taiwan and around 500 worldwide, including its other production

sites in Indonesia, Czech Republic and the R&D centre in Germany.

“Marwi has doubled its production efficiency and optimised its production quality over the past few years”

Optimised efficiency and quality

Marwi Group, first started an automated production line for saddles and pedals in 2013 and became the first

Taiwanese company in the bicycle industry to use a robot just one year later. With its automated intelligent

manufacturing, it says it has both doubled its production efficiency and optimised its production quality over

the past few years. Thanks to full control over the production schedule, unnecessary work steps and phases

have been demonstrably reduced.

“In 2010, there were only two buildings at our headquarters in Taiwan, one office building, and the

production facility for both pedals and saddles,” explains Coco Pai. “With the expansion of the factory site,

we have now extended the saddle production throughout the whole building, while moving pedal production

into the new building.”

Four storey automisation

“In The Smart Factory, each floor has a platform sending off goods and materials throughout the building into

the automated warehouse. This warehouse is located next to The Smart Factory,” explains Coco Pai. “To shorten

lead time with precision and fast inventory flow, a digitized decision-making process connects both production

and sales data with these executive platforms.”

“The first-floor houses automated vertical injection molding machines working with IoT network robots. On the

second floor, there are automated horizontal injection molding machines. On the third floor is the only true fully

automated pedal assembly line which enables us to triple our capacity for mass production. The fourth floor is home

to the semi-automated pedal assembly line designed more for smaller quantities.” With the Industry 4.0 Smart

Factory, the Taiwanese company is clearly well positioned for the future.

https://www.bike-eu.com/43446/marwi-group-ramps-up-parts-production-in-taiwan-with-smart-factory