In recent decades, by introducing the concept of lean production within manufacturing companies the vulnerability to system disturbances has increased and so, the demand for dependable production equipment. The need for having high production equipment availability causes companies to have a more effective and efficient maintenance strategy in order to reach a competitive production system. Despite the increasing demand on reliable production equipment, few manufacturing companies work with strategic maintenance development and a large part of the manufacturing industry lack clear maintenance strategies. One reason for that may be that the existing methods and concepts for maintenance development are quite resource demanding. It is therefore difficult to develop the maintenance work in accordance with the strategic goals of the manufacturing companies. The main objective of this project is to define a process of formulating maintenance strategy as a tool for the maintenance managers in order to formulate and have further development of maintenance strategy in a strategic way. The problem has been solved by literature review and through case study at the manufacturing company to investigate the company’s view on strategic maintenance development. As a result, formulated maintenance strategy has been provided and presented.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze environmental management in companies and how it affects competitiveness. In order to do this a case study of two Swedish and two Russian companies was done by conducting interviews. The theoretical framework consists of environmental management strategy and competitiveness literature which are relevant to the study and research questions. The empirical findings include the case firm’s view of environmental management and competitiveness in their company. The conclusions of this thesis are that environmental management strategy can have a positive impact on competitiveness, but it depends on the management attitude in the company.   Key words: Environmental management; strategy; competitiveness.

The purpose of the study is to discuss the effect of three kinds of diversification strategies in the smart phone industry: self-brand strategy, upward integration strategy and brand extension strategy. Based on the moderate effect of evaluation of firm and product involvement, the influence of these three strategies will be evaluated by consumer¡¦s view when firms who are smart phone-related consider entering smart phone industry. Hon Hai, Canon and CHT were selected as cell phone equipment manufacturer, digital camera firm and internet service provider through pre-test 2. A 3(diversification strategy: self-brand strategy, upward integration strategy, brand extension strategy)x 2 (brand evaluation: high, low) experimental design collected data from white color workers and master students in NSYSU through 6 color printed advertisements. First of all, the result of search suggests that the willingness to buy is effected by different evaluations on cell phone equipment manufacturer and digital camera firm. Willingness to buy will be high if the evaluation of cell phone equipment manufacturer and digital camera firm is high too. However, for consumer, willingness to buy is not different whether the evaluation of internet service provider is high or low. Second, consumer involvement influences the behavior of buying smart phone. Consumer who is high-involvement has higher willingness to buy than low-involvement under three different strategies. Finally, willingness to buy is not different under these three strategies no matter what strategies firms adapt when they try to enter smart phone Industry.

Taiwan's population that undergoes medical dialysis, dialysis quality and survival rate are the highest in the world, hence, the infamous pun, "dialysis kingdom." In this study, Taiwan¡¦s hemodialysis industry development status, business strategies and the relationship between business strategies and resources will be explored. The hope is that by analyzing the dialysis industry in specific cases and its respons to relationship between the environment and its resources, which can provide useful knowledge for medical related industry references. In this study, dialysis patients had been given a questionnaire and statistical analysis to understand why the patients have chosen a specific dialysis center. Further research methods include, using exploratory case studies, and through the interviews of five experts in the industry, (including the three hemodialysis centers operators and two kidney specialists) as well as secondary data collection, data analysis and infe-rence by the case. The study concludes that relevant research findings, drastically impacts the he-modialysis patients choice in choosing the specific hospital based on various factors that are of great importance to the patients. The top five most important factors were: 1)The nurses attitudes of welcoming enthusiasm. 2)Needle skill of the nurses.3) Phy-sicians ethics and professionalism. 4)Clean and comfortable dialysis beds and lastly, 5)the gracious attitudes of the physicians. The five least important factors were: 1)Providing peritoneal dialysis services. 2)Whether or not there is a facility to provide free meals. 3) On site information services. 4)Recommendation of friends and finally, 5)spacious and comfortable transport vehicles. Using a specific business strategy, the proposed operators pinpoint the needs of patients and enhance the professional stan-dard of services, in which differentiating strategies can be taken and utilized in vari-ous marketing strategies.

To be successful in sustainable building design, architects must consider energy efficient design strategies in the early design stage. Unfortunately, many architects still rely on simplified analysis, synthesis techniques, and historical examples. Although, building energy simulations are becoming more common in the design of buildings, architects rarely use simulation in the early design stage. The “Bioclimatic” charts have been used in the early design stage to define potential building design strategies to achieve indoor thermal comfort. Currently, many architects use the Givoni-Milne bioclimatic design chart (Milne and Givoni, 1979), which was developed based on principle reasoning and heuristics. There have been many attempts to develop computerized programs to further the bioclimatic analysis; however, there have been very limited efforts to test and evaluate the design strategies of the chart using simulations of a thermostatically-controlled building. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to promote comfortable buildings that reduce energy use through appropriate building design strategies. The objectives of the research are to develop a more accurate bioclimatic chart for a thermostaticallycontrolled residence by testing and evaluating the Givoni-Milne bioclimatic chart. The analysis is performed with DOE-2.1e program (Winkelmann, 1993) and TMY2 weather data (Marion and Urban, 1995) for several climates. To achieve these objectives, four main tasks were accomplished: 1) investigate the Givoni-Milne Bioclimatic Chart using representative weather data from several climates, 2) analyze and modify the design strategy boundaries using DOE-2 program and TMY2 weather data to simulate the effects of varied conditions of a thermostatically-controlled residence in different climates, 3) compare these new design strategy boundaries to the original Givoni-Milne design strategy boundaries, and 4) develop general guidelines for the new bioclimatic chart. In summary, there were some differences in the results from the Givoni-Milne bioclimatic chart and the DOE-2 simulation results. These results imply that without further modification, the G-M Chart may have only a limited use for a thermostaticallycontrolled residence. Therefore, to improve the usefulness of the bioclimatic chart the new bio-climatic chart for choosing design strategies for a thermostatically-controlled residence in the hot-humid climate of Houston, Texas, was developed. This new bioclimatic chart for a thermostatically-controlled residence will be a useful tool for architects and engineers in the early design stage. Similar versions of the new bioclimatic for other climates could then be developed.

A Study on the Analysis of Competitive Strategy of Flip Chip Packaging Industry in Taiwan¡X Case Study on S Company Abstract The success of semiconductor industry in Taiwan significantly lies on the complete demarcation of the industry chain by companies involved in each area of IC design, foundry, packaging and testing. Nonetheless, packaging and testing are generally categorized to one industry as the major company usually runs packaging business in line with testing by emphasizing their turn-key solution. However, this concept will not be applied in the future even followed by the quantum breakthrough on the structure of the industry chain. This is a qualitative descriptive study mainly on analysis of competitive advantage and strategy of Flip Chip Packaging Industry in Taiwan. The theme studied is hardly assessed by quantified data. However through the researcher¡¦s macro review of the industry environment as well as micro review of specific individual case with primary and secondary data all-around collected, the present situation, character and trend of the industry are understood by analyzing external environment and internal corporate, searching source of competitive advantage in line with a case study of competitive strategy. The conclusion on future competitive strategy of Flip Chip Packaging Industry in Taiwan based on the case study is followed: 1. Under the trend of global demarcation with analysis, the future operation mode of Taiwan Flip Chip Packaging Industry should be transformed from low skill level to high technique intensive level through virtual integration of packaging and testing from the back end and IC design of the front end, which results in promoting the integration value of industry chain as well as providing the most efficient producing system to the globe. 2. Reviewing the current trend, development and competitors¡¦ competitive strategy of Taiwan Flip Chip Packaging Industry, analysis shows that under the evolution of technique and product, Taiwan Flip Chip Packaging Industry should take advantage of the special needs from IC design industry and IDM factories to devote to technique integration, application and development in the future. In addition the ability to innovate and establish standard will be uplifted with raising competitive from a complete industry chain and advanced foundry advantage. 3. Researching the core competitive from the case study and presenting the future competitive strategy of Taiwan Flip Chip Packaging Industry shows that differentiation directs the competition in line with stepping into production service and production research and development to replace cost advantage. Key Word: Competitive Advantage, Competitive Strategy, Core Source , Flip Chip Package

Background and Purpose: The Massachusetts Male Aging Study found 52% of men aged 40 to 70 years suffered from erectile dysfunction (ED). Approximately two millions men in Taiwan were ED suffers, only 10% of them had taken Viagra®. The potential market is very attractive to pharmatheutical industry. By law, ED medicines are prescriptive drugs; in practice, more than 80% of ED drugs were sold without prescription in Taiwan. The launch of Levitra® and Cialis® has boosted the competition in the ED drug market. The purposes of this study are 1) to compare the marketing strategies of Viagra®, Levitra® and Cialis®, 2) to analyze factors influencing physicians¡¦ prescription, 3) to analyze factors affecting drug purchasers¡¦ decision, and 4) to survey the preference of drugstores owners on selling these drugs. Materials and Methods: The first step is face-to-face, in-depth interviews with product mangers to understand their marketing strategies. We will ask them to rate the significance of factors (e.g. efficacy, safety, price) affecting physicians¡¦ and patients¡¦ preference. Product mangers will be requested to rate the importance and relevance of the way product messages delivered to doctors¡¦ prescription behaviors. Questionnaires will be mailed to all urologists in Taiwan to survey factors they concerned when prescribing. We use mailing questionnaires and face-to-face interviews to assess the impact of drug efficacy, duration, safety, etc. on drug purchasers¡¦ decision. Drugstores owners will be interviewed to understand their favor in promoting certain drug. Comparative studies will be done to evaluate the difference between product mangers, physicians and patients. Results The marketing strategy of Pfizer is to emphasize the well-documented efficacy and long-term safety of Viagra® by seminars for physicians. Educational talks will be given to the public to explore the potential consumers. The goal of Bayer is to urge the silent ED suffers search for medical help, and to convince physicians that Levitra® is the drug of choice for ED patients. Eli-Lilly put almost all their marketing efforts and resources in drugstores. Drug efficacy and safety are most important factors influencing physicians¡¦ prescription. Approximately 85% of urologists surveyed favor Viagra®, 21% have safety concern on Cialis®. Most urologists considered Levitra® as alternative of Viagra® when failed. All product mangers overestimate the impact of key opinion leaders, literature, and seminars on physicians¡¦ prescription behaviors. Patients¡¦ survey disclosed that drug efficacy and safety are most important factors affecting drug purchasing. As compared to physicians, patients have more concern on the time of onset and duration. About 20% of drug purchasers are not ED suffers; 62% of purchasing is sporadic, one third of Viagra® users have the attempt to try other ED drugs. The drugstores owners have no specific preference for any drugs. Conclusions The extension of life expectancy and open discussion of male ED problem had resulted in tremendous growth of ED drug market. The launch of new drug may stimulate the selling amount in short run; the long-term market shares depend mainly on the drug efficacy and safety. In our study, we found that safety profile is the main concern for both physicians and drug purchasers. We believed that Viagra® may stay as the market leader, while Levitra® may have only small market share. Certain groups of drug purchasers, especially fake ED suffers and those who with multiple sex-partners will have high brand loyalty to Cialias®.

The study of Chinese PLA's high technology limited war and intention

The Taiwan information industry by the high quality technical manpower and the superior investment environment attract international factories investment, released the high gross margin of labor order form, also enabled Taiwan become the international famous Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM), but as a result of the industrial competition, the OEM customer greatly chopped the OEM product unit price, enabled the OEM merchant only obtain the meager profit. Moreover, mainland China, Eastern Europe, India and so on have the high comparative advantage country spring up, also causes the Taiwan information merchant lose many OEM order forms, some of the merchant continues to be engaged in the great quantity and low cost OEM service. Another part, like the empirical study merchant: BenQ, ASUS, Accton, Optoma, they continued in the OEM experience by the past, after accumulated own R&D and the manufacturing capacity, in order to obtain incompletely restrained from the OEM customer's controlling force in the produce market, they chose the Ordnance Bench Mark (OBM) strategy to strengthen the merchant homemade brand. The present thesis found that, when the industrial growth hastens, the technology slow tends to maturely, the low technical barrier phenomenon and so on, the OEM merchants in order to enhance the product competitive ability, they introduction advanced technology, emphatically to the new product technological innovation to take the competitive advantage. In order to continue the product technology superiority, grasps the new product design and development, invests the development emerging commodity and the new product technology, will positively develop the innate brand service in the new produce market domain. Merchant after the OEM times not only may obtain the OEM customer to provide the product specification design, the product quality stipulation, the system regulation standard as well as regarding the quality request, but also has help the merchant¡¦s change the resources ability. The merchant in order to conform to customer's requirement, the merchant must strengthen the original quality control concept, to promote the product manufacture quality. Also increases the buyer negotiations strength, becomes the international great merchant partner of the strategy alliance. Moreover, the OEM merchant also trades the OEM customer's product at the same time, enables the merchant have the ability to develop the market channel, in order to help reform to the Ordnance Bench Mark (OBM) merchant in the future. However, establishes the brand is the kind of processes which communicate with the consumer, therefore besides establishes the successful brand, and also must invest the high quota massive funds and the manpower. But the Taiwan OEM merchant core competitive ability is in the product manufacture productivity, not above product marketing ability. Even though, the present thesis merchant still chose the OBM service condition, the main difference came from the merchant¡¦s OBM strategic intent, even though present stage merchant in marketing ability insufficiency, but the merchant OBM high strategic intent, gradually increased the customer oriented activities and slowly accumulated resources variations from the process to enhance the brand management ability.

Since TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacture Company) foundation in 1987, the "fabless"business model has been also introduced to semiconductor industry. TSMC was the first foundry service company globally and has successfully created a global competitive advantage with prosperity in Taiwan semiconductor industry. Taiwan has been developing into a unique business model that also brings many other competitors worldwide to compete in the same field. Currently, Mainland China showers her interested in semiconductor industry, especially in IC foundry. China can be one of the most important manufacturing centers globally in recent years. The primary purpose of this research is to understand the present stage of foundry play companies as well as the future trends of semiconductor industry across Taiwan Strait .Moreover, this research will focus on the competitive advantages that Taiwan should have to strengthen the dominant position in the mainland China. Recommendations and suggestions will be stated in the conclusion for the future reference of Taiwan foundry industries and official authorities. The research model composes five factors each as Input Conditions,Demand Conditions, Firm Strategy and Rivalry, Related and Supporting Industries, and Government, which are referred to the Diamond Analysis created by Michael Porter. Secondly, collect and analyze the information about manufacturing capacity, market opportunities, and supply & demand relations of major companies between China and Taiwan. After that, this research goes through five kinds of analysis models¡BDiamond Analysis to find out the strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat to Taiwan¡¦s foundry industry. This research reveals that Taiwan¡¦s foundry industry should focus on major competition strategies - technology improvement, service enhancement ¡Bindustry cluster advantage and excellent supply chain management . China is expected to be the next crucial nation by having advantages of big market, low cost on labor and materials, high goverment efficiency, package incentive for foreign investment and etc. Taiwanese foundry play companies must strategically utilize the advantagies from the two sides to implement the division of operating to optimize the allocation in capital,technology, human resource and risk diversification. Meanwhile, the official authorities should provide more supports to the industry under the laws legislation, industrial regulation & planning. In addition, the authorities should use advance view to making policy to assist Taiwan¡¦s foundry industry remaining the leadership in the global competition.