Taiwan Today

Jumpway Co. has carved out a niche in Thailand by achieving short lead times in delivering small-volume orders of custom LED lights that meet exact specifications.

Many visitors to the EmQuartier in Bangkok take the time to discover the source of the babbling sounds inside the high-end department store. The answer is a vertical water-themed garden spanning 3,000 square meters in an atrium extending from the fifth to seventh floors. Featuring fountains and plants, this attraction resembling a lush urban forest is illuminated using a uniquely designed belt of LED lights spiraling upward.

The EmQuartier has become the talk of the city and part of the credit for its fame goes to Taiwan company Jumpway, which produced bold, custom-made lighting equipment for the store.

In Thailand’s fiercely competitive department store sector, winners stand out not only for their scale of their establishments but the creativity of their design concepts. Consequently, in an effort to outdo rivals, store operators typically invite international professionals to craft their exteriors and interiors. There are no templates for success, with stores eager to impress by adopting unconventional ideas. In this competitive commercial space, lighting equipment plays a key role in highlighting the modernity and novelty of a department store.

Outpacing rivals by making inroads into department stores and the luxury housing market

“I can turn any drawing made by designers into a product,” said Jumpway Vice President Lu Chi-lin when discussing the reason his company was entrusted with helping shape the interior lighting of the EmQuartier. The key to success, he noted, is the company’s exceptional capabilities at filling custom orders in a short period of time. For example, in the case of the EmQuartier’s garden, the products were delivered within just two weeks of the order being placed. According to the company, none of its rivals could come close to achieving such a feat.

Traditionally, LED lighting manufacturers mass produce standardized goods, a model that leads to fierce price competition. But Jumpway took an alternative path by offering custom manufacturing services. Besides department store operators, luxury house builders have also placed orders with the company.

Jumpway’s competitive advantage— an ability to efficiently fill small-volume orders of diverse custom-made goods—owes much to its comprehensive array of production equipment. Even more credit for the company’s success can be attributed to its second-generation operator’s dedication to innovating and upgrading the business.

In the 1990s, the Republic of China (Taiwan) government pushed a policy encouraging small and medium businesses to explore Southeast Asia. During this period, Lu Shen-yi, Jumpway president and general manager and father of Lu Chi-lin, traveled to Thailand with just a briefcase and an ambition to start a business focused on production mold design, precision metal stamping and plastic injection molding.

The elder Lu, who could not speak Thai, focused all of his time on identifying customers and overseeing his manufacturing operations. What little time remained, he spent sleeping, and for six years he did that in his factory.

With his three children remaining behind in Taiwan, his wife spent eight years dividing her time between Taiwan and Thailand. While in Thailand, she cried whenever she thought of her children. And back home in Taiwan, she shed tears when thinking about her husband living alone in the Southeast Asian country.

Over time, Lu’s business started to take root in Thailand. In the beginning, Jumpway did contract manufacturing for Delta Electronics (Thailand) PCL and gradually its customer base broadened to include other electronics companies. In 1998, the company invested in a major electroplating plant and set up its own paint coating department. It began manufacturing car parts under contract, standing out in the sector for its comprehensive and efficient manufacturing processes. “Procedures that take 10 days at other factories require only three at ours,” Lu said proudly.

Shifting to the green lighting sector under the original design manufacturing model  

Optimistic about the Thai government’s energy-saving campaign, the company launched its lighting business department in 2009, which produced LED lights under contract for customers including Stanley Electric Co. and ENDO Lighting Corp., the third largest lighting equipment provider in Japan.

Thanks to its comprehensive array of manufacturing equipment, this department moved from original equipment manufacturing to original design manufacturing in 2010. At the same time, the company also established its own production team so that it could offer comprehensive services to clients.
   
Inside Jumpway’s new plant in an industrial park in suburban Bangkok stands stamping presses, lathes and injection molding machines. On the other side of the factory is a laser processing device costing NT$18 million (US$592,780). The total investment in the plant amounts to nearly NT$180 million.

Born and raised in Taiwan, Lu Chi-lin devoted himself to the family business after reuniting with his father in Thailand. At first he found it difficult to adapt to his new life in the country, but he committed himself to learning the language, in which he is now quite fluent. Notably, he is a graduate of the first Executive Master of Business Administration course opened in Thailand by National Taipei University of Technology’s Department of Business Management.

An idea crossed the younger Lu’s mind when he inspected the company’s new plant. Why not broaden the scope of the business by utilizing spare production capacity to produce specialized LED lights?

“That means manufacturing LED lights as a sideline alongside the normal production processes,” said Lu Chi-lin. The production equipment was already in place. And filling small-volume orders of diverse items is Jumpway’s strong suit. As a result, the new plant could produce LED lights in a flexible manner according to the needs of customers without having to confront the pressures of excess inventory.

The strategy of embracing quality over quantity and making the best use of production resources soon proved effective. In 2015, the company received orders from the EmQuartier, marking its entry into the department store interior design sector.    

A beneficiary of the birth of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community (AEC), Jumpway has also grown its footprint beyond Thailand by exporting its LED lights to Myanmar, where they are installed in gas stations, and to Laos, where it has designed custom products for luxury hotels.   

As the market for energy-saving products in still in its infancy in Thailand and AEC, the second-generation management of Jumpway has great optimism for the future and many ambitions yet to fulfill. (E)

[By Chiu Li-yan / tr. by Oscar Chung]