Looking back at the beginning of 2023, as the pandemic eased and supply chain bottlenecks emerged, Taiwan's machine tool industry inevitably faced shortages of key components such as CNC controllers, driver chips, and servo motors. However, from the perspective of local CNC controller manufacturers, this may also present an opportunity to grasp application trends and break the monopoly held by European and Japanese brands.
In recent years, Taiwan’s machine tool industry had just gained a foothold in responding to the waves of smart automation, IIoT, and Industry 4.0. It was then hit again by geopolitical conflicts such as the US-China tensions and the Russia-Ukraine war, triggering a global supply chain restructuring and crises of material and labor shortages. CNC systems—known as the "brain" of machine tools and often called the "mother of the machine industry"—have long been dominated by Japanese and German giants in Taiwan. This dominance has even earned the industry the label of a "headless industry," hindering its ability to manage core data and enhance machine tool value.
Fortunately, with continued efforts from the Department of Industrial Technology (DOIT) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to promote the localization of key components, Taiwan-made CNC controllers have gained growing recognition and adoption in the machine tool sector. Their global market share has surged to 10–15%, enhancing Taiwan’s resilience in the era of supply chain restructuring. They now play a crucial role in supporting low-carbon and smart manufacturing applications, continuously developing high-end multi-axis modules and solutions to build a more complete supply chain system.
According to ITRI’s analysis of the development of Taiwan’s machine tool industry, it can be categorized into three levels: First, continuous improvement of hardware performance and precision; second, the adoption of high-end multi-axis machines such as 5-axis and mill-turn systems; and third, the offering of complete smart factory solutions. This includes the integration of automation, digitization, AI big data, and real-time online measurement to address growing market demands, transitioning from simple part processing to complete process engineering solutions. Companies must integrate all these technologies to deliver practical value that customers are willing to pay for. Mastering industrial trends and enabling customer transformation have become the major challenges for machine tool and CNC component manufacturers.
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