Selling products, selling systems
“We don’t just sell products, in fact we sell systems,” says Nina Liu, sharing the key element in Cosda’s success in the auto tool market. She points to oil changes as an example. Cosda developed an oil drain plug removal tool that innovatively incorporates a heat-resistant magnet that holds onto the plug as it is loosened, saving people from touching the hot oil with their hands. This product is especially popular among mechanics in Japan. Another problem with vehicles’ oil drain plugs is that over time the screw threads of the drain hole, which the plug screws into, can become damaged or stripped, leading to oil leaks. To address this issue, Cosda designed a series of thread taps, replacement plugs, and copper washers, which are used to renew the screw threads, solving the problem of loosening and leaks. These items have been combined into kits: “This is what we mean by systems.”
Innovation and R&D are the critical factors enabling enterprises to become market leaders. Cosda worked with chemical and rubber companies to develop an elastic core material that will not harden over time, in order to make a mallet that will not damage car bodywork when used to install seals and trims. In fact, if these mallets are used to strike eggs, they won’t even break the shells. Nina Liu says proudly: “Cross-disciplinary designs are hard to imitate.” This elastic-filled mallet has now been patented and is being exported to European and American markets.
“We always aim to do something different,” says Liu. Although Cosda is a small company, whenever they launch new products they are quickly copied, which shows the leading role they have in their industry. She has created an elite team that believes that “there is no best, only better.”
In recent years Taiwan’s hand tools have been making the transition to becoming high-grade industrial products. “What we hope to do is make tools that are easy to use, that save time and effort, and that people love so much they don’t want to put them down, and that after use they wipe them clean, hang them on the wall and admire them,” says Arthur Wu, who is currently honorary chairman of the Taiwan Hand Tool Manufacturers’ Association.
Taiwan’s hand-tool makers have made it their common goal to pursue excellence as the way to make their everyday products stand out from the crowd. This ambition has become a trend for the “Made in Taiwan” brand.
