Applying Improved DEA & VIKOR Methods to Evaluate the Operation Performance for World's Major TFT–LCD Manufacturers

Abstract

The whole panel industry has been impacted profoundly by global recession from 2007 to 2009, and the TFT–LCD industry is not an exception. Currently, the major TFT–LCD manufacturers cluster in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, which totally contribute more than 80% sales in global market. All these TFT–LCD manufacturers face the five industry characteristics, including intensive capital, intensive technology, short product life cycle and fast technology advancement, fluctuating prices easily influenced by market demand/supply and business cycle, and international collaboration. In view of rapid growth of global demand, TFT–LCD manufacturers face a tremendous competition environment. Therefore, how to configure the best resource allocation and create more profits tend to be an essential issue for the managers of TFT–LCD industry. This paper employs improved DEA and VIKOR to evaluate the dynamic operation performances for TFT–LCD manufacturers in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan from 2002 to 2009. Research results show that South Korean firms have relatively better stable operation performances, while the performance of the firms in Taiwan and Japan are relatively worse and varied over time. After referring to the disclosure statements and industrial experts' opinions, this paper also portraits the reason of Sony with great performance in 2007 was resulted from the sales boost of high-level touch panels which leads to 50% high gross profit ratio and rapidly increasing pre-tax profit in 2007. As a result, how to develop high-level or multi-function panels might be an essential issue for the TFT–LCD manufacturers in Taiwan.