The product and services provided by Energyled are always customer satisfactory such that quality and responsibility are the core competences of this company. Only the best quality is found in their products, which is one of the factors why loyal customers repeatedly place orders despite the slightly higher price than other competing companies because they trust Energyled’s products. Even if there is a five percent increase in the price, there are customers who are still willing to purchase from Energyled if they believe the amount increase is worthy of what they get, which is usually the case. Behind all the trust of quality is the technically advanced experts from the R&D team, who continuously develop new reliable products.
Energyled does not have a great assortment of products but all the ones offered are definitely trustworthy. It is the same to be said for the services provided.
Product Diversification
Energyled products are separated into three main categories: indoor, outdoor and low temperature. Of these categories, there is a total of 17 different types of products, one of which includes customization for customers.
Indoor products are used in offices, stores, panels, signs, indoor parking lots, showcases, green houses and many more applications. Basically any lighting that is needed indoors, LED products are available as replacements of the traditional ones. Energyled currently has ten types of indoor products, including light tube, plant tube, yellow tube, signage tube, meat light, AR111, MR16 (multifaceted reflector), down light, light bulb and panel light (Appendix A-1).
Some of these types consist of sub-types and each may have different series. For light tubes, there are T5, T8 and sensor type in general. These are the tubes with same size and shape as fluorescent tubes except the choice of the cover of the tube can be either clear or matte. Clear covered tubes allow individual LED lamps to be seen easily even when illuminated. Whereas the matte covered tubes are most similar to the traditional tubes where individual LED lamps are not as visible. If customers want a further complete solution with light fixtures, Energyled also offers them in forms of overhead sharp lights, surface mounted lights, T-bars, AR111 round and square fixtures, and track lights (Appendix A-2). Other types of tubes include plant tubes, yellow tubes, signage tubes and meat lights. Plant tubes generally emit pink light to
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stimulate plant growth for photosynthesis, and are used in horticulture, plantation, green houses and general plant lighting. Yellow tubes are used in exposure rooms, semiconductor and PCB (Printed Circuit Board) industries. The uniqueness of the color can also be inside green houses to repel insects. Signage tubes can be used in billboards, advertisement signs, and cooler signs.
Meat lights also emit pink light and are used in restaurants or supermarket refrigerators to enhance the pinkness of the meat, making it look more fresh. It also comes in LED PAR (parabolic aluminized reflector) bulbs that can shine onto the meat as a spotlight. All types of light tubes are produced in different lengths, ranging from two to five feet, with two and four feet being most popular.
The remaining indoor products provided by Energyled are the AR111, MR16, down light, light bulb and panel light. Similar to the tubes, each product may have different series by means of using different LED components. AR111 and down lights are considered as recessed lights and both replace the traditional metal halide lamps. MR16 are smaller in design and usually used as spot lights or track lights. The LED light bulbs replace incandescent light bulbs. They are similar in shape but slightly different in design such that only half of the light bulbs are illuminated. This is due to the flat design of the LED chips which are placed horizontally above the screw base and the need of additional space for heat sink. Lastly, panel light is as the name suggests. It is a big board with LED lighting inside. All these can be applied basically in any way where its original traditional products would be used in. Examples include office, interior design, store front, restaurant, hotel, supermarket, and so forth.
Outdoor products are categorized by its IP-approved waterproof feature to differentiate from indoor products. These include high bay light, street light, spot light, flood light, wall light, and bollard light (Appendix A-3). All of these products are either IP65 or 66, except for bollard lights which are IP54. High bay lights are largest in structure that can project light from highly elevated ceilings of factories, warehouses, exhibition centers or big box stores (superstore, super center, megastore). Although this is generally used indoors, but since these are IP 65 and 66 approved, they can also be used outdoors as well. Street lights are as the name suggests used on the streets and city roads. Outdoor spot lights are much bigger and higher in power consumption as compared to indoor-use ones. They can be used in plazas, wharfs, athletic fields, warehouses and container terminals. Flood lights are opposites of spot lights in which it is set on the ground to shine upwards against the wall. These can be found illuminating for signs, buildings, landscapes, pathways and parking lots. Wall lights are, as the name
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indicates, products that can be attached to exterior walls. Bollard lights are lightings that are placed on the ground or grass for landscapes or sceneries.
The last category of products is the one that Energyled is most known for: low temperature. As the forerunner and winner of this niche market, many generations of T8 light tubes have been produced to fulfill this market such that standard designs are established for different types of refrigerators, namely open refrigeration display case, glass door refrigeration and sliding door reach in refrigerator. As different countries may have different size refrigerators due to spacing availability, a wide variety of tubes shape, size, wiring and connector solutions are available for customers to customize into their refrigerators. One of the top priorities for Energyled is to fulfill customers’ requests to the best possible way.
Services Provided
Excellent customer service is another key value of Energyled. They provide the best service to satisfy customers’ need with full responsibility, whether it is to arrange for local product installation or to help train electricians from outside companies. When working with large firms, additional requests are usually within the negotiated terms, such as taking the responsibility of installing the products or quick response to emergency situations. For example, when Energyled started working with a convenience store company, trial installations of low temperature light tubes were organized at a few designated locations. Engineers from Energyled went to those locations and personally installed the light tubes. If any tube suddenly had a slight defect, the customer would call Energyled’s sales person, who would then react quickly by bringing an engineer and a replacement tube to the store to confirm the issue and, if necessary, change the tube. There were a few instances when such emergency support was needed on the weekends and Energyled was there as well. After the success of the experience with the installations, more stores were going to change to LED lighting. This increase of workload was no longer able to be handled by Energyled engineers so they found reliable electrician companies and trained them on how to install the products since LED was not as prominent in the early 2000s. These companies would then install all the light tubes for all the existing and new convenience store locations. Likewise, if the customer has its own preferred electrician company to cooperate with, Energyled would help train their electricians as well.
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Other than training electricians, training authorized dealers with product knowledge is another service provided by Energyled sales and engineering team, helping dealers understand the values of the product and its difference from competitors. And if there are any questions, Energyled will be at service to explain.
Product Distribution
Ledtech Group reports its annual report based on the sales revenue of two major product types: components from Ledtech and lighting solution from Energyled. Each type is then further divided based on different product categories. The trends of the distribution change can be perceived as a reflection of how the LED market is developing from components to lighting solution.
Based on the distribution of components and lighting solutions for the past three years, an obvious trend is identified where the revenue of components has been decreasing while the revenue of lighting solutions has been increasing (Table 1). The gap between the two types has narrowed down from 32.6% to 18.4 %. This is an indication that LED component sales is slowing down due to the development of the industry to finished solution, which is gradually being accepted by the public despite the price range is much higher than traditional lighting.
Table 1
Summary Distribution of Product Type Based on Sales Revenue
2015 2016 2017
Components 0.663 0.614 0.592
Lighting Solution 0.337 0.286 0.408
Lighting solution is further dispersed by its product categories: low temperature, indoor, outdoor, light module and others (Table 2). Sales revenue for low temperature lighting has been gradually decreasing over the past three years, representing the slowdown of this niche market. This is true as Energyled has occupied the majority of the industry, and with the long longevity of the products, second orders of product replacement would be a few years after the
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first. Hence, Energyled has also been focusing on indoor lighting, but its increase of 3.7% is not enough to meet the decrease of low temperature lighting at 4.7%. As most high bay light orders are sold for indoor industrial lighting, it is counted in this section as opposed to its originally categorized type. Outdoor lighting is a fairly new sector with minimal change in revenue. It has been steady at a low 0.4% for the past three years. The last two categories are not generally described in its product catalogue because they are half finished products, accessories or components of finished products. Light modules are similar to light strips that can be found within the light tubes. Although there is a slight 0.6% drop from 2015 to 2016, but a 1% increase from 2016 to 2017. This states that customers are buying more modules for their own product design. The trend is similar for the ‘Others’ section of the distribution.
Customers are buying more LED drivers, lens, end caps, heat sink, reflectors and so forth for their products.
Table 2
Summary Distribution of Lighting Solution Products Based on Sales Revenue
2015 2016 2017 Low temperature lighting 0.653 0.634 0.606
Indoor lighting 0.221 0.25 0.258
Outdoor lighting 0.004 0.004 0.004
Light Modules 0.068 0.062 0.072
Others 0.054 0.049 0.061
Development of New Products
The development of new products is essential for every manufacturing company. It all starts with the most important stage of market analysis, which is to research on competitor products and understanding market needs. Recognizing customer needs is also taken into consideration as the direction provided by them is generally how the market will gradually move towards. However, Energyled is slightly weaker at this stage as the company does not have a marketing team in particular. R&D team engineers collect their information from competitors’ online website, product launch, exhibitions, or from the sales team, who provides information from what they found on the market or from their customers. Customer requests
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and complaints directly from the sales team allow the engineers to develop and improve the products, and then eventually standardize the product for other potential customers.
Once the research is complete, engineers start to design, develop and evaluate the feasibility of the new product. If the resulting design passes and the cost is reasonable, the first level of evaluation is complete. Prototypes are then made for further testing, such as power consumption, viewing angle, luminous flux, temperature range and so forth. The resulting statistics are reviewed and presented at internal meetings for final discussion and approval.
Once approved, trial production is in order. The trial products are tested repeatedly with specialized equipment, namely high and low temperature shock test, high and low temperature accelerated humidity chamber, light distribution photometer (Appendix B), and many more.
Quality check is the second most important segment in product development and production.
Near the end of quality check, when the statistics are admirable, the product is ready to be sent out for external certification and patent application.
External certification is also conducted. All products are at least CE certified and some are RoHS approving to be lead-free. Outdoor products are IP approved with IP 54, 65 or 66.
The two digits after “IP” explains different levels of protection. The first digit indicates the protection from different levels of solids such as dust. The second digit indicates the protection from water spray or pressure from any direction. Other certifications obtained also include ISO-9001, ISO-14001, PSE and TÜV.
For different countries, there are different approval standards. Taiwan has an Energy Label certification that is supported by the government, who sets the energy efficiency standards. Many businesses look for this certification in products before purchasing the LED products. Energyled’s T-bars, panel lights and generation IV high bay lights are examples that fulfill this standard. To sell in the USA, products are expected to meet UL safety standards, in which Energyled’s low temperature light tubes do so. These tubes are also DLC approved for its energy efficiency (See definitions of certifications in Appendix C).
While sending the products for approvals, patents are also applied if there is a new unique technical or structural design that needs to be protected. Applications take quite long to process that the approval is sometimes obtained after the product has launched. Currently the entire Ledtech Group has more than 185 patents. When all essential tests and certifications have passed and been approved, the new product is ready for launch.
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