Thai makers to adopt lean manufacturing

About 20% of Thai manufacturers are advanced adopters of lean manufacturing with majority coming from the automotive and electrical/electronic goods sectors, according to the results of IDC Manufacturing Insights' latest Lean Adoption Survey. However, almost 70% of the respondents are still in the planning or pilot phase of Lean implementation. Detailed findings are documented in a report, entitled "Driving Operations Excellence: Lean Adoption in Thailand" (Doc #AP9397217T, May 2011).
 William Lee, senior research manager, IDC Manufacturing Insights Asia / Pacific , says , " To offset rising cost and competition, Thai manufacturers are increasingly aiming for operational excellence. Lean manufacturing has been purported as the best way to improve productivity and efficiency of a company. However, there is an obvious lack of a clear roadmap for implementation among Thai companies, as well as the management of this change process."
 The survey also revealed that close to 90% of Thai manufacturers indicated that the key barrier to lean implementation is employees' resistance to change. Lee advises, "Effective communication of an organisation's lean implementation plan is essential. Resistance is expected whenever the status quo is challenged. A top-down directive approach is not sustainable if the management does not get the buy-in of the people affected by the change. A good communication tool would be a technique known as value stream mapping, which provides the visual representation and roadmap for the change. Through the systematic approach of planning and communicating the change process and rationale of these changes, employees will be more prepared to accept the changes."
 The survey findings further show that majority of the respondents indicated that IT has a role to play in information access, visibility, analytics and reporting, production scheduling, inventory management and quality management. However, most Thai manufacturers do not see the role of IT in achieving inter-departmental collaboration, equipment utilisation and shopfloor visibility. This shows that the level of intra-enterprise information integration among Thai manufacturers is relatively low.
 "IT plays a significant role in providing a better visual control in a lean enterprise," says Dr. Lee. "Manufacturers should adopt IT-enabled lean toolkits and applications to drive information and process automation within the organisation, to assist lean adoption and cement the change of the transformation process."
 There are still many lean transformation challenges faced by Thai manufacturers today. To overcome these obstacles, effective communication between management and employees, and trainings and support for both management and employees are of great importance.
 IDC believes that IT-enabled lean manufacturing will drive the next wave of operational improvement, as manual lean implementation approaches its limit in the face of increasing data growth and workload complexity.
 The need to improve the efficiency and speed of manufacturing process i s always the priority of many companies in various parts of the world, so as to improve the competitive landscape and differentiate themselves from fierce competition. The increasing requirements of handling data in speed and accuracy and improving the visualisation of the manufacturing process come into the agenda when companies use lean manufacturing. IT-enabled lean applications are being adopted as a way to gain control, visualise, and manage the process.
 " With the drive for productivity and efficiency accelerating, many companies that have successfully implemented lean manufacturing principles are finding that their manual processes can no longer cope with the increased complexity ofHombre