China and India are always on the top of any list of North American and European companies outsourcing to Asia.

However, for more than a decade Thailand has become the principal manufacturing base for a global leader in the highly competitive airline industry.

Dutch-owned Driessen Aircraft Interior Systems (Thailand) Ltd, which manufactures aluminium food trolleys for airlines, employs more than 650 Thais in its massive factory in Lamphun, near Chiang Mai.

"Driessen has more than 50 per cent of the global market share in airline food-service trolleys," said managing director Kees de Ruiter.

De Ruiter said Driessen had started out as a machine shop supplying food trolleys to KLM Airlines in the Netherlands in 1936 and over the years had become the global market leader. "Our food trolleys are used by most major airlines," he said.

As production costs began to escalate in Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s, manufacturers began to look for feasible destinations to set up their factories.

Driessen dipped its toes into Thailand by opening a small factory in Bang Phli in 1987 and started production of trolleys designed and engineered in the Netherlands. It expanded its Thai operation in 1992 by building a new plant in Lamphun.

During the past decade, the company has continued to expand its fully integrated Lamphun operation and today has four factories and a warehouse/distribution centre on the Northern Region Industrial Estate.

De Ruiter said the plant produced almost 100 per cent of Driessen's trolleys sold worldwide. On a recent tour of its plant, The Nation noticed trolleys being manufactured for Korean Airlines and Japan Airlines. "Every part of the manufacturing process is completed by our staff in Lamphun," said de Ruiter.

Perhaps most importantly, the plant has only six expatriate staff, who came to Thailand from Driessen's Dutch operation as young men more than 15 years ago and have now settled in Lamphun and Chiang Mai. "Our Thai staff have been trained to run the operation," said de Ruiter.

A closer look at the Lamphun plant indicates that it is not simply an assembly operation. Employees work with some of the most advanced computerised manufacturing tools available.

"We execute the total manufacturing process here in Thailand, and in order to stay competitive, our trained personnel must be able to work with the latest cutting-edge tools and equipment," said de Ruiter.

The company, he said, sources many of its employees from Chiang Mai University and other technological institutes in the area to operate its state-of-the-art computerised machines, which are largely imported from overseas. "Continuous staff training is a critical part of Driessen's success," he said.

Driessen's Thai manufacturing process begins with imported aluminium ingots from countries such as Russia. These ingots are melted at 450-500C and then extruded into parts required for airline trolleys. "We then anodise the aluminium with our fully automated processes that are among the most advanced in Asia," said de Ruiter.

A tour of its ultra-modern facility shows that the company has been particularly vigilant in ensuring that manufacturing processes and the factory environment meet the highest global standards.

Unlike many other factories in Thailand, Driessen's factories are all centrally air-conditioned. "We believe an air-conditioned environment helps our overall productivity," said de Ruiter.

With its overall success in Thailand, Driessen has now moved most of its operations overseas, including a new plant that builds aeroplane kitchen galleys in the Czech Republic. Marketing and administration are overseen in the Netherlands.

Operationally, Driessen's transplanting of its trolley-manufacturing facilities to Thailand appears to have been a tremendous success. The Thai company has consistently registered a net profit of more than 30 per cent per annum on its operations. Its sales in 2005 were about Bt1.2 billion.

According to de Ruiter, Driessen is now one of the largest Dutch manufacturing companies operating in Thailand. The Netherlands-Thailand Chamber of Commerce and the Beluthai Chamber of Commerce selected it this year as the Best Company of The Year.