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Published on August 9, 2007

Twenty years ago, a Malaysian businessman ventured into Thailand to set up a small company to produce automotive jigs for export.

We've all heard of starting from nothing, but this firm didn't even have its own assembly plant, and most people didn't have a clue what an automotive jig was.

So Yeap Swee Chuan began in a rented plant with about 120 workers, making the all-important mechanical devices that hold automobiles in place as they are being assembled.

That company is now the largest producer of jigs for car assembly in Southeast Asia. Called Aapico Hitech, Yeap is now president and CEO. He's also the majority shareholder.

The company's annual sales are worth nearly Bt10 billion, with much of that contributed by 17 subsidiaries and five associate companies. Six of them are foreign operations in countries like China, Malaysia and Singapore.

Aapico Hitech also produces a variety of auto parts for giant carmakers like Nissan, Isuzu, Honda, Toyota, Ford and GM. Last year, it was among the top five suppliers for Isuzu. Its automotive products include pressed parts, jigs and dies, as well as a "one-stop service" provided to major original-equipment-manufacturing clients.

Aapico is also an authorised dealer for Ford, Honda and Mitsubishi.

Moreover, it has completed a series of merger-and-acquisition deals over the past few years, spreading its wings into production bases in China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia through joint ventures.

What lies behind Yeap's success with Aapico Hitech? The answer, he says, is manpower.

Aapico can produce some interesting statistics. Out of a total 4,000 workers, 200 received their full bonus entitlement last year. That meant 5 per cent of Aapico's employees went to work every day and were never late.

Everyone on the staff is entitled to certain annual bonuses, Yeap explains, depending on the base salary. If someone is absent for any reason, 3 per cent is deducted from the bonus for each day away from work. Arriving at work late results in 1 per cent deducted for each occurrence.

Yeap says Aapico's staff turnover rate is less than 2 per cent annually. Resignations and absences are low.

He believes workplace atmosphere is important for productivity. That's why high priority is given to cleanliness at the company's plant in Ayutthaya's Hitech Industrial Estate.

Trust, discipline, the importance of the family and mutual respect among employees are also key elements to business success, he says.

Moreover, Yeap insists that high importance be placed on human-resource development. As a result, Aapico Hitech has spent millions of baht on manpower training, in order to get the staff to work together as a team.

"We spent Bt30 million to send our workers to be trained in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) programme at Oracle. We give the best to our company," he says, adding that he hired professionals from giant consulting firm Deloitte to train his employees in resource management and database operations, covering finance, manufacturing, purchasing and sales.

Aapico implemented the Oracle ERP programme between August 2005 and April 2006 in an Aapico Production System (APS) project aimed at becoming a key player in so-called lean manufacturing in Thailand.

"Basic foundation training is a must," Yeap says.

Oracle ERP is a single software platform that collects data from a large number of transactions conducted by a company via advanced database systems. Under the APS project, all Aapico Hitech employees were encouraged to participate by reforming their own work processes.

Aapico is one of the few Thai companies that, since the 1997 financial crisis, has become more aware of the importance of organisational improvement and employee development in catching up with changes in the world's fiercely competitive markets.

The company even sent staff members abroad for on-the-job training for more than 1,000 man-days last year. On average, each company employee gets 25 hours' training per year.

"What Aapico wants is to become a lean and happy company," Yeap says. "It is our duty to achieve that target. If we are successful, our customers will be happy, the shareholders will be happy, and then the public will be happy."

When referring to Thai workers, Yeap says they can follow assignments to completion and are sincere with people they accept. "This is a very important point," he says.

"Aapico's factory will have to be two or three times bigger than it is now," he says. "We must be strong in China, in India, in all of Asia. We must face risks every day. How we will survive over the next 100 years, we don't know yet. What we must do is be a good company with good leadership."

Sasithorn Ongdee

The Nation