Thai jewellery firms adopt local ERP solution

A group of local jewellery manufacturers and exporters has adopted a Thai-made enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite in a bid to improve the industry's productivity by at least 20 per cent.

The group, called Netnovation, comprises 10 leading jewellery manufacturers and exporters based at Bangkok's Gemopolis Industrial Estate. Its president, Chayut Tee Assarasakorn, said an agreement had been signed with Double M Technology Management, a local software company that developed an ERP application for the jewellery industry named "Double M JeGe". The deal was assisted by Software Park Thailand.

The aim is to use the software to boost the productivity of all 50 jewellery firms in the industrial estate.

"We began a trial period in August with five companies in the Netnovation group and plan to expand the trial to another five companies before officially launching the application to the entire jewellery industry," Chayut said.

Most of Netnovation's members are jewellery manufacturers whose exports are worth between Bt50 million and Bt100 million per year, and original equipment manufacturers of custom jewellery who export products worth more than Bt100 million a year.

"In the past, the productivity of these companies relied on the expertise and skills of their staff and they have a high ratio of production-line waste. From now on, we're sure their productivity will improve by at least 20 per cent from using this ERP suite," Chayut said.

Double M Technology Management's business development director Apirak Chiengcharoen said that the company provided the ERP application for the jewellery business under the "software as a service" (SaaS) model, enabling small- and medium-sized jewellery enterprises, including manufacturers, exporters and retailers, to pay only Bt39,000 per year to use the whole ERP suite.

Double M JeGe has four main modules: distribution, manufacturing, human resources and finance.

"The price is for 10 user accounts with five concurrent users," Apirak said. "The SaaS model will help jewellery companies to avoid big investments in software solutions by offering them the choice of paying only for the use of the software."

Kesinee Suksirisorn, export manager for Jeunesse Jewels, an original equipment manufacturer for a well-known brand of jewellery, said Jeunesse had been using the application since August and the company's productivity had improved "a lot" by reducing waste in the manufacturing process.

"In the past, we had to deny some new orders because we were unable to handle them and manage our whole manufacturing process. With this solution we can take more orders and increase our sales," Kesinee said.  

The link between Double M Technology Management and the jewellery industry is part of Software Park Thailand's "Uplift the Thai Economy through IT" strategy, which aims to help the real economic sector in Thailand to benefit from using technology and software.

"Jewellery is one of the high-value industries in the Thai economy and in the past there has been no Thai-made ERP suite for local jewellery manufacturers," said Software Park Thailand director Suwipa Wanasathop.