Paphon Mangkhalathanakun, head of the SME
and Supply Chain Office, TMB Bank, tells entrepreneurs they need to be
more efficient in order to compete once Thailand joins the AEC in 2015.
Warunya Thongrod
Small- and medium-sized Pattaya business operators
were told they need to become more efficient if they hope to compete
once Thailand joins the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.
Paphon Mangkhalathanakun, head of the Small and
Medium Enterprise Supply Chain department for Thai Military Bank, told
entrepreneurs meeting at the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort Aug. 21
they need to examine their businesses and eliminate any expense not
related to creating value for customers.
The “SME Efficiency Do-It-Yourself” seminar,
co-sponsored by the bank and the Thai-Japan Technology Promotion
Assessment cooperative, aimed to help business owners cope with
uncontrollable fluctuations in the world economy, marketing and
investments. Small- and medium-sized businesses, speakers said, face
higher manufacturing and labor costs that can put them at a disadvantage
once the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forms its common market.
Speakers emphasized “lean manufacturing,” a concept
championed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s International
Motor Vehicle Program to help U.S. automakers compete with Japanese
competitors. According to MIT researchers, who later penned a
best-selling business book on the concept, the “lean” production
practice considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than
the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful and a target
for elimination.
Paphon said he believed the seminar will help Pattaya
businesses become more efficient and that the bank will host a half
dozen more seminars later around the country.
