AOTS Journal 2019 SPRING No.14 (ENGLISH)

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JOURNAL6Practiced by Daiwa Harness (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (Thailand)Est. September 2008, Employees 57Participated byDaiwa Harness Lao Co., Ltd. (Laos) Est. June 2015, Employees 47ModeThird-country typeExpert dispatch (From Thailand to Laos)Trainee dispatch (From Laos to Thailand)22 Trips5 Training sessionsTraining subjectsInstruction on production of automotive harness for launching of operations at new plant in LaosA new plant was built in June 2015 in Pakse, the third largest city in Laos, at a special economic zone exclusively prepared for small businesses from Japan. The production of some models was transferred from the Thai plant. As of January 2018, the number of such transfers amounted to 105 types and the company wishes to increase to over 200 in the future. Even though a total of 57 Thai engineers instructed employees in the Laos plant, they often nd mistaken operations such as overlooking of marking and poor product appearance and the new plant still has many challenges. There will be no chance of Japanese engineers visiting the local site from Japan for engineering support of production. There is a language problem, for instance. As products previously made in Thailand were transferred, Thai instructors could support them more appropriately. As a product was transferred, the Lao plant received Thai experts to provide instruction.They also utilized ‘training dispatch’ where Lao employees were sent to the Thai plant for training. For the cost of dispatching a couple of Thai experts to Laos, they could send about ten Lao operators to Thailand for training. For travelling, they used long distance international bus service from Pakse, a border town, to Bangkok, Thailand.The AMEICC Third-country Training Scheme is intended to assist technical instruction by Japanese afliate corporations in ASEAN member countries by making use of their core personnel in ASEAN to train other personnel in the region. This scheme had its third year of implementation since 2016 with applications from over 350 recipients so far. When approved, their technical instruction expenses, travel expenses, lodging as well as translation expenses would be subsidized. In this issue of the Journal, we would like to introduce other cases of third-country type training as previously introduced in AOTS Journal #11 (Autumn issue in 2017) such as pursuit of international division of labor, more localization of operations as well as technical transfer for getting business opportunities in building of infrastructure.1. Thailand Plus One, for establishing division of labor in ASEAN This scheme has been used in cases to launch new plants in Laos and Cambodia as a way to reduce concentration in Thailand, or ‘Thailand plus one’ attempts. We found such cases as transferring some labor-intensive processes of production from Thai ‘mother’ plants and using of Thai instructors instead of Japanese to transfer technologies after selecting products to establish division of processes.A specialized trading rm of automobile parts including brakes and lightsCase #1:Daiwa Sangyo Co., Ltd.Introduction to AMEICC ProgramExamples of Use of the AOTS’s AMEICC Project “ASEAN-by-ASEAN” —A program for Japanese corporations operating in ASEAN member countries—3. Former AOTS trainees assisted in setting up of Indonesian plant operations In the third-country type training, the majority of applications of automobile-parts related projects dealt with technical guidance by Thai staff to Indonesian recipients. Here you can nd a case of ‘a spillover of technology transfer’ where Thai engineers who had been trained by Japanese head ofce could transfer their technical ingenuity to Indonesia.(Left): Harness assembly line operations are increasingly being transferred to the Lao plant. (Right): Automation processing of installing lamps to a harness was developed in-house.Thais and Indonesians could have a good time even after working hours.(Left) Water reaching the roof of the Thai plant during the flood (Right) Fabrication of dies in progress