Executive Summary

Metal casting which is also known as foundry has long been

established as an indispensable supporting industry in Thailand. It serves
various industries supplying cast parts (castings) to assemble into final products.
Most of foundry factories are located in Bangkok and vicinities especially
Samut Prakarn and Samut Sakorn provinces which are also the locations for
many other industries. In the year 2002, total production was estimated at
415,543 metric tons, which is worth more than 50,000 million baht in value.
Metal casting industry in Thailand can be classified according to the
type of base metal into 5 major categories: cast irons, cast steels, aluminum
alloys, copper alloys, and zinc alloys. Each, with own characteristics, must be
explored individually in order to determine and evaluate the level of production
technology and efficiency. Evaluation indices compose of product quality,
production capacity, machineries and automation in the whole process, as well
as the ability to design and develop new products.
As foundry industry is important to the development and growth of
other industries, the Ministry of Industry in collaboration with the former
Machinery Industries Development Institute (MIDI), currently the Bureau of
Supporting Industries (BSID), supported and helped turning the existing
Foundrymen’s Forum into a formal professional society in 1990. At present, the
Thai Foundrymen’s Society has 258 members from all areas of metal casting
industry.
The business outlook of the metal casting industry is substantially
related to the growth and prosperity of not only heavy industries such as
automotive part manufacturing, construction, etc. but also other consumer-
related industries such as air-conditioning and sanitary wares.
One of the major challenges for the foundry industry is to achieve
competitiveness in the world market. This can be thought of as ability to
produce high-quality castings as well as offering reasonable price. In order to
achieve such goals, the operation and management techniques must be
strengthened as they are crucial factors for the success. Other issues on
machineries, instruments, as well as research and development must be
incorporated as part of required activities. Despite of the awareness, small and
medium size factories do not try to enhance their competitiveness.
One of the impediments to achieve such competitiveness is the failure
to adopt contemporary operation and management concepts, which may result
from the nature of the industry itself. Most castings, are considered as only
intermediate products for other downstream industries. Only few can be sold
directly to consumers as final products. Consequently, the production depends
substantially on orders placed by other factories and a considerable amount of
pressure is laid on entrepreneurs in this industry. Furthermore, drastic
competitions among entrepreneurs within the industry, coupled with threats
form outside such as a lack of raw materials, result in reluctance to cooperate
and exchange information among them.
Another impediment is a lack of qualified personnel. Even though
education institutes, ranging from vocational to university graduate schools,
have been established offering courses in foundry engineering and related fields,
very few students join metal casting industry after graduation. This problem
results from many factors such as poor working condition and unskilled
management, especially those in small and medium-sized factories. This
situation becomes worsened when turnover rate has escalated with the growth of
other “cleaner” industries.
Competition both at the domestic level and international level, will be
inevitably intensified as resulted from the shortage of raw materials due to the
lack of both natural resources and metal extraction industry. When this shortage
is combined with the ever increasing Chinese demand for fundamental
resources, the remarked rise of energy and material costs as witnessed in the past
years will continue definitely.
Therefore, the metal casting industry and others industries relying on
castings must adjust themselves to changing environment in order to increase
their competitiveness and survive. As a result, it is vital that all stakeholders
must cooperate as well as perform their assigned roles effectively. The Office of
Industrial Economics, Ministry of Industry, who dedicated to achieve above
objectives, therefore, decided to support a program aiming to collecting and
organizing data which relate to metal casting industry and formulates the
roadmap plan for the industry. This plan incorporates both engineering and
economic elements to construct the overall picture of the industry as well as
those of related stakeholders. Five strategies are proposed to be the pillars for
the industries: (1) provide support in terms of operation and management
technique, business development, and production technology to metal casting
industry, (2) prepare and encourage qualified personnel to the need of the
industry, (3) manage the distribution and balance of raw materials, (4) expand
the market to new customers, and (5) improve working condition and
environmental standards which are concerned by foundries. Furthermore, this
plan also recommends the role of each sector and defines indices for evaluation.
The first strategy stresses the importance of cooperation among
stakeholders, which are industrial entrepreneurs, government supporting
agencies, professional associations, and education institutes. The plan
recommends that a central unit should be established, the unit should be
composed of representatives from all sectors. This unit will be dedicated to
provide support for the development in foundry industry, ranging from business
administration, production management to technological improvement.
Moreover, this central unit will serve as a hub for creating a network for all units
in the metal casting cluster to increase cooperation and exchange of information.
Furthermore, to achieve the human resources objective, a foundation
will be established to support education in metal casting technology. The
foundation will help developing curriculum, providing technical documents, and
granting scholarship to attract students as well as existing personnel in the
industry to enhance their knowledge.
The third strategy is a prompt action from government regarding to
situations or crisis which may arise. Foundry’s data must be collected and
organized as accurately as possible to provide an early industrial warning
database. Moreover, this database will be closely linked to the fourth strategy to
provide electronic commerce and customer awareness.
The last strategy concentrates on creating basic understanding and
application for environmental management. This strategy aims at stimulating the
industry to pay closer attention on factory pollution control as well as increase
their responsibility for the community. In addition, this strategy also encourages
energy conservation as well as recycle of materials.