No Thai technology leap without springboard of quality workforce

Stacks of finished concrete components – mostly double walls – surrounded the RBW Rohrdorfer Betonwerke factory while big trucks plied the concrete road inside the perimeter. It looked very much like any large factory.
But step inside and there are impressive surprises. Fewer than 20 people work in the factory, all men. Most of them are there to monitor the real workers, the robots, who do everything from measuring steel rods to stacking finished pieces roof-high in the storage area. Up to five robots work on each process.
The fully automated production line tailors double walls – largely used in tropical zones – according to design-specifications sent by customers. Wall size differs for each order, meaning the length of steel rods and volume of concrete have to be adjusted. Yet thanks to precise data, no steel rod is wasted here.
Machines are everywhere, one able to lift concrete components weighing up to 10 tonnes. All are controlled by the master computer, which can analyse production data down to the last detail and make adjustments wherever necessary.
Notably, the production line was developed from scratch by integrating separate elements of modern precasting control technology.
This was the second time I’d been impressed by German technology. The first was during a visit to Munich’s BMW factory, where an automated production line was churning out vehicles of different series. Human workers consulted a paper tagged to the windshield to find out which specifications to fit, producing a finished car in mere hours. 
A robot workforce will also be deployed by Adidas next year when the mass production of running shoes will return to Germany. The new “Speedfactory” and its sister facility in the United States are expected to produce a million pairs per year – still a fraction of the mostly Asia-made 300 million pairs Adidas produces annually.
Adidas is working with German engineering group Manz to develop new automated production technology for the plants.
“With the Adidas ‘Speedfactory’, we are revolutionising the industry,” boasted company chief executive Herbert Hainer recently.
Germany’s success prompts the question of how Thailand might follow suit.
It is worth noting that Germany is considerably smaller than Thailand in terms of land area, at 357,000 square kilometres against 513,000 sqkm. Germany’s population is 80 million, against 65 million in Thailand. As such, its labour force is 41 million against 38 million in Thailand. It is also worth noting that Germany’s labour productivity is far higher than Thailand’s. According to this year’s IMD World Competitiveness Ranking of 61 leading economies, Germany stands sixth in terms of scientific infrastructure and 23rd for education. Thailand ranks 42nd and 52nd respectively in those areas. Germany tops the ranking for secondary school enrollment (against Thailand’s 53rd) and is 8th for university education.
The rankings help reveal why Germany remains a big player in trade, with exports worth an estimated US$1.29 trillion in 2015, placing it third behind China ($2.27 trillion) and the United States (US$1.6 trillion), both of which boast far larger labour forces.
Thailand is ranked 23rd-largest exporter, with exported goods and services valued at about $200 billion.
We have a lot of catching up to do.
Some Thai companies are doing it better than others. Thanks to innovation, Siam Cement Group managed to see a 23 per cent increase in first-quarter earnings, though its revenue was nearly flat at Bt110 billion. The industrial conglomerate attributed the success largely to research and development. The first quarter saw it invest Bt900 million, or 0.8 per cent, of sale revenue in R&D.
Pruksa Real Estate also succeeded in applying cutting-edge manufacturing management processes.
Thanks to these and its precast factories – which help reduce construction time and speed up product delivery – its 2015 sales revenue of Bt51 billion was nearly double that of 2012.
The Federation of Thai Industries is also working to help Thai manufacturers embrace more technology in their marketing and production. Of course, much of that technology will be imported.
Chances of future success hinge largely on the government’s policies to build our own technological resources through enhancing skills. As such, much depends on whether our education and infrastructure that supports new learning can be improved.
At the precast factory in Munich, a robot malfunctioned and dropped one of the steel frames it was moving by magnetic force. A worker appeared in seconds and corrected the situation.
Of course, Germany is also aware that it needs further improvement to maintain its competitiveness. Technology brings advancement, but humans are what really matters, since they invent it and improve it.