Interview with GEKKO Industries Co., Ltd.

Hello, I’m Pornchai Techawattanasuk, a director of GEKKO INDUSTRIES Co., Ltd.

BRID: Could you tell us about Khun House’s work experience?

Khun House: I had experience from other companies before this, but with GEKKO I came along at the same time, from its founding 18 years ago.

BRID: What was the beginning of GEKKO’s business?

Khun House: It started from us seeing the insulation in the large air-conditioning systems of many public buildings in Thailand. The problem was that once installed, their service life was very short and they deteriorated rapidly, causing those buildings to lose energy and incur quite high repair costs. So we thought we’d bring in insulation technology from abroad, being a manufacturing factory ourselves. This insulation is called the pre-insulated pipe system.

BRID: Could you talk about the organisation’s and GEKKO’s product strengths?

Khun House: Our products are accepted by the market and can let customers save a lot of energy, and save a lot of repair costs too, which impresses customers and leads to more word of mouth, and more usage specifications. We also extended into pre-insulated air-duct boards — that’s called pre-insulated air-duct insulation, which is the P-I-D board.

BRID: What was the factor that made you start considering implementing an ERP system for the organisation?

Khun House: Because of the company’s rapid growth in both sales and production, we foresaw the importance of bringing a resource-management system into the company. So we started using an ERP system from 2016. It can be used from the first step to the last step. Although there was additional learning and more practice required, the result let us manage resources more efficiently.

BRID: Before installing the ERP system, how did you prepare?

Khun House: In preparing to use the ERP system, we arranged Training for employees so they’d get to know basic use of the system. Another thing is we set up a Super User group, to be the coordination link and to help all their colleagues. And the last part is that we held meetings every week in the early period, to review whether anything was stuck anywhere or whether we needed help from BRID.

BRID: After implementing the ERP system, how did it make management easier?

Khun House: The ERP system we adopted can help us manage documents for receiving, paying, and managing stock, so that there are no errors and it reduces missing data quite well, with accuracy, and is traceable. In addition, some of the company’s work may not yet be up to standard or as systematic as it should be, and the consultant who came to help implement the system could advise us to make the work system fall into place and become more efficient too.

BRID: How did the PlanetOne ERP team’s service impress you?

Khun House: PlanetOne ERP provides Support, answering questions that arise during use, and in addition has set up a Line Group to answer questions quickly. There’s also the JTrac system that lets us go back to look at problems we’ve asked about before, and solve problems ourselves. The PlanetOne ERP Support team has executives overseeing it closely, attentive to customers and always supervising the service.

BRID: Could you give advice for those seeking an ERP system to use in their organisation?

Khun House: My advice for those interested in bringing an ERP system into their organisation or company: I’d like you to consider that an ERP system is a system with quite high costs, and you must invest quite a lot of the team’s effort and time to implement the system so it falls into place and can actually start being used. What I’d like you to consider is your company’s goals and what type your enterprise is. For example, our GEKKO company is a manufacturing factory and chose PlanetOne ERP for Support, since they’re strong in production. I’d also like you to look at the experience of the provider who will service your ERP — how long their experience is, and how continuously their company develops itself. PlanetOne ERP develops itself continuously and helps Support us so we develop together. I’d like you to consider this too.