Interview with Pathawin Public Company Limited on the PlanetOne ERP system

Introduction

Hello, I’m Phet Sakdiphan Pathawintranon, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Pathawin Public Company Limited. I’m considered the second generation to come in and manage the family business.

Currently I oversee all the back-office systems, mainly working behind the scenes overseeing the factory, engineering, and anything related to the production process.

The company’s business

BRID: Could I trouble Khun Phet to tell us about the business you do today?

Khun Phet: Pathawin was founded in 1990 (B.E. 2533), and this year marks 33 years. We are an OEM & ODM company, contract-manufacturing products under customers’ brands across many product categories. For example, in the cosmetics market we focus on skincare products — hair care, body care, facial care — that is, products that care for the face and body, from head to toe; these are cosmetic products.

The second category is wet wipes. Wet wipes have many products, from baby wipes for children, to make-up remover for wiping off cosmetics, to wet wipes for pets — that’s another group we can do, Pet care.

Another is cooling towels. In truth, we grew from the cooling-towel business sold through various modern trade outlets; these are produced under the customers’ brands of the country’s leading modern trade.

And now we’ve expanded the business category into the Medical device group. What we can produce includes Alcohol Pads — pads used to wipe and disinfect the skin before injecting medicine — as well as scar gel, ultrasound gel, and lubricant gel.

These fall under the medical-device group — that is, products used together with medical devices. We don’t produce medical devices, but rather products extended from the cosmetics we can produce, yet they’re categorised in the medical-device group. Another group we’ve expanded into is what we call hazardous substances, or household products — products for cleaning and disinfecting within the household.

Both of these categories are ones we took on after COVID. Consumers became more aware of cleanliness and hygiene, which was the challenge that led us to expand our products into this group, to meet consumers’ changed needs after the recent COVID.

Adapting as a new generation

BRID: As a new generation, how have you adapted?

Khun Phet: Success goes back to my father’s generation. He built the business and it grew stably and sustainably over 33 years. But after I came in, I tried to come in and modernise the way we work. I have to say that the first generation may not have used data for analysis, because the world back then and now are different. Now we have to compete on speed — whoever can do it first has a chance to succeed faster, or whoever has complete data, analysed from many angles, to inform decisions, it’s a plus for the business.

Problems in managing the organisation

BRID: Since you started managing the organisation, what problems have you encountered?

Khun Phet: Besides data, there’s the matter of reducing redundant work across many departments. We try to lean the process to make it concise. Another thing we try to adjust is working paperless, working on the system. Instead of having to print documents and walk them over for each department manager or division manager to sign, we can do it on the system. This saves time, saves printing costs, and importantly, it’s fast and real time — and data, as I said, these days we compete on data.

Reasons for choosing PlanetOne ERP

BRID: The reason for choosing PlanetOne ERP

Khun Phet: Having the system lets us view data and pull data in real time, then analyse, decide, and set strategy accurately and more quickly. Using PlanetOne ERP addresses our pain points in many areas.

For example, before we had PlanetOne ERP, we worked in a linked way, because each line and each department had its own programs or its own different ways of working. Sometimes when we wanted to sync data to use, it was difficult, because everyone was on a different platform or the data may not have been passed to one another. Having PlanetOne ERP, everyone works on the same system — from opening a sales bill to delivering the finished goods, it’s linked, which lets us take this data to look at our work efficiency completely and more accurately.

What is the main reason for seeking an ERP system?

BRID: What is the main reason for seeking an ERP system?

Khun Phet: Because we’re a medium-sized organisation, there’s quite a lot of complexity. If we didn’t have PlanetOne ERP to control the work system, it would make management difficult. But with the PlanetOne ERP program, we can pull data and view figures completely and with more coverage.

PlanetOne ERP and entering the stock market

BRID: How did PlanetOne ERP help the company enter the stock market?

Khun Phet: Pathawin transformed the company into a public company, and what we place the utmost importance on is financial statements and the production cost of our goods. PlanetOne ERP addresses our ability to close the job of the goods we produce, in order to reflect them into the financial statements accurately and precisely. We can know the expenses and cost of each job — from DM, or Direct Material, DL, or direct labour,

and Overhead — all three of these parts we can pull from PlanetOne ERP. We can trace back from the start of the process, at every step, so that in the end the executives or those overseeing each unit can pull the data of each job to see whether there’s anything we can improve and develop to make the cost better. And using the PlanetOne ERP program lets the company close its financial statements quickly, accurately, and, importantly, auditably.

Using PlanetOne ERP in each part

BRID: Which parts has Khun Phet applied PlanetOne ERP to?

Khun Phet: PlanetOne ERP is software that covers our work in every process — from the sales process, procurement, production, and inventory management — letting us use this software in every one of our work processes.

Using the PlanetOne ERP program also lets us reduce costs, because we take data from the system to analyse and find points to lean or improve to increase efficiency further. Very importantly, the system is quite flexible. We can improve or build further on the system, since we can customise the program to fit needs that change with the times. This is a strength of PlanetOne ERP — being able to adjust and develop the software to fit the needs of each department and division to meet the work, with the flexibility that makes it easy for everyone to access and want to use this software.

After-sales service

BRID: Could you describe our after-sales service from Khun Phet’s perspective?

Khun Phet: I have to praise the PlanetOne ERP after-sales team for working quickly and being easy to reach. We have JTrac to submit cases, and the PlanetOne ERP team comes in to respond and handle the case quickly. Sometimes after we submit a case in JTrac, the after-sales team will remote in via the Anydesk program, which lets us solve the problem quickly and on point.

Advice for those seeking an ERP system

BRID: Could you give advice to those seeking an ERP system or thinking of changing systems?

Khun Phet: In choosing a program to manage work within the organisation, I think we mustn’t look only at price. We must also place importance on how it’s applied to the organisation’s work. PlanetOne ERP, I have to say, quite addresses and covers the organisation’s work completely, and importantly, I think it’s quite very worthwhile compared with foreign software from abroad. It’s software at a price that’s affordable for Thais.