KUALA LUMPUR (March 30): While the Covid-19 pandemic has catalysed many businesses to go digital, Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd has had the foresight to begin its automation journey seven years ago.
In this week’s issue, DigitalEdge speaks with Kossan chief executive officer (CEO) and group managing director Tan Sri Lim Kuang Sia, who reveals that the group already had plans in 2017 for a complete overhaul of its plants for automation by 2020.
Although it has yet to achieve full automation of its operations, the company has made great progress and halved its employee count per glove manufactured over the past four years, which it mainly attributed to an array of new equipment used to automate parts of the glove manufacturing process.
Lim says the company has been emphasising on reducing its reliance on unskilled labour for many years now, with its hard work starting to bear fruit.
“We are not just trying to solve the business challenges of today, but also future challenges that will appear in the next number of years (sic), and we have long since viewed labour supply as a huge problem for the industry,” he says.
There is no room for labour-intensive businesses in Malaysia, Lim adds, as the quality requirements for gloves have become more stringent, and where automation plays an important role.
But automating the business is quite a challenge, he says, as it is difficult to find local expertise to help guide them through the process. Therefore, Kossan’s automated systems are mostly designed in-house.
“This is not a simple case of accepting government grants and incentives and the whole industry can transform overnight. We need more support in terms of talent and expertise but, unfortunately in Malaysia, there is a distinct lack of it,” he says.
Obtaining high-value, well-educated talent is also a challenge, so Kossan has established an in-house training unit focused on upgrading existing talent to work at high-value parts of the business. At the same time, it is shifting its sights to employing well-educated local talent.
“Even with the talent pool in the job market right now, it is hard to find and employ the right people for the job who are familiar with the glove industry. This is why we decide to train our own people in-house, so that they can add value to the company and obtain a better salary — a win-win situation,” Lim says.
Read more about it in The Edge Malaysia weekly’s March 29 edition.
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