Workers assemble a car at a plant of Thanh Cong Group. (Photo: VNA) This is a long-term accumulation process with no shortcutsthat Vietnamese businesses must overcome if they want to join deeply inthe global supply chain, said experts.
Phan Dang Tuat, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of SupportingIndustries (VASI), said before the fourth industrial revolution, people paidsignificant attention to the industrial development level of a countryinvolving in automotive, electronics and chemical industries.
A recent study by Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) showed that morethan 75% of Vietnamese enterprises frequently encountered problems inproduction methods, standardisation of operations, and product quality control.
Most of them did not have managerial tools to control productprocesses or delivery schedules causing waste and large inventory.
Tuat said the automobile industry combined all quintessence oftechnologies, production methods and modern management methods.
He noted the learning experience of production and corporategovernance from developed countries and global leading auto manufacturers wasvery important for Vietnamese enterprises in international integration.
In early July, the Industry Agency underthe Ministry of Industry and Trade and Toyota Motor Vietnam(TMV) signed a memorandum of understanding on a cooperation project tohelp domestic businesses in the automobile supportingindustry improve their capacity and enhance the connectivity between themand car assemblers.
This is the fourth year the two sides have inked a cooperationdeal to assist domestic firms to raise the rate of locally made components inautomobiles.
After three years of cooperation, TMV has recruitedone official supplier and selected seven potential suppliers as wellas conducted training for 60 Vietnamese suppliers.
The total number of localised products in the automobilesupporting industry has reached nearly 1,000 products of all kinds.
Tuat said manufacturing a car with tens of thousands ofcomponents needed scientific production and management systems.
He said only through cooperation and continuous learning couldVietnamese enterprises improve their product quality to grasp the opportunityto become a part supplier for global automobile manufacturers.
On July 18, TMV and VASI just signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) to support VASI members in building their capabilities and linkagesto automobile assemblers. This project will be implemented from 2023 to 2024.Specifically, Toyota Vietnam and VASI will implement two main activities,screening and making a list of potential auto part suppliers to connect withautomobile assemblers in Vietnam, and implementing an operational improvementsupport program for a number of domestic suppliers to improve the productionprocess.
Pham Thanh Tung, Deputy General Director of TMV, said relatedenterprises had not yet become main suppliers for Toyota, but they had beenable to cut production costs, increase labour productivity, and create a betterworking environment.
In addition, TMV had worked with suppliers to develop a closedgreen cycle, in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions in all stages of the productlife cycle at the supplier. As a result, Toyota’s suppliers reduced theiremissions by 6,462 tonnes of CO2 in 2022.
Tran Thi Kim Que, General Director of Phong Nam Co., Ltd. said“When we are offered this support, we will be able to stand on our own twofeet, with our own knowledge. The most difficult thing is how to convey thosepositive energies to all middle-level managers and continue to transmitthem to employees.
"We should take workers and employees as the centre ofoperations and support them because they are the ones who make the finalproduct.”
Sharing the view with Que, many small- and medium-sizedenterprises have the desire to become professional suppliers for Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) enterprises in Vietnam.
They also wish to have a production management system that canmeet the strict requirements of fastidious markets such as Japan, the US, andEurope./.
VNA
