Past Present & Future

Kaset Phattana Group

     Kaset Phattana Group was developed from a small agricultural machinery factory called Kaset Phattana Chachoengsao Factory Co.,Ltd. It was firstly founded in 1978, in Chachoengsao province, about 50 km. from Bangkok.
     The small factory with about 40 workers located in one of the largest and most progressive rice cultivating areas of the country. As a farmer rice trading firm, the company has long experiences in working with farmers and knows the real need of farmers. At the beginning the factory did not employ any technical staff. With the experiences of the founder, Mr.Chanathat Yokubon, the present managing director of the Group, and the chief skilled mechanist, a simple reliable and durable rice thresher was modified and developed from several models existed at that time. Furthermore, the company realized that the products would be used by low educational background operators in unpredictable harsh condition. Therefore, frequently breaking down of machines was expected. An effective after-sale service unit was then set up in order to remedy troubles of customers in time. Undoubtedly, rice thresher of the company could stand competition with existing factories and gained increasing popularity. In spite of promising start, the company realized that only working experience might not be sufficient for a long term development. Therefore, technical assistance was sought from public sector such as technical colleges, universities, and organizations like the Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Department of Agriculture, the core agency for agricultural mechanization development of the country. Experiences accomplished with technical assistance enabled the company to improve the production and increased the market share in few years.
     As the company policy is to produce machine that can fulfill the real need of farmers. The company had established branched factory to produce rice thresher in other intensive rice cultivating areas. In 1980, a factory with about 50 workers was established in Phitsanuloke, 350 km. From Bangkok to cope up with increasing demand of the northern region. Another branch was established in 1986, in Khon Kaen, 380 km. from Bangkok for the north – eastern region market. These were the important and valuable move of the company. Located in different farming areas enabled each branch to fulfill the real need and satisfactorily solved problems of customers in the areas. With this effective marketing strategy, Kaset Phattana Factory Group gained the highest market share of rice thresher of the Kingdom.
     The company has been aware of the necessity and need of farmers for a harvesting machine since 1987; the first year of the Sixth National Development Plan and started developing rice combine in 1988. However as a large leading firm with good reputation, the company has aimed for a sustainable market for mass production rather than a short – time profit. Therefore, no trial – error testing prototypes were sold to customers. Information and detail of weak and good points of existing prototypes had been gathered and analyzed before a new prototype was fabricated. For the first two years the developing attempts were mostly carried out by the company with some technical advisory from public organizations. Until the mid of 1991 when the experienced working staff were confident on the performance of the developed prototype, few units were produced and sold to farmers with fully and closely supervision during operation by the company staff. Technical testing was carried out by AERI staff under the request of the company. The collaborating work between the company and AERI revealed that the bottlenecks and constraints for the long term development of rice combine is not entirely on the hardware. Training for competent manufacturing staff, operators, and after-sale mechanist in order to handle a so called control – intensive and sophisticated rice combine harvester is utmost requirement for an appropriate development. The company therefore established a new plant for this purpose. With technical assistance provided by the Industrial Promotion Centre, Ministry of Industry, a well planned plant – layout factory was built in Phitsanuloke in 1990/91. More staffs with technical educational background were recruited. Jigs and fixtures with improved manufacturing techniques were also employed. Mass production or rice combine harvester was started in early 1991. Prior to the commercial production of rice combine harvester, the Group had worked on the development of mechanical dryer since 1986 and successfully came into commercial production in 1990.
     Turning from production of power intensive; rice thresher to a control intensive; sophisticated rice combine, is not a simple task. However experiences accumulated from the previous products enabled the company to alleviate some bottlenecks and is confident to claim that Kaset Phattana rice combine harvester is one of the most reliable machine in the country.
     The Kaset Phattana Group has adopted these three following facts for the business development of the company.

• Technology by itself is not sufficient for development it can work and show results when correct social and human condition exist.
• New technology will be rapidly and widely adopted if it can appropriately solve the confronting problems of people at a reasonable cost.
• Small farm machines are expected to promoted mechanization but needless to say people must improve a field condition to introduce them.

     Therefore, the Group will move forward with Reliable, Quality, Responsibility, and Services and always aim to carry on the development of new appropriate agricultural mechanization technologies. With our long experiences and full cooperation from involving public agencies, we aim to develop the Group to be one of the largest agricultural machinery manufacturers in the country and in ASEAN.

Product Capacity and Turnover

Group of companies

     KASET PHATTANA CHACHOENSAO CO.,LTD.
     29/2 Moo1, Tumbol Klong NaKhon Nueng-ket, Aumphur Muang, Chachoengsao 24000, THAILAND
     Tel (038) 593135-40 Fax (038) 847272

     THAI AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY CO.,LTD.
     259 Moo1, Tumbol Don Tong, Aumphur Muang, Phitsanuloke 65000, THAILAND
     Tel (055) 295017-24 Fax (055) 295027

     THAI AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY (SURIN PROVINCE) CO.,LTD
     222 Moo10, Tumbol Kra Boung, Aumphur Choumprolbure, Surin 32190, THAILAND
     Tel (044)517565 Fax (044) 517575

     KASET PHATTANA INDUSTRY CO.,LTD.
     126 Moo1, Tumbol Smor-kar, Aumphur Muang, Phitsanuloke 65000, THAILAND
     Tel (055) 311323 , 311343 , 311387 , 311634 Fax (055) 311635

     KHON KAEN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CO.,LTD.
     20 Moo3, Mitaparp Road, Tumbol Samrarn, Aumphur Muang, Khon kaen 40000, THAILAND
     Tel (043) 379144 – 48 Fax (043) 379151

     SIAM ENGINEERING IMPORT EXPORT CO.,LTD.
     174/32-33 Moo 9, Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road, Sri Kun, Donmuang, Bangkok 10210, THAILAND.
     Tel.(662)9968100-5; Fax.(662)5336315

JARUWAT MONGKOLTANATAS

TECHNICAL ADVISOR

NOVEMBER 2010