“South of the Border,” a Samart Saga
As most of our businesses are centred in the SE Asian region, many of us really give little thought to doing business outside of our home markets. But whilst as a nation in Thailand, we pride ourselves on being one of the most productive of the world’s nations in terms of sugar, it follows that globally there are other countries where similar conditions lend themselves to sugar cultivation.
So it will come as no surprise that those countries are facing the same challenges in terms of labour shortages and environmental pressures that growers in Thailand face. Although, we at Samart welcome new opportunities we felt ourselves somewhat challenged when orders for our newly introduced Samart SM200 “Hi Climber” cane harvester arrived on our desks from South America. It seemed that this machine perfectly suited the conditions they described, hilly terrain, with steep slopes, high ambient temperature and dry dusty terrain. Of course, in South America, the areas suitable for growing sugar cane stretch south from the Panama Canal, through the northern countries and down as far as the Brazilian tropics. So no surprise that some areas will be similar to Thailand. We were happy to confirm the order. But then, we reflected on the mammoth task we had taken on.
Our production team started immediately to plan a “slot” in our assembly line and confirmed component availability. And, with some effort, we turned the order around in a respectable 4 weeks. Time to ship! Then, the headaches really began! It seems that most Thai based forwarders had received imports from various destinations, but had seldom, if ever been given the task of shipping heavy machinery out of Thailand. After many phone conversations we finally found someone who was familiar with Latin American protocol, and the task of shipping large pieces of machinery, but like so many of our fellow Thais, had no idea what a cane harvester was or how best to ship it. After a protracted factory visit by engineers from the forwarder who took on this task, a combination of open topped and flat rack containers was agreed upon. The “flat rack” container is actually just a base shipping module which conforms to the same floor dimensions as that of a standard 40 ft. shipping container, but, as the name suggests “flat”.
OK, fine. But then we found that the machines needed to be “craned” onto these, and, for shipping the “open top” needed to be “closed” and the rack needed to be covered. Take a look at the photos to understand the depth of the problem! Okay, even so within a couple of days and with the help of a very large travelling crane, the machines were packed, covered, and lashed down to prevent movement, and loaded onto the ship that would take them to the other side of the planet. Job done!
However, unfortunately for us, the problems were still presenting themselves. We pride ourselves on exceptional support and training “in field”. With a dedicated team and a clear plan as to how that part of the process should proceed. The only problem being that whilst in the past we relied on operators being able to communicate in either Thai or English. Guess what? Neither, only Spanish. Ha Ha!
So, everything “in country”, commissioning, setup, operation, service training etc. would have to be achieved through interpreters…yes, Thai to Spanish! This proved more difficult than we thought because many “translators” are orientated towards tourism and whilst they would be perfectly comfortable advising on the places to visit in Bangkok, or where one could buy the best pad Thai, we needed somebody who could listen to our technicians speaking fluent Thai and then translate the process of bearing adjustment, or the driving style required to get the best from the machine to someone who only speaks Latin American Spanish, and without any common language.
With massive help from the customer’s management team (some of whom were able to speak English) and an amazing amount of planning the machines were successfully introduced, and proved effective and productive in the application. In fact, the versatility of the Samart machine with its almost unique ability to harvest on quite extreme slopes is becoming almost legendary in the hills and mountainous areas that form the South American cane fields. Obviously for us at Samart this success was a matter of immense pride. We built the machine for Thailand, but now companies throughout the world are starting to realise that specialised product from a Thai company, can be the answer to their problems.
At Samart, we know that our products are good. Our experience in the industry ensures that they become effective from day one. We also know that customers have a choice!
Chose Samart. Chose Life.
