Importance
In the present time, consumers have access to a variety of choices in purchasing products and services. Therefore, businesses must adapt to keep up with changing consumer behavior by applying innovation and technology to develop products and service frameworks that are up-to-date and thoroughly meet the needs of customers and consumers, while also helping to increase efficiency and streamlined in business operations, reduce work process and the exploitation of resources lessened, along with the heightened consideration for convenience, health, safety, and protection of legal rights that customers, consumers, and all groups of stakeholders are entitled to, such as personal data protection, intellectual property protection, etc. The move must also respond to the modern lifestyles and is consistent with the lifestyle of people today.
OR is committed to providing growth opportunities in all manners to people, communities, and the economy through a diverse and comprehensive business platform in line with the concept of OR SDG – “S:SMALL”: “Opportunities for small people through business conduct alongside the improvement of the quality of life for the communities; “D:DIVERSIFIED”: Opportunities for growth in all manners through OR’s potential to be a platform for the distribution of diverse and comprehensive business opportunities with the readiness to grow together; G:GREEN: Opportunities to leverage a clean society through the promotion in all areas of OR businesses to become green businesses and to support a sustainable low-carbon society.
Strategy and Management Approach
Innovation and technology are issues that OR considers to be extremely important. They are integrated into OR’s management in all dimensions of business operations, including the economy (Performance), society (People) and the environment (Planet). This concept becomes a part of formulating OR’s strategy (“To help solve social and environmental problems in order to raise the level of innovation in OR’s own personality”) to demonstrate that this is a model organization, ready and willing to promote the use of innovation and technology, as well as investing in the “Corporate Venture Capital” (CVC) group, in startups or in funds that invest in startups. Such investments are a bid to create opportunities to quickly access innovation and technology, to devise new business models and invent products and services that meet the needs of consumers well into the future, and to advance learning and to access new consumer markets that can create value for businesses along with creating benefits for society and the environment. OR intends to apply this to all businesses existing today and those in the future. This is clearly stated in OR’s mission on innovation: “Solve societal problems for OR innovation”.
OR has set “OR 2030 Goals” under the Economic Prosperity framework, implemented through operational guidelines of “Innovation and Technology for All” that focuses on investing in innovation and technology through various digital platforms & technology projects to enhance OR’s ecosystem and support the growth of small entrepreneurs, as well as creating benefits for suppliers, customers, society and communities, and reducing environmental impacts.
2023 Targets
Innovation and technology goals are set as the part of the Corporate KPI which are communicated to relevant departments to set action plans that are consistent with the goals. Each of the business units has differing management processes of innovation and technology according to the individual business strategy. In this regard, the innovation and technology that has been developed must create value for business along with enhancing benefits to society and the environment.
As for the seek for high potential partners, OR has a strategy to open space for potential business partners to have the opportunity to grow the businesses together according to the “Empowering All toward Inclusive Growth” vision, to utilize every opportunity, and for collective growth. The process is carried out through various projects under OR’s responsibility, with the Digital and Data Governance Committee as the body to oversee data usage, and to manage the information technology system in accordance with the direction and strategy of OR businesses and other related requirements. They also include the establishing of policies on good governance framework, data management, as well as auditing and providing advice on data usage to be in compliance with personal data protection laws. The Data Governance Division has been established to supervise data usage. This is to govern the data usage to be in accordance with the policy set by the committee, and to audit and provide advice on data usage to comply with personal data protection laws.
Example of Highlight programs of OR’s Innovation and Technology for All, read more at Highlights Innovation and Technology for All
OR Digital Driven Organization Process under OR Group’s business direction
OR is committed to being a Digital Driven Organization by setting up a digital competency training course to promote the potential of employees throughout the organization, both in terms of mindset, knowledge and skills, including a plan to implement Digital Transformation in the business, such as, to develop Digital Infrastructure in the business, to develop the Digital Platform to support the provision of services in the form of Online-to-Offline (O2O), to use Digital Technology to support decision-making and better understanding of current business operations, etc. Also, there is an expanding cooperation in the management of innovation and technology with startup companies and SMEs in Thailand to increase the capability in product and service development for various groups of customers and consumers.
Monitoring and reporting the Company’s innovation and technology performance
The responsible departments are required to report the operational results related to innovations and technology to the board of committee at least once a year. Reported outcomes that are not in accordance with the plan are to be analyzed for causes, effects, and improvement guidelines. These will then be developed for future operational plans. Also, comments and suggestions from stakeholder groups such as customers, consumers, suppliers, and communities are to be incorporated into the development of the Company’s innovation and technology operational plan to comprehensively meet the needs of all groups of stakeholders.
Developing the Innovation Culture within the Company
OR places great importance on developing an Innovation Culture within the Company. The policy is to encourage employees to have the Innovation Mindset, or the skills and dare to think and dare to try new things behavior, so they can help to develop the potential of OR to be able to deal with future business disruption and to increase efficiency of the current business operations.
Training or activities within the organization that create awareness, culture or knowledge in fostering innovations
Promote organizational culture with 5S Digital principle.
5S principle is the culture from PTT Group, consisted of “SEIRI(Clearing Up),SEITON (Organizing), SEISO(Cleaning), SEIKETSU (Standardizing) and SHITSUKE (Training & Discipline)”. OR promotes the development of an operational model from PTT Group 5S principle by merging digital systems and technology to become the “5S Digital” to be more consistent with the current work process which will lead to the creation of a culture and to become the foundation for new innovations.
The principle of 5S Digital are as follows:
- Shift: To change the operational processes to Digital Base
- Speed: To adjust the process for increased speed or reduced time wasting
- Smart: To focus on creating value, help analyze and evaluate results automatically to assist in the decision-making process and to prevent an error through Automate, or Data Analytics systems
- Smooth: To promote data or process connections to leverage easier and smoother of work processes
- Secure: To strengthen security, always be prepared and to strictly follow OR’s Data Security guidelines
Also, training is provided to disseminate knowledge on 5S Digital in the E-Learning system to employees throughout the organization. The result shows an average of 66 percent of employees have participated in the training.
To create incentive and promote a 5S Digital culture, the “OR 5S Digital Awards 2023” contest has been organized to encourage employees to innovate and apply digital and technology to their work. The event was considered as the development of employees’ potential leading to higher operational efficiency.
OR also encourages employees to participate in competitions at the PTT Group level. A project selected by OR has received an award at the Platinum level.
In 2023, OR organized the “Productivity Improvement Idea” activity with the objective to encourage employees to initiate ideas for continuous improvement and work process development in response to the organizational goals, and to promote sustainable development to become an inspirational model in the new ideas. The activity also served to knowledge sharing to other employees so that they could apply it to their own lines of work. A total of 549 projects were submitted for participation in the contest in 2023.
OR also organized “Productivity Improvement Workshop for Lifestyle Business” activity to promote the Strengthen and effectiveness for the lifestyle business. The activity is deemed necessary because this is a business that has high operating costs and competitive business, while the consumer behavior also changes rapidly. Therefore, the work processes must be constantly developed and improved to create cost optimization and to strengthen the value chain in the business. The process began from pushing the initiative ideas, followed by learning and understanding customer needs and expectation, finding the ways for on-target responses (Design Thinking & Creativity), and make adjustments for productivity by analyzing the problems in-depth and study the costs of project preparation. This is to prepare the productivity concept in a format that is most appropriate for the business.
Performance results
1. Launch of “xplORe Application” – A new experience of lifestyle outside the home – to fulfill the needs of every lifestyle that is easy to use in one single application
“Digital to Revenue” is one of OR’s key strategies. The xplORe application has been developed as OR’s core digital platform to centralize and deliver a seamless customer experience, response to the needs of modern consumers and to pass on the O2O (online-to-offline) transactions from the online platform to stores of OR’s group and partners in the offline world, such as PTT Stations, Fit Auto, Café Amazon, Jiffy, Ohkajhu, etc. OR officially launched the xplORe application in August 2023, first with basic features and integration many OR applications tasked with delivering related experiences on xplORe such as Blue Card, Blue CONNECT, etc.and also plans to constantly develop additional features to attract interest of the platform, including further developing the potential of the existing basic features to achieve higher capabilities. Currently, xplORe is focused on reaspons the needs of customers in travel-related businesses and food & beverage businesses, as these are the business groups in which OR has expertise. In the future, the scope of services will be further expanded to cover OR’s target industry sectors, such as lifestyle, tourism, health, and beauty businesses, etc. In addition, xplORe has set a plan to focus on Data Monetization to jointly drive the “Digital to Revenue” strategy in OR’s big picture to achieve all the goals.
Main features of xplORe
- Deals: Special discount coupons from OR-branded stores and partners
- Passes: Tickets for various activities and entertainment events
- Reservations: Reservations for concert tickets and restaurants from partners
- Searches: Search for PTT Stations along with information on current oil prices
- Missions: Participate in a variety of activities and chances to receive points or special prizes
- Wallet: Electronic wallet with which to make payments at OR-affiliated stores and partner stores that supports payment in Thai QR format
- Rewards: Collect Blue Card points and use them to exchange for special privileges at leading stores, transfer points, win prizes, redeem points to participate in activities or redeem for a wide array of prizes [Read more at Link]
2. Applying intelligent technology and innovation to business operations
Recently, OR has introduced technology into business operations to facilitate convenience for consumers who log in to use OR’s services in the form of various applications and digital platforms, for example:
Fit Auto Application
OR LPG Application
Café Amazon Application
EV Station Pluz Application
In addition, various intelligent innovations are applied in OR’s business operations to help increase work efficiency, reduce time, and cut down on costs. Examples of innovations that have been applied to business operations include.
3. Smart distribution center that can store up to 1.5 million boxes of products.
The smart warehouse system of Café Amazon’s distribution center is driven by robots and automation covering 70 percent of the operation, thus saving on manpower. The robots that called “Nong Robots” can move heavy goods while also being equipped with product inspection and storage systems. Currently, a total of 33 goods moved by “Nong Robots”.
4. Responding to the needs of modern consumers: Café Amazon Robotic Barista
Café Amazon Robotic Barista
Café Amazon launched new kiosks shop to meet the needs of consumers in the “Next Normal” era with the installation of “Robotic Barista” to provide services and make drinks, employing modern technology. The “Self-Automatic Ordering” system is applied from the point of ordering all the way to the drink-making to satisfy customers who are in a hurry, while opening up a new experience for the customers as being in sync with the digital age through the most current technology. This has become a growth factor for the businesses, at the same time, uplifting the service experience to meet the expectations of new-generation customers.
5. Applying various technologies to ensure that every PTT cooking gas cylinder meets TIS151 Standard
OR has introduced innovation in the quality inspection process and in the repair process. Various technologies are used, such as intelligent robot arms to help move gas tanks. Robot for tank repair and hot work Paint spraying robots, etc., to ensure that all PTT cooking gas tanks meet the TIS 151 standard, in line with the Industrial Standards Institute (TISI), and it also promotes good occupational health for employees.
6. The Development of PERFORMA SYNTHETIC ECO CAR SAE 0W-20 Product
OR has developed PERFORMA SYNTHETIC ECO CAR SAE 0W-20 which is the premium fully synthetic motor oil designed for ECO CAR with both gasoline direct injection (GDI and Turbo-GDI) and port fuel injection (PFI) engines. This product has been developed by latest evolution technology platform EVOTEC fortified with SMART Molecules that improve engine cleanliness and prevent low-speed pre-ignition (LSPI). Outstanding extra-low friction enhance superb fuel economy for providing better drivability in both urban and suburb area. The first launch of the product was in February 2024.
Apart from technical qualification in which an extra-low friction by EVOTEC technology for superb fuel economy with better drivability, this product is also help to reduce exhaust gas and carbon dioxide emission for better environment. Additionally, OR has conducted “Save the Earth, Save the Car, for the children’s future” by upcycling the used of lubricant packaging, collected from FIT Auto, to produce tables contributed to schools. This also creates benefit for society. The project has been started since February, 1 – March 1, 2024 and still continue until the present.
Results and benefit from the project
Quantitative Benefits to company : Sale values reached more than 300,000 THB during February – March 2024.
Quantitative Benefits to Environment :
- Help to reduce the fuel consumption which is able to reduce CO2 Emission approximately 86.83 kg CO2-eq/year. These equal to planting 10 new trees/year.
- Upcycling the used of lubricant packaging to produce tables can reduce using of virgin HDPE approximately 240 kg/year which is able to reduce CO2 Emission approximately 1,609.70 kg CO2-eq/year. These equal to planting 179 new trees/year.
Quantitative Benefits to society : 20 Tables made by the used of lubricant packaging were contributed to Ban Pha Nang School, Ma Jam District, Chaing Mai Province.
