Castilex Industrial Corporation

Agustin Climaco is a small man who thinks big and works hard to make his visions a reality. Taking over a financially strapped company in 1977, he resolved to make it one of the country's biggest furniture exporters. In two years time, he succeeded in reversing the company's fortunes as Castilex shipped out a record 75 containerloads of buri peacock chairs. This was achieved by redesigning the peacock chairs for efficient nesting. Anticipating the decline in demand for their bestsellers, Mr. Climaco shifted to rattan furniture in 1983. With characteristic resolve, he sought to improve production techniques and to update designs in order to upgrade the quality of their products and serve a bigger share of the lucrative rattan furniture market. Mr. Climaco has always stressed the importance of efficiency in production. Critical improvements in production, planning and control systems which are based on "Just in Time" philosophy have been introduced. Simply stated, it is producing minimum units in the smallest possible quantity at the latest possible time and doing every step right, thus, eliminating unnecessary inventories. For some products, assembly lines are based on time standards for each unit, and manpower distribution are pre-determined so that an efficient workflow is achieved where the output of one section directly feeds the needs of the following section. The quality of Castilex products and their prompt deliveries are the best testimony to the effectiveness of these adopted systems. Moreover, Castilex has installed highly mechanized machines to maintain its competitive position in markets such as Japan, the U.S, and Europe. Agustin Climaco views life as a stream of constant challenges to accomplish bigger and better things. And he meets these head on. For him, there are no impossible dreams. (This article was written for the brochure of the 1988 Golden Shell Awards)