Workplace reviews and discussion: 鴻發國際科技股份有限公司

A company that supports retirement

1. To put it nicely, this company is hiring a mechanical design engineer; to put it bluntly, it is only looking for a draftsman. The company does not require you to think about anything—just follow the PM's instructions and complete the work by the deadline.

2. The company's machines do not require validation. At your company, I spent only nine days developing a new model and completing the 2D/3D drawings, and it was shipped as soon as one prototype was completed. Moreover, the head of the PM department is also the company's vice president. He does not know how to manage projects but likes to micromanage. During development, for example, the hardware department was unaware of changes to the coin module, while the software department did not rush to design the external-display UI until just before the machine was shipped. There is clearly a lack of cross-functional communication. Most importantly, the bonus for rushing to complete a new project was only NT$3,000.

3. Machine specifications should be confirmed during the development stage. After 15 machines had already entered mass production, they said the IPC needed to be replaced because the price was cheaper. I can accept the explanation that it was cheaper, on the condition that the PM communicated with the relevant departments before making a decision. Instead, the PM never communicates with any department until the machine is about to ship. The PM vice president also shifts the blame, saying that he had told everyone about it long ago and that it was because none of you were listening. As a result, outside vendors and internal R&D staff often have to clean up after him.

4. The company has no concept of an approved sample or change-approval document. The procurement department often switches from Vendor A to Vendor B without notifying anyone. It is not until a problem occurs during mass production that people discover the change, and, even more absurdly, the mechanical R&D team is held responsible whenever something goes wrong. Basically, the procurement manager controls everything from the eighth-floor production line to the fifth-floor PQC. When the procurement manager calls to ask about something, she acts as if you owe her NT$2.58 million and conducts business based on her emotions. When R&D needs to modify a mold and asks procurement whether inventory should be stocked, procurement always says there is enough. Then, when the mold actually needs to be modified, they say there is insufficient inventory and ask when it can be fixed, before relentlessly pressuring R&D, leaving everyone dumbfounded. Procurement also never maintains sufficient inventory, so any shortage results in a waiting period. Just when the production-control department began to counterbalance the procurement department, the procurement manager became the manager of production control after only a few days. In other words, she was still in control, so the problems described above continued to occur.

5. Same as above. On 2025/6/13, the following occurred: previously, Lens A was used in the design to consume existing inventory. Since the inventory of Lens A has now run out and its MOQ is too high, procurement issued an ECR to replace it with Lens B. The R&D supervisor disagreed, but procurement directly issued the material to the production line and instructed the mechanical engineer to change the BOM.

6. The company's HR department has no authority and does not know the employees' salaries, because the CEO tightly controls all salary matters. Even a request for mechanical samples costing less than NT$100 must be approved by the CEO. Even when a department head wants to adjust an employee's salary, it must go through the CEO. As far as I know, when the R&D supervisor raised the issue of salary adjustments, it was rejected!

7.  Because the company's HR department cannot find mechanical engineers or test interns, it often comes up with bizarre ideas, such as having a non-major document-control employee nominally serve as a mechanical engineer, or proposing that a test intern be classified as a test engineer. The purpose is to attract people who want to be called “engineers” to work here. These strange ideas are extremely unfair to real engineers. People with varying levels of ability receive the company’s “engineer” title, causing genuinely graduating engineers to face doubts about their abilities from companies across the industry!

8. The company's MIS department is extremely incompetent. Whenever there is a computer problem, they tell you to restart it. If they cannot solve it, they simply reinstall the operating system. Desktop computers are labeled by MIS with “Internet Access Prohibited.” Everyone knows why Internet access is prohibited. In addition, the desktop computer specifications are practically antique. The department head ostensibly asked us to list the current computer specifications, but in reality, the CEO simply does not want to help engineers upgrade their hardware, and nothing has happened for a long time. For software, the company currently uses SolidWorks 2016. The CEO does not want to purchase a perpetual license, believing that renting is cheaper, but apparently does not realize that the software update issue remains unresolved to this day.

9. Same as above: the version in use is 2016. Strangely, the software used in the Serbia region is a more advanced version, which means that drawing files exchanged within the same company cannot be shared. Even the systems and part numbers follow different standards, making it seem completely unlike a single company is operating. The Serbia side also occasionally asks us to change to its coding principles, causing the two sides to argue constantly, and the matter ultimately remains unresolved.