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

A company for retirement

1. To put it nicely, this company is hiring a mechanical engineer; to put it bluntly, it is merely looking for a draftsman. The company does not need 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 developed a new model and completed the 2D/3D drawings in just nine days; as soon as one prototype was completed, it was shipped. Not only that, 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 did not know about changes to the coin module, while the software department was rushing to design the external-display UI until just before the machine was shipped, clearly showing a lack of cross-functional communication. Most notably, after rushing to complete a new project, the bonus 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 could accept the explanation that it was cheaper, provided that the PM communicated with all relevant departments before making a decision. Instead, the PM says nothing until shipment is imminent, and the PM vice president then shifts the blame by saying that he mentioned it long ago and that “you simply weren’t listening.” As a result, outside vendors and internal R&D often have to clean up his messes.

4. The company has no concept of an approved sample or specification sign-off. The Procurement Department often switches from Supplier A to Supplier B without notifying anyone. It is not until problems arise during mass production that people discover what happened—and, even more absurdly, Mechanical R&D is held responsible whenever something goes wrong. Basically, everything from the eighth-floor production line to the fifth-floor PQC is managed by the procurement manager. When the procurement manager calls to ask about something, she acts as if you owe her NT$2.58 million and operates entirely on emotion. When R&D needs to modify a mold and asks Procurement whether inventory should be prepared, Procurement always says there is enough. Then, when the mold actually needs to be modified, they say inventory is insufficient and ask when it can be fixed, followed by relentless pressure on R&D, which is utterly exasperating. Procurement also never prepares sufficient inventory, so material shortages lead to long waiting periods. Just when the Materials Control Department seemed able to counterbalance Procurement, the procurement manager transferred there as manager after only a few days. In other words, she still controls everything, so the problems described above continue to occur.

5. Same as above. On 2025/6/13, the following incident occurred. Previously, a design using Lens A was adopted to consume excess inventory. Because 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 head of R&D 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 employees’ salaries, because the CEO keeps complete control over pay. Even a request for mechanical samples costing less than NT$100 must be approved by the CEO. Even when a department manager wants to give someone a raise, it must go through the CEO. As far as I know, when the head of R&D 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 turning test interns into test engineers. The purpose is to attract people who want to be called “engineers” to work here. Such strange ideas are extremely unfair to real engineers. People with “engineer” in their company title have widely varying skill levels, which will cause genuinely graduating engineers to have their abilities questioned by companies in the industry!

8. The company’s MIS department is extremely incompetent. Whenever there is a computer problem, they tell you to restart the computer. If they cannot solve it, they simply reimage the computer. Desktop computers are labeled by MIS with “Internet access prohibited.” Everyone knows why Internet access is prohibited. In addition, the desktop specifications are antiquated. The department manager put it nicely by asking 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. On the software side, the company currently uses SolidWorks 2016. The CEO does not want to purchase the software outright, believing that renting it is cheaper, but apparently does not realize that the software update issue remains unresolved to this day.

9. As stated above, the version in use is 2016. Strangely, the Serbia region uses a more advanced version, which means that drawing files exchanged within the same company cannot be circulated. Even the systems and part numbers follow different standards, making it seem completely unlike a single company is operating. The Serbia side also periodically asks us to change to its coding principles, causing both sides to argue constantly, after which the matter is ultimately left unresolved.