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

A company that lets you retire

1. To put it nicely, this company is hiring a mechanical engineer; to put it bluntly, it is simply looking for a draftsman. The company does not need you to think about anything—just follow the PM’s instructions and complete the work on schedule.

2. The company’s machines do not require validation. At your company, I spent only nine days developing a new model’s 2D/3D drawings, and shipped it as soon as one prototype was completed. 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 insists on micromanaging. During development, for example, the hardware department was unaware of changes to the coin module, while the software department did not start rushing the external-display UI design until right before the machine was shipped. This clearly shows a lack of cross-functional communication. Most importantly, 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 suddenly said the IPC had to be replaced because it was cheaper. I can accept the explanation that it was cheaper, provided that the PM communicates with all relevant departments before making a decision. Instead, the PM never communicates with anyone and only brings it up when the shipment is about to go out. The PM, who is also the vice president, even shifts the blame by saying that he mentioned it long ago and that everyone else simply was not listening. As a result, outside vendors and internal R&D staff are constantly left to clean up his messes.

4. The company has no concept of an approved sample document. The procurement department often switches from Supplier A to Supplier B without notifying anyone. This only becomes known when a serious problem occurs during mass production. Even more absurdly, mechanical R&D is held responsible whenever something goes wrong. Basically, the procurement manager manages everything from the eighth-floor production line to the fifth-floor PQC. When she calls to ask about something, she acts as though 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. When the mold actually needs to be modified, they then say inventory is insufficient and ask when the modification can be completed, followed by relentless pressure on R&D, which is simply astonishing. Procurement also never maintains sufficient inventory, so whenever materials run short, there is a waiting period. A production-control department finally managed to counterbalance procurement, but within a few days the procurement manager went to become the production-control manager. In other words, she was still in control, so the same problems described above continued to occur.

5. Regarding the same matter, which occurred on 2025/6/13: previously, a design using Lens A was adopted to reduce 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 manager disagreed, but procurement directly issued the materials to the production line and required the mechanical engineer to change the BOM.

6. The company’s HR department has no real authority and does not know employees’ salaries, because the CEO keeps complete control over all salary matters. Even an application for mechanical samples costing less than NT$100 requires the CEO’s approval. Even when a department manager wants to adjust an employee’s salary, it must pass through the CEO. As far as I know, when the R&D manager raised the issue of salary adjustments, the request was rejected!

7. Because the company’s HR department cannot find mechanical engineers or testing interns, it often comes up with bizarre ideas, such as having a non-mechanical major from document control nominally serve as a mechanical engineer, or proposing that testing interns become 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 who receive the company’s “engineer” title have widely varying skill levels, which will cause genuinely qualified graduating engineers to have their abilities questioned by companies across the industry!

8. The company’s MIS department is extremely disorganized. Whenever there is a computer problem, they tell you to restart the computer. If they cannot solve it, they simply reinstall the operating system. Desktop computers are labeled “Internet access prohibited” by MIS. Everyone knows why internet access is prohibited. In addition, the desktop computer specifications are practically antique. The department manager says, to put it nicely, that we should list the current computer specifications, but in reality the CEO simply does not want to upgrade the engineers’ hardware, and there has been no follow-up 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 upgrade issue remains unresolved to this day.

9. As mentioned above, the version in use is 2016. Strangely, the Serbia region uses a more advanced version, making it impossible to share drawing files within the same company. Even the systems and part-number formats follow different standards, making it seem as though the two operations are not part of the same company at all. The Serbia side also occasionally asks us to change to its coding principles, leading to constant arguments between the two sides, which ultimately go nowhere.