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

An old-age pension company

1. To put it nicely, this company advertises the position as a mechanical engineer; to put it bluntly, it is merely looking for a draftsman. The company does not require you to think—just follow the PM’s instructions and complete the work within 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 the design of the external-display UI until just before the machine was shipped. There is clearly 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 said the IPC needed to be replaced because the alternative 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 says nothing until shipment is imminent. The PM, who is also the vice president, then shirks responsibility by claiming that he said it long ago and that everyone else simply was not listening. As a result, outside vendors and internal R&D staff often have to clean up his messes.

4. The company has no concept of an approved sample or specification sign-off document. The Procurement Department often switches from Supplier A to Supplier B without notifying anyone. This only becomes known after a serious problem occurs during machine production, and, even more absurdly, the mechanical R&D team is held responsible whenever something goes wrong. Basically, everything from the production line on the eighth floor to PQC on the fifth floor is managed by the procurement manager. When she 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. Once the mold actually needs to be modified, they say inventory is insufficient and ask when the modification can be completed, then relentlessly hound R&D, leaving everyone speechless. Procurement also never stocks inventory in advance, so when materials run short, there is always a waiting period. A production-control department finally emerged to counterbalance Procurement, but within a few days the procurement manager went to become the manager of the production-control department. In other words, she was still in control, so the same problems described above continued to occur.

5. As with the incident mentioned above that occurred on June 13, 2025: previously, Lens A was used in the design to consume existing 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 R&D manager disagreed, but Procurement directly issued the material to the production line and required the mechanical engineer to modify the BOM.

6. The company’s HR department has no authority and does not know employees’ salaries, because the CEO tightly controls all salary matters. Even an application for mechanical samples costing less than NT$100 must be approved by the CEO. Even when a department manager wants to give an employee a raise, it must pass through the CEO. As far as I know, when the R&D manager requested salary adjustments, the request 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 listing a non-major document-control employee under the title of mechanical engineer or turning a test intern into 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 genuine engineers. People with varying levels of ability receive the company’s “engineer” title, causing engineers who truly graduate with the required qualifications 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 reformat and reinstall 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 politely asks 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 the software outright, believing that renting it is cheaper, yet the software update issue remains unresolved to this day.

9. As mentioned above, the version being used is 2016. Strangely, the software used in the Serbia region is a higher version, making it impossible to exchange drawing files within the same company. Even the system and part-numbering conventions 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.