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

A company that has been around for a long time

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 expect you to think—just follow the PM's instructions and finish 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 only nine days; as soon as one prototype was completed, it was shipped. 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 did not know about changes to the coin module, and the software department did not begin rushing the external-display UI design until just before the machine was shipped. There is clearly a lack of cross-functional communication. To top it off, the bonus for completing a new project under a tight deadline was only NT$3,000.

3. Machine specifications should be confirmed during development. After 15 machines had already entered mass production, they suddenly said the IPC needed to be replaced because it was cheaper. I could accept the explanation that it was cheaper, provided that the PM communicated the decision with the relevant departments. Instead, the PM never communicates with anyone and only brings it up when the machine is about to ship. The PM vice president also shifts the blame, saying that he mentioned it long ago and that everyone else simply was not listening. Because of this, outside vendors and internal R&D staff are constantly cleaning up after him.

4. The company has no concept of a sample approval document. The purchasing department often switches from Supplier A to Supplier B without notifying anyone. The issue is only discovered when problems arise during mass production. Even more absurdly, mechanical R&D is held responsible whenever something goes wrong. Basically, the purchasing manager controls everything from the eighth-floor production line to the fifth-floor PQC. When the purchasing 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 repair a mold and asks purchasing whether stock should be prepared, purchasing always says there is enough. Then, when the mold actually needs to be repaired, they say inventory is insufficient and ask when the repair can be completed, before aggressively hounding R&D. It is utterly baffling. Purchasing also never prepares inventory in advance, so any shortage results in a long waiting period. A production-control department finally began pushing back against purchasing, but within a few days the purchasing 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. As with the incident mentioned above that occurred on June 13, 2025: A lens from Supplier A had previously been used in the design to consume existing inventory. Because the inventory of the A lens has now run out and its MOQ is too high, purchasing opened an ECR to replace it with a B lens. The R&D manager disagreed, but purchasing directly issued the materials to the production line and instructed the mechanical engineer to modify the BOM.

6. The company's HR department has no real authority and does not know employees' salaries, because the CEO keeps salary matters tightly under his control. 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-mechanical graduate in document control as a 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. Such strange ideas are extremely unfair to genuine engineers. People carrying the company's “engineer” title have widely varying ability levels, which will cause genuinely qualified engineers to be questioned about their abilities by companies across the industry!

8. The company's MIS department is a complete mess. 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. As for software, the company is currently using SolidWorks 2016. The CEO does not want to purchase the software outright, believing that renting it is cheaper, but the software update issue remains unresolved to this day.

9. As mentioned above, the version in use is 2016. Ironically, the software used in the Serbia region is a higher version, so drawing files cannot be exchanged between the same company. Even the systems and part numbers follow different standards, making it seem as though two completely different companies are operating. The Serbia side also periodically asks us to change to its coding principles, leading to constant arguments between the two sides, which ultimately go nowhere.