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

A company that’s content to coast on its past

1. To put it nicely, this company is hiring for a mechanical engineer; to put it bluntly, it is merely looking for a draftsman. You are not expected to think for yourself—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 spent only nine days developing a new model and completing the 2D/3D drawings, and it was shipped as soon as one prototype was finished. On top of 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 interfere. 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 shipped. There is clearly a lack of cross-functional communication. Most importantly, after rushing to complete a new project, the bonus is only NT$3,000.

3. Machine specifications should be confirmed during the development phase. After 15 machines had already entered mass production, the company 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 only brought it up again when the machine was about to ship. The PM, who is also a vice president, then shifted the blame by saying he had mentioned it long ago and that everyone else simply had not listened. As a result, outside vendors and internal R&D often have to clean up after him.

4. The company has no concept of approved samples. The purchasing department often switches from Supplier A to Supplier B without notifying anyone. The issue only becomes known when a problem occurs during mass production. 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 purchasing manager. When the purchasing manager calls to ask about something, she acts as though you owe her NT$2.58 million and does everything based on emotion. When R&D needs to modify a mold and asks Purchasing whether inventory should be stocked, Purchasing always says there is enough. When the mold actually needs to be modified, Purchasing then says there is insufficient inventory and asks when the modification will be finished, before relentlessly pressuring R&D. It is infuriating. Purchasing has also never maintained adequate inventory, so shortages result in long waiting periods. Just when the production control department began to counterbalance Purchasing, the purchasing manager became the manager of the production control department a few days later. In other words, she still controls it, so the same problems continue to occur.

5. Regarding the same incident that occurred on June 13, 2025: Previously, a design using Lens A was adopted to consume existing inventory. Now that Lens A is out of stock, and because its MOQ is too high, Purchasing initiated an ECR to replace it with Lens B. The head of R&D disagreed, but Purchasing directly issued the material 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 firmly under his control. Even a mechanical sample request for less than NT$100 must be approved by the CEO. Even when a department manager wants to give an employee a raise, it must go through the CEO. As far as I know, when the head of R&D tried to discuss salary increases, the request was rejected.

7. Because the company’s HR department cannot find mechanical engineers or part-time testing assistants, it often comes up with bizarre ideas—for example, having a non-relevant-major document-control employee nominally serve as a mechanical engineer, or turning a part-time testing assistant 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 with the company’s “engineer” title have widely varying ability levels, which will cause employers in the industry to question the capabilities of engineers who actually complete their degrees.

8. The company’s MIS department is extremely disorganized. Whenever there is a computer problem, they tell you to restart it. 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 antique-level. The department manager politely asks us to list the specifications of our current computers, but in reality the CEO simply does not want to upgrade the engineers’ 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 a perpetual license, believing that renting is cheaper, but 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 software version, making drawing files exchanged within the same company incompatible. Even the systems and part numbers follow different standards, making it seem as though two completely different companies are operating. The Serbia side also occasionally asks us to change to its coding principles, leading to endless arguments between the two sides, which ultimately go nowhere.