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

A company that lets you coast toward retirement

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 on time.

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 designs; as soon as one prototype was finished, it was shipped. 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 micromanage. During development, for example, the hardware department did not know about changes to the coin module, while the software department did not start rushing the external-display UI design until just before the machine was shipped. There is an obvious lack of cross-departmental communication. Most importantly, after rushing to complete a new project, the bonus is only NT$3,000.

3. Machine specifications should be confirmed during development. The company produced 15 machines before announcing that the IPC had to be replaced because the new one was cheaper. I can accept the explanation that it is cheaper, provided that the PM communicates with every relevant department before making a decision. Instead, the PM/vice president says nothing until shipment, then shifts the blame by claiming that he mentioned it long ago and that everyone else simply was not listening. As a result, outside vendors and the internal R&D team 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 Vendor A to Vendor B without notifying anyone. The issue is not discovered until a problem occurs during mass production, and, even more absurdly, the mechanical R&D team is held responsible. Basically, everything from the eighth-floor production line to the fifth-floor PQC 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 emotion. When R&D needs to modify a mold and asks procurement whether stock should be prepared, procurement always says there is enough. When it is actually time to modify the mold, they say inventory is insufficient and ask when the work can be finished, then relentlessly hound R&D, leaving everyone speechless. Procurement also never maintains sufficient inventory, so material shortages result in long waiting periods. Eventually, the production-control department began to counterbalance procurement, but within a few days the procurement manager went to become the production-control manager. In other words, she still controls everything, so the same problems described above continue to occur.

5. Regarding the same incident mentioned above on June 13, 2025: Previously, the design used Lens A to deplete inventory. Now that Lens A is out of stock and its MOQ is too high, procurement opened 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 real authority and does not know employees' salaries, because the CEO keeps salary matters firmly under his control. Even a request for a mechanical sample costing less than NT$100 must be approved by the CEO. Even when a department manager wants to give someone a raise, it must pass through the CEO. As far as I know, when the R&D manager tried to discuss raises, 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—for example, having a non-major document-control employee use the title of mechanical engineer, or turning a testing intern into a test engineer. The purpose is to attract people who want to be called “engineers” to work here. Such strange ideas are deeply unfair to genuine engineers. People carrying the company's “engineer” title have widely varying skill levels, causing actual engineering graduates to face questions from companies across the industry about their abilities.

8. The company's MIS department is extremely incompetent. Whenever there is a computer problem, they tell you to restart it. If they cannot solve it, they simply reimage the computer. Desktop computers are labeled “Internet access prohibited” by MIS; everyone knows why. In addition, the desktop specifications are antiquated. The department manager supposedly asked 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. For software, the company currently uses SolidWorks 2016. The CEO does not want to purchase perpetual licenses, believing rentals are cheaper, but the software update issue has still gone nowhere.

9. As mentioned above, the version in use is 2016. Strangely, the Serbia region uses a more advanced version, making drawing files exchanged within the same company incompatible. Even the system and part-numbering conventions follow different standards, making it seem as though the two sides are not operating as one company at all. The Serbia team also occasionally demands that we change to its coding principles, causing the two sides to argue repeatedly, after which the matter is ultimately left unresolved.