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

A company that is just getting by

1. To put it nicely, this company says it is hiring mechanical engineers; to put it bluntly, it is merely looking for draftspeople. The company does not expect you to think—just follow the PM’s instructions and complete the work by the deadline.

2. The company’s machines do not require verification. At your company, I developed a new model and completed the 2D/3D drawings in just 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 interfere. During development, for example, the hardware department was unaware of changes to the coin module, while the software department did not rush the external-display UI design until just before the machine was shipped. This clearly shows a lack of cross-functional communication. To make matters worse, the bonus for completing a new project on time 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 had 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, and the PM vice president then shifts the blame by saying he had told everyone long ago and that we simply had not listened. As a result, external vendors and internal R&D staff constantly have to clean up his messes.

4. The company has no concept of a sample approval document. The procurement department often switches from Supplier A to Supplier B without notifying anyone. The issue is not discovered until a problem occurs during mass production, and, even more absurdly, mechanical R&D is held responsible whenever something goes wrong. Basically, the procurement manager oversees everything from the eighth-floor production line to fifth-floor PQC. When the procurement manager 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, it asks procurement whether materials should be stocked. Procurement always says there is enough inventory, but when the mold actually needs to be modified, it says there is not enough stock and asks when the work can be completed. It then relentlessly pressures R&D, leaving everyone speechless. Procurement also never maintains sufficient inventory, so material shortages result in long gaps before work can resume. A production-control department finally began to counterbalance procurement, but within a few days the procurement manager went to become the production-control manager, meaning she still controls everything. Therefore, the same problems described above continue to occur.

5. Regarding the same type of incident that occurred on 2025/6/13: previously, a design using the A lens was adopted to consume inventory. Since the A-lens inventory has now run out and its MOQ is too high, procurement issued an ECR to replace it with the B lens. 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 salary matters firmly under his control. Even an application for mechanical samples costing less than NT$100 requires the CEO’s approval. Even when a department manager wants to give someone a raise, it must go through the CEO. As far as I know, when the R&D manager tried to discuss 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 having a non-major document-control employee listed 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. These strange practices are extremely unfair to real engineers. People carrying the company’s “engineer” title have widely varying skill levels, which will cause genuinely qualified graduating engineers to face doubts about their abilities from 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 “No Internet Access” by MIS. Everyone knows why internet access is prohibited. In addition, the desktop specifications are practically antique. A department manager made it sound good by asking us to list our current computer specifications, but the CEO clearly 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, but the software update issue remains unresolved to this day.

9. As mentioned above, the version being used is 2016. Ironically, the Serbia region uses a more advanced version, making drawing files exchanged within the same company incompatible. Even the system and component part numbers follow different standards, making it seem as though the two sides are not operating as part of the same company. The Serbia side also occasionally demands that we change to its coding principles, leading to constant arguments between the two sides, which ultimately go nowhere.