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

A company that supports retirement.

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

2. This 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; as soon as one prototype was finished, 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 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 was shipped. There is an obvious 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 new one was cheaper. I could accept the explanation that it was cheaper, provided that the PM communicated with the relevant departments before making the decision. Instead, the PM says nothing until shipment is imminent, and the vice president responsible for PM then shifts the blame by claiming that he mentioned it long ago and that everyone else simply was not listening. As a result, external vendors and internal R&D staff often have to clean up his messes.

4. The company has no concept of an approved sample or sign-off document. The purchasing department often switches from Vendor A to Vendor B without notifying anyone; the issue is not discovered until a problem occurs during mass production. Even more absurdly, mechanical R&D is held responsible whenever something goes wrong. Basically, the purchasing manager oversees everything from the eighth-floor production line to the fifth-floor PQC. When she 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 and asks purchasing whether stock should be prepared, purchasing always says there is enough. When the mold actually needs to be modified, they then say inventory is insufficient and ask when the work can be completed, before relentlessly pressuring R&D, leaving everyone speechless. Purchasing also never maintains safety stock, so shortages result in lengthy waiting periods. Just when the production-control department had begun to counterbalance purchasing, the purchasing manager became the manager of the production-control department after only a few days, meaning she still remained in control. Therefore, the problems described above continue to occur.

5. As with the incident mentioned above that occurred on June 13, 2025: previously, a design using Lens A was adopted to deplete inventory. Since the inventory of Lens A has now run out and its MOQ is too high, purchasing issued an ECR to replace it with Lens B. The R&D manager disagreed, but purchasing directly issued the materials to the production line and ordered the mechanical engineer to change the BOM.

6. The HR department has no authority and does not know employees' salaries, because the CEO keeps all salary matters tightly under his control. Even a mechanical sample request under NT$100 must be approved by the CEO. Even when a department manager wants to adjust an employee's salary, it must go through the CEO. As far as I know, when the head of R&D 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 non-major document-control staff under the title of mechanical engineer or turning test interns into test engineers. The goal is to attract people who want to be called “engineers” to work there. Such strange practices are extremely unfair to genuine engineers: people with the company's “engineer” title have widely varying ability levels, which will cause graduating engineers who genuinely hold the role to have their competence questioned by companies across the industry!

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 by MIS with “Internet access prohibited.” Everyone knows why internet access is prohibited. In addition, the desktop specifications are from the Stone Age. The department manager says, to put it nicely, that we should list the current computer specifications, but in reality the CEO simply does not want to upgrade the engineers' hardware, and nothing has come of it. 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 apparently does not realize that the software update issue remains unresolved to this day.

9. As mentioned above, the version in use is 2016. Strangely, the Serbia region uses a more advanced version, which means drawing files exchanged within the same company cannot be used across locations. Even the systems and part numbers follow different standards, making it seem as though the two sides are not operating as the same company at all. The Serbia side also periodically asks us to change to its coding principles, leading to constant arguments between the two sides, which ultimately remain unresolved.