Entering an Inland Factory for the First Time: Dilemmas and Breakthroughs
After I stepped into this factory in the Chinese mainland, I quickly noticed that the personnel composition here was highly region - specific. Except for a few outsiders, more than 98% of the employees were locals. In the factory, when the management held meetings, they spoke in a pure local dialect. That series of unfamiliar dialects made me feel like I was lost in a fog and completely confused. This language barrier invisibly built a wall. Local employees easily grouped together and developed a sense of exclusion towards outsiders. Those department managers who were transferred from other regions were like small boats in a storm in such an environment, and the rate of their "defeat" was astonishingly high.
The department I manage has 41 employees, among whom only 3 are younger than me. Moreover, except for me, the rest are all locals. What puts more pressure on me is that even the general manager is a local. He heard about my excellent performance at the factory in Shenzhen and thought I could be his right-hand man, so he strongly requested me to come here.
After arriving here, I quickly immersed myself in work. In half a year, I helped the factory successfully obtain the ISO9001 certificate and established a set of comprehensive corporate management processes. Just then, a thorny problem emerged. Due to the poor quality of previous products, the customers had over 5 million worth of inventory to be urgently dealt with. During that period, I spent every day at the customers' places. Relying on my professional skills and communication abilities, I worked hard to coordinate resources from all parties and finally successfully handled this arduous task.
Just then, an opportunity to job-hop quietly presented itself. A Fortune 500 American company, which was also a client of our company, had just established a new factory in Guangdong and was in urgent need of a professional quality manager. The treatment they offered was much better than what I had at that time. Considering that I had been used to the southern climate since childhood and some other factors, I decided to seize this opportunity and join this enterprise. I also wanted to experience firsthand the management model of a real Fortune 500 multinational corporation.
Joining a New US-funded Factory: Initial Setbacks
When I joined this new factory, most of the production lines had already been in full swing. The general manager who interviewed me was a chubby Taiwanese. In the first few days after I started working, he would take me to tour the production lines every day after work. I noticed that whenever he saw a screw on the ground, he would bend down to pick it up without hesitation. This act made me can't help but admire him. After all, in my previous work experience, I rarely saw a general manager being so hands - on.
During the first three days of work, the general manager assigned me a rather difficult task - to fire a skilled employee from the Quality Department. He listed for me all kinds of poor performances of this employee during work and also presented conclusive evidence. In fact, I didn't want to do such a "cutting - edge" thing right from the start, but I couldn't disobey the general manager's order. So, I had a talk with that employee and said to him euphemistically, "Since the environment here doesn't quite suit you, you might as well change to another place and give full play to your value again. Let's part on good terms." Unexpectedly, he was very reasonable and said, "Since you put it this way, manager, I can accept it. I'll go through the formalities right away." Just like that, I officially embarked on my work journey in this new company.
Challenges in the new factory: Certificate and work problems
This new factory transferred some key employees from the headquarters to serve as managers of various departments, and the general manager was also sent from the headquarters along with them. They spent more than a year building a fairly large - scale factory on an empty plot of land and got all product lines put into production smoothly. The hardships involved are self - evident. When I joined the factory, it was still in the exploratory stage. Many forms and work documents were simply copied from those of the headquarters, with only the place names changed.
The general manager assigned me a rather challenging work goal - to enable the factory to obtain the ISO9001, OHSAS18001, and ISO14001 certificates within 2 months. Since the company's products are mainly exported to foreign markets, it's impossible to gain a foothold without these certificates. For a newly - established factory, it's easy to imagine the difficulty of obtaining these 3 certificates all at once without the help of any consulting company. Fortunately, I had experience in successfully implementing ISO9001 in two companies before, so even without a consulting company, I was confident in completing the task. So, I devoted myself whole - heartedly to the work of establishing the entire document system and planning the processes. The department managers who came from the headquarters also gave strong support to my work. They clearly knew how to cooperate with my work plan.
In the new job, there are still many things I need to get familiar with. I have to submit more than 20 work reports to the headquarters every month. In previous companies, the reports were basically completed by clerks. However, in this company, employees in each position are burdened with a large amount of work, and going to work is as tense as charging into battle. Even the general manager has to complete many reports by himself in his spare time. Therefore, I have to learn to make reports proficiently on my own.
In addition, the customer service work is also very complicated. The company's products are mainly sold in the domestic market, and there are more than 100 maintenance points across the country. After the products are sold to customers, on - site installation, commissioning and services are also required, and problems need to be repaired in a timely manner. Nominally, the maintenance headquarters for the China region is in Shanghai, but they often simply forward problems, and a large number of practical matters need to be coordinated and handled by ourselves. Therefore, I also have to act as the customer service manager in my work.
The duality of the general manager: Conflict and tenderness
During the work process, I gradually learned about some not-so-good habits of the general manager. Once, I modified the "Supplier Exception Handling Form" into the 8D format of the "Supplier Quality Problem Improvement Report". In fact, I had just drafted it and hadn't started implementing it yet. Somehow, he found out. He called me to his office and pounded the table while questioning me, "Who told you to modify this form? Do you want to take charge of all the suppliers?" At that moment, I did feel a bit unhappy. After working for so many years, no supervisor had ever pounded the table and blamed me like this. I held back my words and didn't say a word, and this form just died a premature death.
Compared with what other employees have experienced, the incident I went through was still minor. It is said that once, because a budget sheet was not submitted, he locked all the department managers brought from the headquarters in the office and didn't allow them to go out the whole day until all the budget reports of all departments were completed. Sometimes, when an employee made a mistake on the production line, he would even say some very hurtful words. Once, the headquarters summoned all employees to a meeting at 14:00 in the afternoon. He required us to enter the meeting room 5 minutes in advance. At 13:58, when we were about to get up and go to the meeting room, he shouted loudly at the door of the office meeting room, "Don't you see that the meeting notice says to be 5 minutes early?" He didn't realize at all how busy everyone was with their work.
However, the general manager also has a gentle side. When discussing issues with his superiors, it is said that he would even bang the table at them and easily lose his temper. This may be due to the excessive work pressure. But when he is calm, he is very kind to his subordinates. During the company's annual outing, he is like a kind - hearted father, busy taking photos for everyone, carrying bottled water, teaching us how to play ball, and taking care of our clothes. However, no one knows when his bad temper will suddenly flare up. So as soon as we enter the office, the tense atmosphere hits us and makes us feel suffocated. When he is on a business trip, it becomes the happiest and most relaxing time for us.
Achievements of efforts and top-level personnel changes
After two months of unremitting efforts, we successfully passed the certification audit of ISO9001, as well as the audits of OHSAS18001 and ISO14001. After this news was announced to all employees in the Asian region, many people were very surprised. Because during that period, there were a deluge of complaints about the company's product quality and management. When dealing with these complaints, the general manager always liked to argue with the on - site engineering staff, which made the negative situation even worse. After I joined the company, I started to handle these complex complaints and service requests. However, sometimes, before I could even express my opinion, the general manager would give a response first, which led to more people blaming the factory.
During the company's exhibition, I learned from a customer service manager that the factory's general manager had been replaced. I went back and asked the HR manager, and got a positive reply. However, this general manager always had a very good impression of me. He thought my work was excellent, and the salary increase he gave me after the probation period was much higher than the normal level. I couldn't really describe how I felt about his departure. Actually, I was a bit glad, because his temper really made everyone feel very oppressed at work. A general manager who can't control his emotions is really not fit for this position.
Later, he gathered everyone and said that it was his last day working at the company, and he wanted to take a group photo with everyone. When his subordinates who had fought side by side with him sent him to the airport, it is said that an employee who had a good relationship with him cried very hard.
Embrace new challenges: Trials of the unknown
The departure of the general manager means that we have to face the challenges brought by a new leader. I don't know what kind of trials I'll go through under the leadership of the new leader, but I'm already prepared to take on all sorts of challenges in future work.