My eight - year career aspirations in the workplace: The jigsaw puzzle of a quality professional from Sichuan to Fujian and then back to Chengdu
I. First stop: Fujian Hengan – The kindergarten of the workplace: Learn to find your own way
In the summer of 2011, I clutched my graduation certificate from Sichuan University and squeezed onto the green train from Chengdu to Fuzhou with two big bags of luggage on my back. During the 30 - hour hard - seat journey, the aunt sitting next to me asked, "Young man, are you going to Fujian to work?" I said with a stiff upper lip, "I'm going to Hengan to work in quality control." — Actually, I had no idea what "quality control" specifically entailed. All I knew was that Hengan was a "big company" that could offer job opportunities to fresh graduates.
The "Survival Lesson" of Taking the Wrong Bus: The panic caused by language barriers is more sobering than poverty
After getting off at Fuzhou Station, I stared at the four characters "Quanzhou General Station" on the bus stop sign and double-checked repeatedly before daring to put in the coins and get on the bus. As it turned out, once the bus started moving, I found that the announcements in Minnan dialect sounded like an alien language. When the driver shouted in Minnan dialect, "Citong Bridge Station is here," I mistook it for "Quanzhou General Station" and rushed off the bus with a 20-jin luggage in hand. It was only when I stood by the roadside that I realized that there were newly harvested rice fields all around, not even a small grocery store in sight.
I clutched my phone (there was no navigation at that time) and asked an aunt who was selling guavas for directions. The aunt couldn't understand Mandarin, so I gestured "Quanzhou" and "factory" with my hands. Finally, the aunt pointed to a motorcycle taxi in the distance. The motorcycle taxi driver drove for 40 minutes and charged me 50 yuan (equivalent to the cost of three days' meals at that time) before taking me to the Hengan factory area.
That night, I sat on the wooden plank bed in the dormitory and thought: The first lesson in the workplace is not "professionalism", but "the courage to solve problems". If I can find my way back even after taking the wrong bus, what kind of obstacle can't I overcome?
The "Enlightening Moment" of Training: Games Aren't Just for Fun; They're Trials of "Structured Thinking"
Hengan's onboarding training features a "gamified assessment": team jigsaw puzzles, simulated customer complaints, and case analysis. I didn't take it seriously at first. Thanks to the "base - raiding mindset" I developed from playing StarCraft during my four - year college life, when doing the jigsaw puzzles, I first classified the pieces into "edge pieces" and "pattern pieces", and when analyzing cases, I used the "problem - solving approach for physics problems" to break down the elements into "cause - result - verification". As a result, I unexpectedly won the title of "Best Trainee".
At that time, I thought it meant "being good at playing games". Later, I realized that in the workplace, "problems" are essentially the same as "solving physics problems" - they all involve "finding patterns, breaking down steps, and verifying results". For example, when simulating a customer complaint about "leakage of sanitary napkins", instead of scolding the production department first, I broke it down into "raw materials (thickness of the absorbent layer) → process (pressing pressure) → inspection (sampling frequency)". Finally, I found that the cause was "insufficient pressing pressure" - this is what Engineer M later called the "process approach", but I didn't realize it at that time.
The "misaligned growth" of the laboratory: doing the work of the leader and understanding that "the system is not just a certificate."
After the training, I was assigned to the laboratory of the new factory in Chongqing. The boss of the laboratory was an elder sister who loved smoking. She patted me on the shoulder and said, "You're smart. Help me with the system documents." As a result, I ended up doing "the boss's work": sorting out the laboratory procedures, coordinating with the production department, and optimizing the report templates; while the boss did "my work": conducting daily inspections (measuring the water absorption rate and pH value of sanitary napkins).
At that time, I held the 9001 internal auditor certificate obtained from university and thought that the system was just about "filling out forms". However, when I actually got started, I found that the system is about "who should do what, how to do it, and whom to turn to when there is a problem". For example, the original laboratory test reports had to be handwritten in triplicate (one for the production department, one for the quality department, and one for the warehouse). I changed it to an electronic template for automatic synchronization, saving half of the time. Another example is the calibration of instruments. Originally, we had to find a third - party at a cost of 5,000 yuan. I coordinated with the laboratory to buy calibration blocks by ourselves (costing 1,000 yuan), reducing the cost by 80%.
However, my position remained "lab technician", and my salary was only 200 yuan more than when I first joined the company. I talked to my boss about "whether I could get a pay raise". The boss sighed and said, "The company has set positions and salaries, and there's nothing I can do." Just before the National Day holiday, I finally submitted my resignation letter - not because of the money, but because "I was doing the boss's work but didn't get the corresponding recognition."
II. The Second Stop: Joint - venture Auto Parts Company J - From "Inspector" to "Quality Professional": Learn to "Solve Problems with the System"
At the end of 2012, I laid flat at a classmate's place in Chengdu for a month. Finally, I joined a joint-venture auto parts company J (I won't mention its name, but those in the industry should be able to guess). This was the crucial turning point in my career: from doing specific tasks to thinking about the issues behind the problems; from coping with audits to creating value.
"Set free" upon joining the company: Three months of confusion, "self-taught" through online forums
Just one week after I started my job, the department head quit and jumped ship. There was no one to hand over the work to me, and no one assigned me any tasks. Every day when I got to the company, I just sat at my desk and browsed the "Quality Forum". At that time, the forum was still very lively. The posts of those senior members like "Auntie", "Old Pro" and "Beggar" became my "workplace textbooks":
- "You good-for-nothing beggar" said, "A quality engineer doesn't manage inspectors. Instead, they translate the customers' requirements into the language of production."
- "yijiayige" said, "Go through the customer's PPAP documents and break down the measurement requirements in them. PPAP is not just a formality. It's about 'ensuring that production can stably output qualified products'."
- "Sister Mao" said, "The five major tools are not just explanations of terms; they are 'weapons for preventing problems'. FMEA means 'thinking in advance about what might go wrong', and SPC means'real-time monitoring of whether the process deviates'."
I started to study the English materials: I broke down the customer's "dimensional tolerance of ±0.05mm" into "machine tool accuracy of ±0.03mm", "fixture tolerance of ±0.01mm", and "inspection frequency of 10 pieces per hour". Gradually, I figured out that quality is not about "inspection", but "prevention"; it's not about "finding problems", but "preventing problems from occurring".
The "tough battle" of the measurement system: The "data tug-of-war" with the world's top ten customers
In the third month of my employment, a "tough task" came up: finalizing the PPAP for a new product. The customer (a top-ten global complete machine manufacturer) said, "The measurement of your product's size is 10.5mm, while ours is 10.2mm." They asked me to go to Beijing for confirmation.
The customer's measurement engineer slapped the table with the calibration certificate of the instrument imported from Germany and said, "Our instruments are traceable to the national metrology institute. Yours have problems!" I felt so weak in the knees at that time. It was my first time taking a plane, my first time entering a third - party testing institution (the National Institute of Metrology, China), and my first time using a "coordinate measuring machine" to measure the same dimension 10 times.
When the results came out, I almost burst into laughter: The customer's fixture was deformed by 0.03mm (the tolerance of the fixture is ±0.05mm, and it was actually used for half a year with a deformation of 0.03mm). The customer's engineer blushed and patted me on the shoulder, saying, "Young man, you're really persistent." Then I realized that quality is not about "who shouts the loudest", but about "using data to nail down the problem"; it's not about "compromise", but about "finding the root cause".
When encountering Worker M: The system is not a "template for dealing with audits" but a "framework for solving problems"
In 2014, the company rehired Engineer M, a senior engineer who was nearly 70 years old. His hair was completely white, and he spoke as bluntly as a steel ruler: "Your internal auditor certificate is just a piece of waste paper! The system is based on the 'process approach'. For example, when there is a customer complaint, it's not just about writing an 8D report. You need to find loopholes from the 'input - process - output'!"
Worker M taught me to break down the system documents into "four gears":
1. Customer requirements: The customer requests "dimensions ±0.05mm" and "no surface scratches".
2. Process goals: The production department shall achieve machine tool accuracy of ±0.03mm and tooling without burrs.
3. Division of responsibilities: Who is responsible for adjusting the machine tool? Who is responsible for inspecting the tooling? Who is responsible for measuring the dimensions?
4. Verification method: What instrument should be used for the measurement? How many times should the measurement be taken? What should be done if it fails to meet the requirements?
For example, when a customer complains that "there are scratches on the product surface", Worker M doesn't let me directly scold the production department. Instead, he takes me to the workshop to see: there are burrs on the locating pins of the tooling (process input) → the operator didn't check the tooling (division of responsibilities) → the inspector didn't measure the surface (verification method). The solution is very simple: add a "daily inspection record" for the tooling and add an item of "surface scratches" for the inspector - this is the "implementation" of the system. It's not "written in the documents", but "engraved in everyone's habits".
System revision: Transform the "paper-based standards" into "living processes"
In 2016, ISO9001 was updated (from 2008 to 2015). We implemented a "process owner responsibility system": The production manager was asked to lead the employees to write the documents of the production department, and the quality department would not do everything on their behalf; The technical director was asked to lead the engineers to write the documents of the technical department, and the quality department would not interfere.
Worker M is responsible for "benchmarking standards": For example, has the "customer focus" been implemented in the "Customer Requirement Collection Form"? Has the "process approach" been broken down into "input - output"? I'm responsible for "checking interfaces": For example, does the Production Department send the "Production Plan" to the inspectors 24 hours in advance? Does the Quality Department synchronize the "Inspection Report" with the warehouse? General Manager K (the then head of the Quality Department) is responsible for "asking the boss for money" - awarding bonuses to well - performing departments (for example, the Production Department revised the "Tooling Inspection Process" and was awarded 5000 yuan).
After the final document was revised, the production manager patted me on the shoulder and said, "This time, it's finally not a document from your Quality Department, but our own process!" Only then did I understand that the key to the implementation of the system is not "forced promotion by the Quality Department", but "letting the people who will execute it participate in the writing" - only the processes written by themselves will be seriously executed.
II. The fuse for leaving: The "strategic fog" and "life focus" in the era of China VI emission standards
In 2017, the good days of Company J came to an end:
External: The National VI emission standard has arrived. The materials selected by the US technology are "not suitable for Chinese road conditions", and domestic customers are not buying it. Competitors have launched a "National VI material replacement plan" to seize the market for our mature products. The China-US trade war has begun, and the price of imported raw materials has increased by 30%.
Internally: The National VI production line has been built, but the trial - production results are not available for a long time (the production department says "the equipment has not been debugged properly", and the technology department says "the raw materials have not arrived"); the company plans to relocate the factory, but the customers do not agree to "increase the inventory for three months"; Mr. K slams the table at every meeting, saying, "If this continues to be delayed, all the customers will be snatched away!"
What's even more troublesome is the situation at home. My mom called and said, "The child is going to primary school. Do you want to bring him/her to Chengdu or go back to Sichuan?" My childhood friend also asked, "Do you want to come back to Chengdu and work as a quality manager in my family's company?" As I was flipping through the "Annual Strategic Plan" of Company J, I suddenly had an epiphany: The workplace isn't everything. The child's primary - school years and my mom's concerns are the "center of life". "Success" isn't about "climbing how high", but about "balancing work and life".
At the beginning of 2018, I submitted my resignation application – I had discussed with General Manager K and agreed that I would leave after the system version change audit was passed. The handover went very smoothly: The planning work had long been completed together with General Manager K. The daily work was divided among three subordinates. Finally, I took the new colleague to visit all the clients (such as Client B and Client D), which was considered a perfect ending.
On the day when the version change audit was completed in August, General Manager K invited me to have hot pot. He said, "You're really a good guy and didn't quit halfway." I said with a smile, "It's not about being a good guy. I've learned so much here, so I have to see it through to the end."
III. Returning to Chengdu: The "Second Curve" in the Workplace – From "Pursuing a Career" to "Pursuing a Life"
After returning to Chengdu, I worked as a quality manager at my childhood friend's company (which manufactures automotive parts and supplies to domestic automakers). My daily work was very "down-to-earth":
- Arrive at the company at 8 a.m. and read the Daily Quality Report of the previous day (Are there any customer complaints? Are there any production abnormalities?).
- Go to the workshop for a round in the morning to check "whether there are burrs on the tooling" and "whether the inspectors miss any measurements".
- Have a meeting with the Production Department this afternoon to solve the "trial production problems of National VI products".
- Get off work at half past five in the evening and pick up the child from school (the child is in the first grade at the primary school across the community).
- Accompany my mom to buy groceries on the weekend and cook "Tomato and Scrambled Eggs" for the kids.
Someone asked me, "Do you regret it?" —— Regret not going for training in the United States? Regret not taking over from Mr. K? No, I don't regret it. Every step in the workplace is a "choice", not a "right or wrong":
- Heng'an taught me "independence": If I can even solve the problem of taking the wrong bus, what else should I be afraid of?
- Company J taught me the meaning of "professionalism": Quality is not about "getting by"; it's about "creating value".
- Returning to Chengdu taught me "balance": work is for life, not life for work.
IV. Postscript: The "Changes and Constants" of Company J
After leaving Company J, I occasionally chat with former colleagues:
- Worker M has gone home to retire and goes to the park to do Tai Chi every day.
- General Manager K didn't succeed the boss (the new boss has a purely Chinese way of thinking and changed "top ten global clients" to "top ten domestic clients").
- During the second-party audit, Sister L (the SQE of Client D) flew into a rage because of the "chaotic process" and said, "Are you still a joint venture? You don't even have tooling inspection records!"
- Former colleague Z said, "Now Client B (the biggest client) has also changed their attitude and said that 'our response speed is too slow'."
I actually think that General Manager K will definitely hold on. He's the kind of person who "gets more excited the greater the challenges are". As for me, I've gradually become "the person I want to be" during my small and peaceful life in Chengdu.
V. Finally: A Summary of My "Ambitious Aspirations" in the Workplace over Eight Years
Some people say, "The workplace is a racetrack, and you have to run desperately forward." I think, "The workplace is a wilderness, and you should choose the path you like." In my eight-year career, there has been no "cheating" and no "comeback," only "stumbling and struggling":
- Learn to "find your own way": It's not terrible to take the wrong bus. What's truly terrifying is "being afraid to ask for directions".
- Learn to "speak professionally": Quality is not just "empty talk", but "data and logic".
- Learn to "balance life": Work is for a "better life", not to "sacrifice life".
Now when I think of the days when I used to browse posts on the forum back then, think of Engineer M's words "A system is a framework", and think of the days when I quarreled with customers, I still can't help smiling. Those fragments have pieced together "the present me".
As an old member in the forum said, "In the workplace, it's not about who runs faster, but about who walks more steadily. You decide where you want to go."
This is my eight-year career journey: from Sichuan to Fujian and then back to Chengdu. After going through a cycle, I've finally found "my own place".
2018: Returned to the hometown and entered a factory, stumbled into the "wild jungle" of management
In the second half of 2018, with the obsession of "promoting management systems in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises", I returned to my hometown and plunged into a purely family-owned business run by the father of my childhood friend. Although it was called an "enterprise", it was more like an "enlarged workshop". From the very first day I stepped into the workshop, chaos came rushing in like a tide:
Equipment management? It all depends on "gut feeling". I asked the administrative lady, "How many usable pieces of equipment are there in the factory?" She dug out an old ledger with yellowed pages and curled edges, on which it was written, "3 milling machines and 5 lathes." But when I asked further, "Where is the milling machine numbered M - 03?" She scratched her head and said, "We have to find Old Zhou (the equipment master). It broke down last year and no one repaired it. Maybe it's piled up in a corner of the warehouse." When I finally found Old Zhou, he pointed at a dusty machine in the workshop and said, "Number? I never put a number on it. The one I usually call 'old buddy' is that one." As for "equipment maintenance", he was even more straightforward: "Only repair it when it breaks. Why do maintenance when it's not broken? It's a waste of time."
Production arrangement? It all depends on "oral communication". After workers finish the work at hand, they go to the material storage area to pick parts - they choose the easy - to - make ones with high piece - rate pay. If the supervisor gets anxious, he stands at the workshop door and shouts, "There's an urgent order from XX customer. Put down what you're doing and work on this first." When asked "How many should we make?", the supervisor says, "Make as many as you can. It's a piece - rate system. No work, no pay." When asked "How to determine the priority?", he says, "Do the work of the one who presses hardest. Last time, two customers needed products at the same time. I received 10 phone calls and finally chose the one who called more times."
Quality control? It all depends on almost okay. Hand-drawn drawings are used for quality inspection, and there is no standard for a little over. When asked Can it pass if this dimension exceeds the standard by 0.1mm?, the quality inspection lady said, We usually let it go like this. As long as the customer doesn't complain, it's okay. When asked Why don't you inspect the XX dimension?, she shrugged and said, We don't have the tools, and no one has asked us to do it. Once, it was even found that the crucial welding strength test hadn't been carried out. She took it for granted and said, As long as it's welded, it's okay. If it breaks, just repair it
It was only then that I realized that the so - called "family business" is essentially "experience - driven" — everything depends on "the voices of the old hands" and "the hands of habit". There are no processes, no records, and no clear boundaries of responsibility. I originally wanted to promote a systematic approach. But looking at the chaos in front of me, I suddenly felt that "promoting a systematic approach" was like pouring water into the sand, and it seeped away without a trace.
2018 - 2019: Start with a small cut and try to pry open a crack
Since the system cannot be advanced, I've decided to start with "small implementable tasks":
In the second half of 2018: First, cut down processes, then focus on the key points. The first action was process optimization. The original "secondary grinding" process could actually be omitted by adjusting the tool parameters of the previous process (increasing the rotation speed of the milling cutter from 800 revolutions to 1200 revolutions), which directly saved the labor of 3 workers and reduced costs by 8,000 yuan per month. The second action was "identifying key processes". Welding is the core step affecting the product strength. I required the workers to record "current, voltage, and welding time" and post it on the wall next to the welding machine. Although no one took it seriously at first, later there was a problem of welding cracking. By checking the records, the cause of "the current exceeding 10A" was found, which finally made everyone realize that "recording parameters is useful".
In 2019: First, conduct "brainwashing," then carry out "optimization." In the first half of the year, I focused on middle - level managers. Every Saturday afternoon, I gathered workshop directors and quality inspection team leaders for training. Instead of using "system jargon," I simply said, "Management means clearly stating 'who should do what' and 'how to do it.'" and "The system is not a pile of documents but a tool to help you reduce rework." At first, they thought it was "troublesome." Later, a workshop director actively asked, "Should we hang a sign at the key process in our workshop to prevent new employees from making mistakes?" In the second half of the year, I launched a "cost - reduction project" - adjusting the mold temperature in the casting process (from 180℃ to 160℃), which reduced the waste of sprue materials. The monthly material consumption decreased by 3%. The director patted me on the shoulder and said, "This is a real benefit."
Audit? See clearly the "truth on paper" of the system. Only after accompanying a supervision audit can one understand "why the domestic system certification has become useless": The auditor only checks if there are signatures on the documents and doesn't examine the actual implementation. The "maintenance records" in the equipment ledger were filled in the day before, and he just flipped through them and passed it. The "parameter records" of the key processes were just written by me, and he didn't even enter the workshop but directly marked it as "compliant". I asked him, "It wasn't actually done." He curled his lips and said, "As long as the documents are complete, no one will check the actual implementation." That day, standing at the workshop door, looking at the "system documents" on the wall, I suddenly felt it was ironic - these pieces of paper are even too hard to wipe the table with.
Breaking the deadlock from delivery: Try to establish a "visible plan". Since the root cause of the chaos is "lack of a plan", I decided to start with delivery. Before getting off work every Friday, I would list the production plan for the next week, clearly stating "what parts to make, how many, and what the priority is", and post it at the entrance of the workshop. Every day after work, I would (count) "how many were made, how many were qualified, and the reasons for non - qualification" (for example, one day the lathe group made 50 parts, 3 of which had out - of - tolerance roundness because the cutting tool was worn and not replaced). Slowly accumulate data and try to sort out the "responsibilities and authorities", such as "the workshop director should be responsible for the on - time completion rate" and "the quality inspection team leader should be responsible for the non - qualification rate". I even began to draft the KPI.
Incidents: The "braking" before the Mid-Autumn Festival and the current "fake information game"
But things never go according to the script. Three days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, my childhood friend suddenly called and said, "My dad sold the company." At that time, I had just finished writing the "Workshop Director KPI Form", and the pen tip was still dripping ink. I suddenly froze there. It turned out that the boss thought "running a manufacturing business is too tiring", and since there was someone willing to take over, he simply sold it.
Now? The new boss wants to obtain the 16949 certificate - not because "we need to implement a management system", but because "customers won't place orders without this certificate". I sit in the office every day, filling in "equipment maintenance records", "process parameter records", and "customer complaint handling forms". Even I myself think these materials are fake. The equipment maintenance records are fabricated on the basis of "once a week", but in fact, the equipment was only repaired once last month. The process parameter records are copied from our peers, and our workshop has never measured those data at all. I told the new boss, "We haven't even planned the production properly. Getting this certificate is a waste of money." He shook his head and said, "You don't understand. Customers require this. Without it, we won't get any orders."
End: Waiting to "have a chat" with the new boss and face the "uncertainty" of the future
As for the future? I'm thinking that after I get the certificate, I'll have a chat with the new boss - about "whether the production plan can be implemented first", "whether the workers can record some real data", and "whether management can stop relying on 'oral communication'". But I also know that this is most likely just a "wild hope" - the new boss bought the company to "make money", not to "build a system".
Now, every day I sit in front of the computer, fabricating false data. Occasionally, I would recall the day in 2018 when I first joined the company. I was standing at the workshop door, breathing in the smell of engine oil, thinking, "I'm going to achieve something here." But now? Those passions have long been extinguished by the chaos. All that's left is a bit of "inertia" - fabricating data out of inertia, waiting for the future out of inertia, and thinking out of inertia, "Maybe next time, I'll meet a boss who is willing to do practical things."
In the final analysis, the management of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises has never been a problem of the "system," but rather a problem of "whether there are people willing to do 'trivial things' thoroughly." Unfortunately, many people find "trivial things" too troublesome. They would rather create "fake documents" than stay in the workshop to observe how workers tighten screws.