Ensuring Quality
I came from the village. As a villager living in this developmental era, I felt that I deserved to receive the best in life. The best means something which is of good and high quality, no defects in its international standard specifications, giving optimum satisfaction, a must have for every individual to enjoy and owned. Is our country prepared ? Are we prepared to be in that direction? Are the products and services produced and rendered by our country being offered to us met the international standards specification? As good and at par with the products and services imported from the developed countries? This is a collective responsibility. All segments of the communities including the government, engineers, mechanics, technologists, scientists, entrepreneur, financial sectors and all of us as workers or consumers should work together to produce quality products and rendered quality services. This is the issue that I will touch on this time around. Issues relating to good quality, high quality and being superior. Not only superior in our country but also superior in the world.
I chose this topic as I felt my community from now on should act and deserved to have and enjoyed the best in our daily lives. When we talk about standards and quality, it is closely related to our capability. Our capability to produce and to achieve it. It is related to our ability and preparation in terms of resources, infrastructure, physical, emotional, spiritual and mental preparedness to create and produce. We have to prepare ourselves so that we will be ready to achieve all these.
Developed Nation Status
Our country is heading towards a developed nation status by 2020. About 63 years since our independence. If we conduct research on a country’s civilisation, in general, it took about a 100 years for a country to achieve a fully developed nation status i.e. after it obtained its independence or moving into the era of industrialization. Japan became an industrialized country in the middle of the 19th century and after 130 years round about the third quarter of the twentieth century Japan became a fully developed nation. South Korea was a bit more advanced in achieving the fully developed nation status. Philippines in the 1960s, was actually far more advanced in terms of development compared to Korea. However, after slightly more than half a century later, Korea became the most developed country in the Asia Pacific region. Obviously more advanced than the Philippines who more than half a century ago was more advanced than Korea.
If we make a specific study on the Korean way of living, culture and working habits, we can more or less understood why the Koreans achieved an accelerated development rate comparatively. During the late 80s economic crisis, Korea managed to turn around its economy swiftly after receiving assistance from IMF. Now Korea’s economy is developing at a fast pace.
Korean Working Culture
I managed to obtain information on Korea through official and personal visit to the country. Coincidentally, my eldest son graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from Kunsan University in Korea. He went to Korea immediately after his PMR and after six (6) years of study, he graduated with excellence as an Engineer. He was lucky, despite the fact that he received no form of government assistance, he managed to complete his studies by self funding and some assistance from me. Thanks to his good fortune, he managed to secure a part time job at his Korean Godfather’s factory.
Back in Malaysia, he worked as a Mechanical Engineer at a factory in Balakong, Cheras. As time passes, I noticed something unique and strange about him. He goes to work after Subuh prayers and reaches home late in the evening. Nothing earlier than 11 pm almost everyday. He even worked on weekends. I am not used to such working culture. Where can you find a Malaysian, working 18 hours a day, everyday and even on weekends. The only thing I pointed out and advise him is not to forget his solat. After working for 6 months, he managed to increase his factory’s productivity by 116 % and reduced production cost by 30%. As a result of his achievement, he was appointed as the new Factory Manager replacing his boss who has more than 40 years experiences. He was then sent to Austria and Germany for three months by the owner, Mr Yew, to fabricate new machines for use in the two additional production lines. Back from Germany, he produced a new product for the factory. A high quality oxygenated drink that was awarded International Standards certification. I noticed on TV, the Prime Minister’s wife often served this oxygenated drink to her personal guests at Seri Perdana.
My son’s working culture is just one small life example of the Korean working culture. The Koreans worked far better, far greater and with high dedication than my son. Here’s another example. My son’s Godfather, Mr Park, worked continuously for three (3) years in his factory without going back home. That was the time when he first opened his fabrication factory. He slept in his factory throughout those period despite the fact that the distance between his house and factory is only 20 minutes drive. His wife gave him the full support and once in a while dropped by and stayed the night with him at the factory. This decision was made to ensure that the factory operated smoothly. His exemplary actions inspired and motivated his workers. In the fifth year, he managed to export his machines and even to Germany. We know for a fact that the German technology in the machinery industry are far more superior. How did he managed to penetrate the German machine market? Apparently the technology he uses is at par with the German technology but at a cheaper rate.
Apprenticeship
For the first three months working with Mr Park, my son was assigned to clear the rubbish and to clean the drains. It was only in the second three months of work, he was given the opportunity to work in the factory. His assignment was to clean the oil sticking to the machines in the factory. It has to be done until the machines sparkled. That was his daily routine. Though the cleaned machines already sparkled , he was requested to polished them again until it became more sparkled. Mr Park in his walkabout management style will placed his fingers to the cleaned machines. If in the process he found black oil and dust sticking to his fingers, my son Mohd Hezzam Arfaei will be punished by working overtime without any allowance. Only a year later, he was given a computer, a table and a chair to start training on engineering drawing. That was the kind of training and work culture practised by the Korean people and indoctrinated in my son. That was the working culture adopted by my son until he successfully became involved in the manufacturing of a product that is favoured by our First lady. This oxygenated drink produced by a factory in Balakong, Cheras has penetrated and is popular in the Japanese market.
Korean Products
This is just not about my son. It has something to do with quality, standards and satisfaction. This has relation to the kind of training system and work culture adopted. The three characteristics mentioned earlier will not be achieved without having to go through the work culture described briefly through my son’s training experience with his Godfather in Korea. We can see ourselves that Korean products have flocked markets the world over. Right from the biggest ship in the world, power generators and turbines used in developing countries throughout the world, sophisticated designed cars but at a cheaper price, handphones with brands of world class standards, Korean silk favoured by women all over the world, Korean construction companies their services utilized all over the world especially in the Middle East, Korean serial telemovies produced by KBS world, viewed by million of fans in 55 countries in the world, restaurants serving Korean barbecued dishes favored all over the world including leaders from our country Malaysia (there’s even pictures of Malaysian leaders enjoying delicious Korean food at a Korean restaurant in Kuala Lumpur) to the smallest product made in Korea i.e. the brooches with its unique design and quality, adored by women all over the world. Why does the Korean wave happened throughout the world? It is because the Korean made products have become the world’s most popular and leading brand. Its quality is of world class standards and it enjoyed maximum consumer satisfaction throughout the world.
Smart In Reverse Engineering
It is not my purposeful intention to praise the Korean work culture and training practices to the limits. For a fact, that is the basic foundation of the South Korean success story. It is not wrong for us to emulate the Korean’s training programmes, to copy and adopt our work culture to that of the Koreans. It is also not wrong us try to create a Malaysian wave throughout the world. It is also not wrong for us to overtake the Koreans in areas where we have the strengths and niche. It is also not wrong for us to outperform the Japanese. It is also not wrong for us to be at par with the Germans. The most important thing is that we have to strengthen our foundation and be smart in emulating better work culture and technologies. What is the foundation? The foundation is education and knowledge. Another exemplary Korean achievement is that more than 70% of the Korean workforce graduated in technical and engineering field. Eventhough the job is as Personnel or Marketing Manager, the Koreans need to have a degree in engineering to qualify for the position. The opposite is practiced in Malaysia where the basic qualification for a Personnel Manager is an ex army. With a background in engineering, a Personnel Manager will be able to conduct screening and assessment on each of their potential candidates. Only those with technical and engineering background will be recruited. With a background in engineering, a Marketing Manager will be able to explain in detail the characteristics of the products he intended to sell. In this way, the consumers will be satisfied with the products sold. Any complaints later, he will be able to rectify the defects to the extend that the consumer became faithful and loyal to the brand. The consumer will not switch to other new brands.
Technical Education
My countrymen should be prepared to switch our field of study from having too much focus on literature, social science and commerce to that of technical, engineering and technology. If more than 90% of the my countrymen children are in the first category, it is our collective responsibility to reverse this trend. Eventhough not 90% but starting with 51% must pick up subjects in mathematics, pure sciences, technical and engineering. Are there sufficient teachers with qualifications in technical and engineering lines? If it is not sufficient, create and train as many such teachers. If it is still not sufficient, as a suggestion, recruit the retired Engineers from Japan or Korea on contract basis. There are such groups in Korea and Japan keen to migrate to Malaysia as the weather in Malaysia is suitable for these pensioners who are still energetic. This is the basic preparation for our countrymen to achieve excellence, respected and achieving world class standards. Without a strong foundation, it will not be possible for us to overtake the other communities who are far more advanced in this world.
The country’s population, will soon reach 30 million. 10 million less than the Korean population now. This is a reasonable population figure that can create a sizeable domestic market. However, if the figure of 70 million population suggested by the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir became a reality probably in 30 years time, then Malaysia will be one of the super powers economically. Nevertheless a 30 million population will also be a big captive market for our made in Malaysia products. This will be a good beginning. Actually, we have the potential and capability to be at par with the success and achievements of the Korean people. Our leaders with all sort of transformation agendas have worked hard to develop this country. As Malaysians, all of us need to compete with one another based on a fair and equitable meritocracy system. Then all of us can become good and effective contributors to the country’s development process. My countrymen being the major community in this country, need to work hard to excel, need to practice twice as hard, need to strive twice as hard, need to have a vision to become the best and need to have the ambition and goal to be superior and to succeed as the country’s and world’s best. We need to think big dream high and have strong heart. We need to be innovative, creative, inventive and we need to develop our own technologies. We need to improve, initiate reverse technology or copy in the halal way other technologies. All these are important to enable us to produce made in Malaysia products that within this short period of time achieved world class standards. Products that are admired, sought after, respected for its quality and much talked about for the maximum satisfaction experienced using it worldwide. This has to be the goal and ambition of our countrymen. When all this has been achieved, as Malaysians, we will experience a paradigm shift in our taste and lifestyle of being merely satisfied with products and services that are of mediocre quality and standards to products that are of world class quality and standards.
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