After graduating from university, Bach Le Ngoc Chau did not pursue a literary career but decided to go to Binh Duong to work as a worker to earn a living. Unexpectedly, her life's turning point combined with her hard-working spirit of learning led her to technical innovations that benefited the business hundreds of billions of dong. In July 2023, she excelled in the top 19 typical female workers in the country and was awarded the Nguyen Duc Canh Award by the Vietnam General Trade Union.
Bach Le Ngoc Chau receives the Nguyen Duc Canh Award in 2023
Always the best try
Even though she has received a prestigious award, Bach Le Ngoc Chau is still humble and constantly learning from colleagues at home and abroad. With workers at Saigon Stec Company Limited (belonging to VSIP Industrial Park Trade Union), she always gently guides the work, so she is loved by many.
In the past 5 years of 2018 to 2022, Bach Le Ngoc Chau has had 5 initiatives to benefit the company a total amount of VND 330 billion. It seemed that these initiatives would bring her monthly income up to tens of millions of dong, but it was not! Chau said truthfully: "I'm just a collar clerk, if anything, I'm only a little higher than other people. After 11 years working at the company, perhaps my greatest assets are still my husband and children. We are still staying at the rented house."
More than 11 years ago, Bach Le Ngoc Chau studied literature at Cuu Long University in Vinh Long province. While waiting for her diploma, the young lady from An Giang and her older sister went to Binh Duong to work as workers to earn a living. She herself did not expect that within a short time of exposure to work, she would develop a love for working with machines, so she constantly strives to learn. While working and researching production line systems in factories, after nearly 2 years, she boldly took the exam to join the company's technical department. Ms. Chau confided: "For people trained in machinery, when working in the technical department, they encounter many difficulties, let alone "outsiders" like me. If they put in 1 effort, we have to put in 2 or 3 times more effort.
Besides practical study and research through books, Ms. Chau had to learn many foreign languages, especially Japanese. She shared that every time the machines malfunctioned, or she followed the Japanese leaders to survey the production line and they conveyed good ideas, she did not understand. But when you don't understand, how can you have good ideas? So after work, she cycled to Japanese language learning centers until she could speak fluently.
Hundred-billion initiatives
At the 4th Nguyen Duc Canh Award in 2023 awarded by the Vietnamese General Trade Union, Binh Duong had 7 workers out of a total of 167 nationwide honored. Over the past 5 years, these 7 workers and their colleagues have continuously researched and come up with initiatives that have been applied in practice by units, contributing to improving product quality, saving costs, and safe production. Thereby, the initiatives have benefited units and businesses with a total value of more than VND 340 billion, of which, VND 330 billion came from 5 initiatives of Bach Le Ngoc Chau.
Every day, Bach Le Ngoc Chau constantly strives to achieve her chosen career path
Sharing about the technical improvements of her projects, Chau said she experienced many failures when starting out. During the working process, she realized that the products she made were damaged a lot, so she tinkered with the techniques she learned to improve the machines as well as to limit human impacts. From manual improvements, the quality was not high, she continued to tinker and learn Japanese techniques to apply 3D and modern technology to production which is gradually successful and achieving better results. The important thing is that it no longer depends on the meticulousness of the workers. Chau's improvements have reduced damaged goods by 0.2% compared to before the improvements.
Talking about her dream in the future, Chau said she will continue to stay with her work to constantly study to find new initiatives, and be honored at other noble awards. And like many people who leave their hometown to settle in Binh Duong, her biggest dream is to have enough money to purchase a small house for her family.
With the project to improve and optimize damaged goods inspection standards for 2018 product codes, Chau benefited the business more than VND 43 billion a year. The project to improve and change the method of determining damaged goods for 2019 product codes benefited the business VND 45 billion a year. The project to improve and renovate the raw material conversion framework in 2021 benefited the business more than VND 95 billion a year. The project to improve and change storage conditions for product protection plates in 2022 generated a profit of VND 60 billion a year. The solution to reduce damaged lens products in 2022 generated a profit of VND 87 billion a year.
Reported by Quang Tam – Translated by Vi Bao