Vietnamese firms capable of joining support industry

Shim Won Hwan, president of Samsung Electronics Việt Nam Complex assess results of improvements at Postef.-VNS Photo

Samsung Viet Nam on Wednesday conducted a two-day visit to six local businesses including three in the north (4P Company Ltd in Hung Yen Province, Post and Telecommunication Equipment Joint Stock Company - Postef in Bac Ninh Province, Me Tran Electric - Electronic Company Ltd in Vinh Phuc Province) which participated in the programme. The other three companies in the south were Y Chi Viet Company Ltd in Dong Nai Province, TBM – Minh Phat Producing and Trading Company Ltd and Phu Tho Hoa Mechatronics JSC – VIEMCO in HCM City. These are enterprises operating in the field of technology, manufacturing mechanical products, electrical and electronic equipment.

After consultations with South Korean experts, Vietnamese firms have improved their productivity and human resources management as well as enhanced their labourers’ skills, thus increasing competitiveness.

Hoang Minh Tri, general director of 4P Company Limited – one of three companies in the north that received the consultation said the electronics sector has always changed rapidly. It was the reason that his company specialising in producing, assembling and providing a vein to electronics devices still has shortcomings though they incorporated numerous changes.

“We targeted to raise our quality to the level of global standards and minimise the prices of products. However, we need many changes to reach those targets,” Tri said, adding that the Samsung consultation programme has helped them include big changes in production and organisation.

For example, the productivity of many of the product segments at the company was increased by up to 85 per cent. The error rate was also reduced by 75 per cent.

Sharing the ideas, Nguyen The Hung, director of Electric - Electronic Company Ltd said the company had striven to make changes in production in a short time after consultation.

Hung added that all of the ideas from Samsung’s experts were valuable and they would be applied in their new factory, which is under construction, to improve their production levels.

The assessment is part of the 12-week Samsung’s business consultation programme designed to strengthen the capacity for the Viet Nam businesses in the supply chain of components and accessories for Samsung.

Accordingly, within 12 weeks, from March 12, South Korean experts have surveyed, assessed these enterprises and directly consulted and worked with Vietnamese businesses in order to innovate their production processes and complete the standards in supplying products and components for Samsung factories in Viet Nam.

For the first time, the field trip to vendors has seen the participation of 25 probationary consultants, who are trainees from the first course of the co-operative training programme for Vietnamese consultant experts that officially kicked-off on April 17.

“I highly appreciate the great potential, the will and determination of Vietnamese enterprises. With support from Samsung, in only 12 weeks, we have clearly recognised the results of innovation efforts that are aimed at improving and enhancing the competitiveness of these enterprises.

The programme is also an opportunity for the trainees of the cooperative training programme between Samsung and Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to experience and learn from Samsung’s South Korean experts, thereby improving the re-coaching capacity for Vietnamese enterprises, creating core suppliers that have significant impact on the development of Vietnamese supporting industry,” said Shim Won Hwan, president of Samsung Electronics Vietnam Complex.

Vu Khanh, a representative from the MoIT said the co-operative training programme for Vietnamese consultants between Samsung and the ministry showed that the Vietnamese Government has paid a lot of attention to promoting the local support industry in the world integration process.

“The visit and assessment revealed that all of the production processes in the firms participating in the programme had improved and were quite different from the previous three months,” Khanh added.

He expected the Vietnamese consultants joining the consultation programme to gain the experience and knowledge from South Korean experts to apply them in the local firms.

Along with the commitment to jointly develop Viet Nam’s support industry, after great efforts to seek and connect with Vietnamese vendors, the total number of Samsung’s suppliers has increased to 308 vendors, of which, the number of Vietnamese tier-1 vendors has increased dramatically from only 4 in 2014 to 29 in 2017. It is expected that this number will reach 50 by 2020.