It had been some time since I last updated my blog.
Work in the office had been getting very demanding. I can't seems to find the time to log in and share my thoughts. At this point of time, I have 2 tenders in hand which needed to be attended to and at the same time, there had been schedule meetings and site to visits.
The thing that I dislike the most is to preparing bidding documents. But before you can do that, you will need to read thru pages after pages of tender specifications, which sometimes is really out of this world. The jargon the used is really crazy.
The danger here is that at times you might missed out a small portion that will "kill" the pricing and when you execute the project later after winning it, you will find that you have not budgeted enough for the project that the project will run below your expected margins. If that were to happen, the next thing is you are going to be a typist typing pages after pages of report explaining for the lower than target margin.
Anyhow, it took me 3 days to just write this blog, every time I wanted to finish it, someone / some e-mails will pop up that I have to attend to and have to stop this write up. Glad that finally I can finish up this page today... phew.... Enjoy reading...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
A(H1N1) Pandemic
If you have been keeping yourself updated with the world news / happenings, I am sure you will come across the global pandemic A(H1N1) virus. World Health Organization (WHO) had also raised the level of this outbreak to Phase 5 - "Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short."
(Source: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html)
The sentence read that Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent. For this matter, my company had taken extra precautionary measure to ensure all their staffs are able to work in a safe environment.
First step the company took is to purchase multiple units of infrared temperature gun to be place at all our office across Malaysia. Then, they even bought clinical thermometer as according to the SHEC team, (SHEC - Safety, Health and Environment Committee) the infrared temperature gun is at times in accurate. If the gun sense anyone having a temperature above 38.5 degrees C, a second check using the clinical thermometer is carried out.
Not only that, my company even install a waterless hand sanitizer at the main entrance to enable the all the staff to sanitize their hands as the walk in the office and as they leave the office.
The work did not stop there. Every single staff is provided with a personal travelling pack Pandemic Protection Kit which comprises of N95 face mask, hand sanitizer, gloves - 2 types and a medical face mask. All these is packed in a aluminium packing.
It seems some companies are taking advantage of this current situation to make a quick earnings. All these items just begin to flood the market so fast that even the packing in labelled as "Pandemic Protection Kit".
At times I wonder are these suppliers really that caring to ensure the people get the protection they really required or are they just trying to take advantage of this opportunity to make some quick money?
Hey, mind you the kit is not cheap. Each kit cost about twenty ringgit and imagine, our company bought about 160 sets which cost comes to RM3,200 already and all these items are disposable upon usage. I wonder how many more will they buy until this virus disappear and this does not include the cost to equip all the offices with infrared temperature gun and the clinical thermometer.
Anyway, having mentioned all the negative points above, I am still glad that the company is caring to its employee. I hope all company out there are also as caring towards their employees by preparing the necessary protection to everyone.
Lets stay healthy.....
(Source: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html)
The sentence read that Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent. For this matter, my company had taken extra precautionary measure to ensure all their staffs are able to work in a safe environment.
First step the company took is to purchase multiple units of infrared temperature gun to be place at all our office across Malaysia. Then, they even bought clinical thermometer as according to the SHEC team, (SHEC - Safety, Health and Environment Committee) the infrared temperature gun is at times in accurate. If the gun sense anyone having a temperature above 38.5 degrees C, a second check using the clinical thermometer is carried out.
Not only that, my company even install a waterless hand sanitizer at the main entrance to enable the all the staff to sanitize their hands as the walk in the office and as they leave the office.
The work did not stop there. Every single staff is provided with a personal travelling pack Pandemic Protection Kit which comprises of N95 face mask, hand sanitizer, gloves - 2 types and a medical face mask. All these is packed in a aluminium packing.
It seems some companies are taking advantage of this current situation to make a quick earnings. All these items just begin to flood the market so fast that even the packing in labelled as "Pandemic Protection Kit".
At times I wonder are these suppliers really that caring to ensure the people get the protection they really required or are they just trying to take advantage of this opportunity to make some quick money?
Hey, mind you the kit is not cheap. Each kit cost about twenty ringgit and imagine, our company bought about 160 sets which cost comes to RM3,200 already and all these items are disposable upon usage. I wonder how many more will they buy until this virus disappear and this does not include the cost to equip all the offices with infrared temperature gun and the clinical thermometer.
Anyway, having mentioned all the negative points above, I am still glad that the company is caring to its employee. I hope all company out there are also as caring towards their employees by preparing the necessary protection to everyone.
Lets stay healthy.....
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Managers & Engineers
Yesterday, I went for a joint sales call with a colleague. This is the first time we are submitting quotation to this customer for a project. Since we have only been communicating over the mails and phone calls for a while now, we thought it will be good for us to just drop into their office to formally introduce ourselves and our company and the things that we do and see if we can have other potentials to work together.
The other reason is also to get a feel of what this potential customer of our is feeling about our quotation and how serious are they to work together with us for this project, which they are also still bidding for.
Initially, we thought there might only be perhaps 2 engineers will be attending this meeting. However, as we sat in the meeting room, there were 3 engineers and one manager came to discuss with us. Imagine this, we were there to just to introduce our company and discuss about this project. Then, they started to go into technical details. From the conversation, it can be noted that this customer is not technically sound in the area of our expertize. We are in a way giving them lessons / lectures on the system we quoted.
Isn't it as a customer, they should be more well informed than us? They were asking us very basic questions of our area, which surprises me. They were all engineers with a multi-national EPCC engineering company who had done so many high profile projects everywhere around the world, yet when it come to our area, they were like fresh graduates.
As we were discussing, we came to a point that we think might be educating the customer too much and we started to just give simple answers and left them wondering themselves. It is always dangerous to educate the customer too much of your area of expertize. I think they were amaze with us as we not only able to talk about our area of expertize, we were also able to talk all other portions of the project, from M&E to C&S to Instrumentation and Controls. We can describe the plant in and out inclusive of all the civil requirements, environmental impact, mechanical lifting requirement, water requirement etc. One of best remarks made by the manager which I really like hearing is ... " you guys seems to know more about this plant than us."
Well, both of us just smile back and I say ..."this is our job to know everything about the plant and how can we work together with you".
It is sometime nice to see that people admire your knowledge and know how in their field. I always like the saying ... "Managers knows a bit about everything, and engineers know everything about a little bit". We are speaking to a group of engineers, so they know only the area of their coverage without looking at the big picture.
Remember, always learn a bit of everything...... and manage the bit you know well.
The other reason is also to get a feel of what this potential customer of our is feeling about our quotation and how serious are they to work together with us for this project, which they are also still bidding for.
Initially, we thought there might only be perhaps 2 engineers will be attending this meeting. However, as we sat in the meeting room, there were 3 engineers and one manager came to discuss with us. Imagine this, we were there to just to introduce our company and discuss about this project. Then, they started to go into technical details. From the conversation, it can be noted that this customer is not technically sound in the area of our expertize. We are in a way giving them lessons / lectures on the system we quoted.
Isn't it as a customer, they should be more well informed than us? They were asking us very basic questions of our area, which surprises me. They were all engineers with a multi-national EPCC engineering company who had done so many high profile projects everywhere around the world, yet when it come to our area, they were like fresh graduates.
As we were discussing, we came to a point that we think might be educating the customer too much and we started to just give simple answers and left them wondering themselves. It is always dangerous to educate the customer too much of your area of expertize. I think they were amaze with us as we not only able to talk about our area of expertize, we were also able to talk all other portions of the project, from M&E to C&S to Instrumentation and Controls. We can describe the plant in and out inclusive of all the civil requirements, environmental impact, mechanical lifting requirement, water requirement etc. One of best remarks made by the manager which I really like hearing is ... " you guys seems to know more about this plant than us."
Well, both of us just smile back and I say ..."this is our job to know everything about the plant and how can we work together with you".
It is sometime nice to see that people admire your knowledge and know how in their field. I always like the saying ... "Managers knows a bit about everything, and engineers know everything about a little bit". We are speaking to a group of engineers, so they know only the area of their coverage without looking at the big picture.
Remember, always learn a bit of everything...... and manage the bit you know well.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Penang Trip
I went to Penang for work on Tuesday, hitching a ride on my colleague's car. Happens that the factory I visited is in a town called Tambun and as most of us know, Tambun is also popular for its Tambun Biscuit. If you do not know what is Tambun Biscuit, it is a kind puff with green bean paste, baked to golden brown. Below is the photo of the Tambun Biscuit.
Therefore, after the work at site, I phoned a my fellow technician, which is a local in Tambun area to direct me to the shop where I can find such biscuit. However, it is partially my mistake as this technician of mine is a Malay person, hence, they do not eat this biscuit as it is normally made by Chinese bakery.
So, trying to be helpful, he somehow directed me to a Chinese bakery shop at Tambun. As I went down and asked the bakery, they say they don't sell Tambun Biscuit. Just imagine this, I am in Tambun town, so called the town this biscuit is named after and the bakery don't sell this biscuit.
Then, I called to another Chinese colleague of mine only to found out that Tambun Biscuit is only available in the island itself and not to be found anywhere near Tambun. Not at least the popular maker (it is not convenient for me to tell you the shop / baker name here).
Isn't it ironic, a food that is named after the specific town and it is not to be found in the town where its name came from. If it is only available in the island, then call it Penang / Gurney Drive biscuit. Why call it Tambun biscuit if it is not sold in Tambun? I give up searching....
Weird....
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