Blog

Tai Hing Operating Director Patrick Fung was interviewed by the BRUSHWORK magazine  and the interview was published in the issue 233, 2019.

Here is the interview.

Patrick Fung has devoted himself into the business of brushes and cleaning supplies for more than 20 years. In 2018, Mr. Fung joined Tai Hing as Operating Director.

A leap from brushes manufacturing to bristles manufacturing, what innovation would Mr. Fung bring?

Filaments' manufacturing

• BRUSHWORK: Hi Mr. Fung, what’s the reason for you to join a filaments manufacturing company?

PATRICK: I’m being very grateful for the trusts and opportunity given by our Chairman, Wilson Lau, who also allows me to put my extensive brushes manufacturing experience into innovative filaments’ manufacturing ideas.

From my point of view, bristles’ production and brushes’ production is consistent, it’s a whole body system.

The brush manufacturing experience I have, allows me to understand the requirements from both manufacturers’ and customers’ point of view, and to develop to make every filament worth.

Brushes’ manufacturing

• BRUSHWORK: How do you feel about the current brushes’ manufacturing industries?

PATRICK:  Brushes have a long history. With the improvement of living standards, more and more varieties of brushes are required, ranging from household items to industrial items. Associating with the recent reform of the economic development in China, for examples, Made in China 2025, Industry 4.0 etc. The next generation of brushes developing has arrived.

I believe there are 2 tasks that need to be carried out.  First is to understand and satisfy consumers’ needs, as well as build up industry-recognized standards; second is to be innovative to improve the service.

Undoubtedly, the standards in brushes’ manufacturing are yet to be perfect comparing to vehicle or electronic device manufacturing, which already have their own standards. Therefore, we would focus on adding consumers’ requirements as our standards.

On the other hand, we would also be upgrading our products by listening to consumers’ need and bringing those ideas into our development.

• BRUSHWORK: With the everchanging environment happening in the industry, how will Tai Hing adjust themselves to conform?

PATRICK: Through communication with peers and costumers, we constantly update ourselves with information regarding new brands and products appearing.

Without doubt, we do feel the competitive pressure and I believe the competition will become more intensive. Therefore, enhancing our brand and the products is the way to keep us outstanding.

Tai Hing continuously develop to create a better of everything. Based on our current situation, we’ll primarily be focusing on business management, upgrade in our ERP system, product quality and standards.

Through the creation of different teams, we’re able to research and gain knowledge regarding our consumer’s need from many different aspects. As for production, we’re converting to automation manufacturing to increase our productivity.

This will also allow us to invite new technology, talents and provide training to our employee, in order to improve our quality in design and manufacture, thus a better-quality product.

In the long run, our focus is innovation.

Not only do we develop in manufacturing and technology, an innovation in management and enterprises culture is also important. Improvement in technology is important, as it is part of manufacturing.

We also value our branding and product design. Again, through communication with peers and suppliers, we aim to increase our productivity and deliver our products in time, with innovation and reasonable price tags.

• BRUSHWORK: As you’ve previously mentioned, Tai Hing’s upgrading to automation for better productivity.However, there are voices against automation as it affects employment rates. Yet, new technology creates new skills and vacancy. What’s your thought? 

Since 18^th century we have experienced three Industrial revolutions. With every revolution happening, new technology and skills replace the old.

It is inevitable that numbers of skills will be replaced by new technology.

As time goes by, “work smart” replaces “work hard”. Tons of old skills requirement will disappear as the new one emerges.

In 2018, Tai Hing has been promoted as “Hi-tech Enterprises” by the Guangdong Provincial Government.

Our old employees who’s stationed to work in packaging team, now turns to customer services, product developments etc., to allow a better experience for consumers.

Thus, we should be allowing the revolution and continuously develop a smarter industry.

During revolution, as the firm develops, talent development is important in order to be innovative.

Core technology is, as the name suggest, the core, and talents are what creates the core.

Talent development is not only about providing a better pay, but also provide an environment that encourages self-development through training and support.

• BRUSHWORK: Whilst the party is getting stricter in environment issue, what is Tai Hing’s strategy in environmental protection?

PATRICK: It is true that every industrial revolution leads to environmental issues and we’re now in a critical period as our ecosystem is in a challenging state.

Tai Hing does and will continue working on environmental protection, and one of our mission is developing environmentally friendly filaments.

Tai Hing improved the industrial wastewater treatment system in order to achieve zero emission.We’ve also implemented ISO14001 International Standard, Environmental Management System, and provide training to our employee to strictly follow the standard, under the pre-condition of providing a promising quality of service and product.

With environmentally friendly as part of our value and mission. Even when under the pressure of increasing price in commodities, as our main principle, we’ll be continuing investing in developing a system that produces quality products with energy saving and waste reduction.

We also urge other industries and consumers to join us in environment protection.

Conclusion:

“Understanding and satisfying costumers’ needs; Being innovative;

Keeping up with the technology” are the three main points that Patrick Fung repeatedly mentioned in this interview.

As Patrick Fung said, the competition within is intensive, but we believe the innovation and changing of Tai Hing will bring us a surprising future.