Introduction Project of Vitals/KM System to Fengqi Technologies

Fengqi Technologies, the former Shangyao Technology, is comprised of the professional members from the mechanical, programming, circuit, imaging and electromechanical integration fields. Major products of the company include semi-conductor back-end and LCD equipment. Industrial automation has become a mainstream since Taiwan entered the WTO. We make use of our techniques and experiences to expand the market for our own brand "Yotek". We have a station at the incubation center of the National Formosa University and hope for technical cooperation with leading companies in different industries around the world to spark R&D energy, promote another upgrade of the industries in Taiwan and improve our overall competitiveness.
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We apply our core techniques mainly to R&D and manufacturing in the knowledge-intensive manufacturing industry. The business in Taiwan and China is authorized to our agents Hauman Technologies and Xizhan Technologies.
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Manual sorting and management of documents - the image of the company is affected

Technical service knowledge is always our core competitiveness. The technical documents accumulated during the servicing of customers are important assets that we are proud of.Previously, the staff usually stored all technical documents in PCs using the file server of the company. Since the documents are stored without effective management and explicit classification, the opportunity to re-use the knowledge became less to a great extent. Employees are different individuals and each of them has a unique thinking style. Files were placed in different locations when stored in the computer. It was not unusual to have the same file stored repeatedly in different folders. Deleting important files by mistake also happened frequently. A file might have different versions and confuse the user. Since the file server was not controlled by privilege, all users can enter the intranet of the company and retrieve confidential data to bring about unauthorized disclosure.
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However, with expansion of our operating scale and to support the plan of the government to promote knowledge economy, we have dedicated ourselves to the establishment and implementation of systems and regulations to prevent discontinuity and loss of the finally accumulated knowledge and experience due to transactions by the employees, speed up the development of products, improve their quality and achieve our goal of sustainable operations.

Mobilization of all employees with full involvement - Vitals ESP as the system construction vendor shows enthusiasm in the service.​

After participating in a workshop held by Vitals ESP, we fully perceived the importance of knowledge inheritance and sharing, and decided to introduce the system after discussions with management and the head of each department. The 'Introduction Project of Vitals/KM System to Fengqi Technologies" led to the mobilization of almost all employees of the company. The system was built by the R&D, sales, manufacturing and administrative departments in cooperation with the Vitals ESP, the building vendor of the system. In addition to the full involvement of the R&D employees in the construction of the system during the introduction process, the Vitals ESP project team as the vendor of the system provided a range of professional consultation services and assistance before and after construction of the system. The professional knowledge and enthusiastic service of the team members ensured a smooth construction process.
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Web-based system ensures networking at any place​

When a design drawing was not taken along or an incorrect drawing was taken along and the mistake was identified at the premises of the customer, colleagues must be requested to find the correct drawing and send it to the customer by fax before the Vitals/KM system was introduced. This embarrassing situation does not happen anymore after the Vitals/KM system has been introduced. The system has a web-based design. We only need to use the IE browser to retrieve all graphic files and data that we need wherever the customer is or we travel on official business. This not only improves the efficiency of the employee, but also enhances our image in the eyes of the customers.
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Auto classification of knowledge documents - the essence of KM is realized

The auto classification function is what we talk about with great satisfaction. Classification of knowledge documents in a department was one of the troublesome tasks for the employees. The best benefit with introduction of the Vitals/KM system is the automatic classification function that classifies uploaded documents by department automatically and makes them available for the personnel of other departments when they inquire. The knowledge of all departments and employees can be preserved systematically to ensure full electronization of the knowledge. We combine KM and KPI, and ask employees to upload a fixed number of knowledge documents in a month. The number of uploads is taken into consideration for the evaluation of the employee to realize the essence of KM.
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Integration with a privilege control mechanism - no confidential documents are disclosed

The problem of storing the same file repeatedly in different folders as mentioned above is solved with the introduction of the system. The system provides the sorting folder function, and the user only needs to key in the name of the data/file to be searched within the system and execute the query. In this way, the problem that one document has different versions is solved, too. The Vitals/KM system integrates with a privilege control mechanism that defines the access to the uploaded data using privilege of the user and effectively controls the reading, compiling and deletion of documents executed by the employees of other departments. The control of confidential documents is enhanced using this function to ensure the benefits of distributed authorization and centralized control.
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Shortened training time for new employees - projects can be completed earlier

The system brings both quantifiable and non-quantifiable benefits to us. As for the quantifiable benefit, the educational training period for new R&D personnel is shortened from 6 to 3 months and the time required for an employee to search data is reduced by 18.3 hours/month on average. When converting these values to money, an amount equivalent to a monthly salary of one senior engineer can be saved every year. Besides, as calculated roughly, if one employee generates 20-30 knowledge documents in a month, at least 8,400 knowledge documents will be generated cumulatively for the company in a year. These benefits may further speed up the project design and development, shorten the time for completion of a project by 16%, and increase the business opportunities and revenues for the company.

Increase of employee's satisfactions - customer's satisfaction is improved, as well

As for the non-quantifiable benefits, employees have more willingness to inquire about knowledge documents and the knowledge can be shared more quickly as all documents are stored in the system and be researched very easily. Providing customers with satisfactory service is ensured by the electronization of knowledge documents. The questions that customers ask most frequently are summarized into FAQs and stored in the system. The data are open partially to the customer. The engineer of the customer can use the number assigned to it to enter the system for self-training. This not only reduces the time for the R&D department to repeatedly answer the questions of the customers, but also to improve their satisfaction. High portability is a feature of the knowledge. Transactions of employees and adjustments in the organization may bring about discontinuity of knowledge for the organization, affect the management team substantially and lead to adverse consequences and effects. Hence, with the construction of the Vitals/KM system and support of effective tools, the knowledge of every employee can be maintained in the company permanently. No matter what transaction occurs, the "knowledge" that an employee generated can be passed on and innovated continuously in the organization.
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