Kok Wai Yong

Section Manager – Precision Machining

Singapore

What is the first thing you do when you get started with work for the day?  

After first putting on my PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), I will go onto the production floor to have a status meeting with the shop floor supervisor and the section leaders. This short meeting allows me to understand the status and ensure the schedule plans are on track. 

What are your main areas of focus in your work as a Section Manager? 

My main area of focus as a Section Manager is to oversee the manufacturing processes and to ensure that production lines run without any problems and minimum downtime. Working together with supervisors, leaders and workers as well as internal customers allows me to ensure our on time delivery and quality expectations are met. 

Cost of manufacturing is also a key focus and I usually work closely with the Engineering team on this. 

Besides that, I also ensure that the activities/processes carried by the shop floor are abiding QMS and EMS (Quality and Environmental System) requirements.  

Meeting Health and Safety regulations are also my priority for our employees. We need to ensure everyone is working in safe conditions. 

How do you organize/structure your work day with tasks/projects?   

I divided this in to 2 categories. For normal production I reference the plan from our ERP system and work closely with the planning department to execute the production plan accordingly. 

Whereas for new product/projects, I organize  meetings with the relevant teams to ensure upfront activities, such as documentation and manufacturing readiness, are prepared prior to executing the actual fabrication. 

As a Section Manager, do you collaborate with a team or mainly work autonomously? Which do you prefer?  

I like to work as a team and always believe working as a team will achieve more (TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More). I collaborate with internal customers  (Business team and Assembly Department and our support team (Engineering, Planning and Quality team). It is important that we are aligned and moving in the same direction to achieve our goals and objectives. 

I am also fortunate to have my manager act as my mentor to advise me how to deal with challenges and obstacles along the way. 

Which part of your work do you enjoy the most, and why? 

I enjoy my role the most when new development projects have been successfully delivered to customers meeting the quality expectations and getting subsequent  contract orders. This will encourage the team that the effort spent and their contribution has been worth it.. 

If you had more hours in the day to focus on new skills related to your job or projects for your work, what would you focus on?  

I would like to enhance my project management skills and further develop my people management skills. 

What is your special skill/ magic power/ hobby you’re proud of?  

I do not have any special/magic power, but one thing I'm proud of is I have a good team that work with me at Excelitas; their effort and hard work is my success. 

As for my private life, I still consider myself a young father. I mostly enjoy spending time with my two children & my wife during my time off. We love travelling. 

Work life balance is one of the things you'll find while working at Excelitas. It is the key to increasing morale and satisfaction of our employees. It also reduces family and work life stress and it can also improve organization effectiveness. 

I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to be employed by Excelitas.