Nguyen Thi Cat

Please tell us about your role in the Thanh Chuong Factory.

My job is managing the overall production lines. Specifically, I manage personnel, production volume, product quality, and compliance.
Before joining MATSUOKA, I also worked in a garment factory as a Supervision, but working in a Japanese company is more complex and the rules are stricter. Our customers have high expectations, and we sometimes receive feedback on 5S(Seiri: Classification, Seiton: Organization, Seiso: Cleaning, Seiketsu: Cleanliness, and Shitsuke: Discipline) and other points of concern in our daily work. At first, I was overwhelmed by their strictness, and sometimes I felt like giving up.
However, after carefully learning each thing with the support of my Japanese colleagues, I came to understand the flow of the work, and since then I have not found it so difficult. There are enjoyable moments I can find in my work, and I also see my own personal growth and improvement in my problem-solving skills. Recently, I was particularly pleased that the production line I manage achieved the highest production bonus results. We were able to share the joy with everyone on the line. That was the moment when I saw the proof that our daily efforts were bearing fruit and felt rewarded.

At work or in the company, what would you like to challenge and achieve in the future?

Since the Thanh Chuong Factory was established in 2021, it is still a relatively new factory, so my first goal was to firmly establish the management of the production line I was in charge of. At present, I only manage one line, but in the future, I would like to be able to manage about seven lines as a Line Supervision. I believe that when I become a Supervision, I will be able to do more to improve productivity and quality for the company. To this end, I would like to make daily efforts to tackle tasks one by one, honing my technical skills, and confidently aiming for the position of Line Supervision.

What are your challenges outside of work? What do you like to do? Any hobbies?

Soccer is my favorite hobby and karaoke is the second. There is a soccer team in the village where I live, and on my days off, I play soccer with the team members. Sometimes I play in a soccer game against the team from the neighboring village, and if we win, we sometimes go to karaoke.
After work, I sometimes go out to dinner with colleagues who work on my production line, and sometimes we go to karaoke afterwards. This is an important time for me to relax and a valuable opportunity to strengthen my bonds with team members and colleagues.

Please tell us what MATSUOKA means to you.

Before I joined MATSUOKA, I worked for a company far away. I have three children, but I hardly had time to take care of them, so I had to leave everything to my family. I went home every week, but that company was so far away from home that it was really hard to go back and forth to work.
Since the MATSUOKA CORPORATION factory was built in our rural district, our lives have really changed a lot. Now I can work close to home, and while developing my skills as a Supervision, I can earn a stable salary every month. I can take the children to and from school every day, and both my husband and I are very happy with our new life.

Comparing before and after you joined the company, what has changed?

Compared to the company I used to work for, the working environment has improved dramatically. In my previous company, 5S was not practiced at all, it was not clean or tidy or well managed, and I could not do my job properly. I could not manage the production line I was in charge of, and I was just trying to meet the target number of garments to be produced and I was not learning anything, and I felt that it was not leading to my personal growth. The facilities were not well maintained, and it was very difficult to work in an environment without air conditioning. Equipment broke down a lot and the sewing machines were prone to breaking and things were tough.
Since I joined MATSUOKA, I have been able to work in a completely different environment than before. The new factory is clean and 5S is well managed. It is also fully air-conditioned, so I can work in a comfortable environment. At first, I was afraid that my Japanese supervisor would point out my mistakes in a harsh manner, but that didn’t happen. If I made a mistake, my Japanese supervisor would calmly explain it to me and be tolerant of my mistakes. This has enabled me to calmly give guidance when people on my production line make mistakes. I think this is a great step forward for me.

*The contents, etc., of this interview are as of the time of the interview.