The Weekend in Business Trip

The first day in Da Nang was Friday, and I have to take over the client support tasks from my colleague. We had sent the messages last day which informed me that I was supposed to meet in the lobby this morning. We would take the commute van from hotel to the corporation. It was the very special experience which we had been with surrounded Japanese members for work. It took approximately 20 minutes for the plant and the routine passed through the beautiful beach. We had arrived earlier than the beginning of work time. I followed the instructions every moment including waiting in the lounge and made the simple arrangement. For a while, after the work time, I departed for the manufacturing line and inspected the machine that I would be supposed to support. The factory is so large that I couldn’t remember the direction in the building. There are two servo presses on the line with the problem happened several days ago. Unfortunately, we still couldn’t ensure the root cause of these problems when we were still in the office. Thus, we had made the risky bet that we would modify the machine into two systems, one is the standard type, and another is charge of customized functions. My colleague had finished the modification for one of them last day. Accordingly, this day, in the schedule, we had to modify the second one together and handover the remained tasks.

This was not the first time I work with the foreign members, but this time, in the beginning, we exactly encountered the serious communication problems. Not only the Japanese, the large amount of Vietnamese also in the group to cooperate with. However, three of us had to communicate with two translators and it led to the bad efficiency. What the worse was that due to the manufacturing schedule, the machine couldn’t stop to allow us make the modification. As a result, these works had to push off to the next work day which might make me under the heavier pressure. Our available works had been done, so we left earlier by ourselves. It was the first free time in Da Nang. I had started to make the plan, and then I decided to take the crab car to the nearest beach. The beaches in Southeast Asia are different from Taiwan. It is easy to find the long white beach with the hotels here. Thank to the warm weather, although it was the October, it was still available for people to play in the ocean. In the evening, I walked back to the downtown and ate in the Korean restaurant randomly. Then, my colleague invited me to take a sightseeing boat along the river surrounded with the beautiful hotel and it was also the last day for him in Vietnam. From tomorrow on, there would be no any Taiwanese in Da Nang, so I have to deal with anything by myself.

The Potential Market in Vietnam

This October, our servo press had to be transferred to the Vietnam for participating the manufacturing exhibition. The demo kit for this time was from the Thailand and had been demonstrated over four times in distinct exhibition. I would be able to support this task without too much pressure which would be the utter different situation from the Taipei Automation. Due to the experience of last time in Thailand, I had known the matter with regard to demonstrate the demo kit abroad, especially in the Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, one of the members I had met in Thailand last time, which could be obviously helpful for the smother communication. However, not only the short preparation time for visa application, the schedule of the business trip in Vietnam also continuous change all along prior to departure. The key point was that there were serious happened from the servo press in Da Nang, and our manager assessed whether or not I had to leave for Da Nang to support this tricky issue after the exhibition. Indeed, the schedule of the client and exhibition concerned, the plan had been changed again and again. Eventually, for this business trip, I had to go to Saigon three days for the exhibition and go to the Da Nang nine days for helping solve the problems. This would be the long time trip for me without any Taiwanese support locally.

The first day was mere for moving, but I had met several unexpected problems due to the luggage preparation and traffic jam. Thankfully, the above problems had been solved and I had the good and smooth process for leaving for the Saigon city. I would have the half day hang out the city due to the earlier arrived time. There are no MRT in the Saigon city, so I required taking the grab car if I wanted to go anywhere. With the more experience of business trip in Thailand, I had the comprehensive plan for sign seeing this time. I took the grab car to the downtown where is far from the location of hotel I stayed, and then I went around the famous viewpoints in the city on foot. Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam with lots of big department stores and markets. Meanwhile, enormous European historical building located here due to the French colony in the past. This is the very big city with crowded people, and the traffic problems caused by excessive motorcycles without the efficient public transportation. The first day was finished by visiting the main train station. Then, I went back to the hotel little earlier to prepare the work for setting up the exhibition next day.