Life as an Production Line Operator...

1st week of my working life had ended... well, it's not really my REAL working life... to be clear... yes, I'm hired as Technical Engineer under Global UP Marketing Department in O.Y.L. Manufacturing. But all executive engineers who don't have more than 1 year experience working are considered as "Young Engineer" and have to undergo the company's "Young Engineer Program" which is consist of 2 days of orientation and 3 days of "life as an operator" training.

The 1st day is mainly briefing about company background, structure, safety, benefits and etc. The 2nd day is a workshop training our hands on skill such as screwing and assembling air con. Then the 3rd day I'm working in Production line F, which is a line producing ceiling cassette (normally saw in some small shop or restaurant, integrate with ceiling one but not those office type). The executive of that line is good, he brief me through all the process and he told me almost everything about production planning, material planning, man power planning and up until the packaging of the final product. Then, the line head also is a nice guy... keep on talking non-stop, giving some valuable input for me which might be useful in near future. People working in this line are all very friendly and I have a lot of fun with them :-)

2nd day is in production line B2, whole day assembling the outdoor unit. screwing compressor, carrying compressor, screw motor bracket and etc. Tiring but also learn something good and kind of fun as well. But the person in charge for this line is a bit "not so responsible"... just throw me there and didn't even communicate with me anymore. 3rd day still in line B2, but had move to another section which is assemble of fan, control box, packaging and etc... the line head here is slightly better... keep on asking and checking on me and see I'm ok or not... but people here are less friendly compared to previous days.

Ok... after all the long "report"... I still haven't enter into my real topic yet. I must say I really admire the operators in the production line. They are working hard, and their job is not that easy to be done actually. They are risking themselves dealing with all the machines and etc and what do they really get? Their salary is so little... the lowest is probably around RM400... those who work for more than 20 years maybe can get RM1000+ I guess... I know they are not highly educated, but wonder why should we differentiate it this way... that amount of salary, how to survive in the world today? And yet, they still accept it and working... and what amaze me the most... they are enjoying their job as well. During the working time, everyone is busy rushing the assembly process before the conveyor starts to move... and yet they can still chit chat with other operators around... making jokes and having fun.

I can hardly imagine my life ended up like that... after some conversation with them, it makes me respect them more... although there are some that just wanted a job, come by and lazying around. But majority of them wanted no more than something for them to spend for their living. Have to really salute them nicely and thank you for all the lesson being taught through the 3 days training...