Performance Award 2009

I would like to share my team’s honor on earning the company’s performance award on 30th July 2009 for “Development of Solar Energy Cluster” and “Occupational Health and Safety in Technology Support Centre”.

For “Development of Solar Energy Cluster”, it can be referred to the opening of Hong Kong Science Park Solar Energy Technology Support Centre and DuPont Apollo Global Thin Film Photovoltaic R&D Centre. It is the major technology co-operation project to establish a solar energy research and industrial platform in Hong Kong.

My certificate of performance recognition for Solar Energy Cluster

For “Occupational Health and Safety in Technology Support Centre”, we developed OHS management system based on OHSAS 18001 standard in our Technology Support Centre (TSC). There are many different kinds of laboratories in the centre and have different potential hazards to our stakeholders (including staff, sub-contractors, visitors, etc.). In order to protect our stakeholders, we implemented OHSAS 18001 OH&S management system in TSC through the safety training, the development of laboratory safety risk assessment methodology, internal safety audit and inspection, etc. After completed 42 improvement items, we achieved the certificate through HKQAA within 6 months.

My certificate of performance recognition for OHS in TSC

Finally, I would like to share our CEO’s speech as follows:
Say “Yes”.
Say “Yes” as often as you can.
“Yes” begins “Things”.
Saying “Yes” is how “Things” happen.
When “Things” happen, it leads to New Experience.
New Experience will lead you to
- Knowledge
- Wisdom
- Self-enrichment
- Success

My interpretation can be summarized into two sentences as follow:
i) Thing positive (So Say Yes); and
ii) Open your mind (Then Things happen).

Interesting Photos of Annular Partial Eclipse (日偏食)

Today, 22 July 2009, a central total solar eclipse is visible within a narrow path along eastern Asia, extending into the Pacific Ocean. Apart from the path of totality, a much wider range of areas can experience partial eclipse of different degrees. In Hong Kong, I saw an annular partial eclipse (日偏食) (max 3/4 sun coverage) in Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) at 9:15am.

Since I have no special device, I tried to take some photos of the eclipse by placing a digital camera under a Myopia (short sight) Sunglass.

Sun was too bright, eclipse could not been observed in the photo.


However, it was interesting to find a small image of partial eclipse, near the sun, in my photo.

A small image of partial eclipse

It is because the sunglass is a diverging lens and it forms a small and gloomy virtual image of annular partial eclipse in front of the camera.

HKSQ AGM & Medical Device Seminar

The 20th AGM of Hong Kong Society for Quality was held on 10th July 2009. Dr. Albert Tsang (“immediate past” Chairman) presented the Chairman’s Report in which both HKSQ development history and activities organized in the past year were briefly introduced. In 2008/09, Society had organized 3x workshops, 12x technical seminars, 2x technical visit and 1x student project competition.

Up to the end of June 2009, the Society has more than 300 members of various grades. Two new types of membership were approved to add into constitution during the meeting, namely student membership and corporate membership.

After AGM, we are pleased to have Mr. Benjamin Chan (Managing Director, MediConcepts Limited) to give us a presentation.


The presentation topic entitled “Sharing Entrepreneur Experience in Healthcare Products and Medical Devices & Diversify into Medical Manufacturing Business”.

Mr. Benjamin Chan shared the company’s development experience. In 1976, it was a conventional manufacturing group in making timepieces parts / components and high precision plastic injection molding. It was an integrated facility for one stop manufacturing service. Until 2002, it was renamed to MediConcepts and incorporated with R&D. To develop new product, they have sponsored universities for medical innovative projects. MediConcepts is a founding member of the Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Devices Industries Association (HKMHDIA).

They considered Medical, Aviation and Automotive could be new business & manufacturing opportunities and selected Medical manufacturing to diversify their business by using SWOT analysis. In 2006, Class 100K clean room was established and they obtained ISO 13485 certification from BSI. In that time, they commenced manufacturing of trocar, cannular and surgical valves. Recently, they have worked on a new FDA approved project with non-invasive drug delivery system. (For which, GMP production environment is required.)

Mr. Chan identified the challenges to Inventors as follows:
i) Unfamiliar with manufacturing technology
ii) Lack of Product Engineering knowledge
iii) Lack of Project Management skill set
iv) Large “Expectation Gap”

The success factors of the speaker’s company are:
i) Understanding user requirements
ii) Cost effective product development and prototyping
iii) License right to manufacturing and to distribution

Finally, the speaker used the following sentence to conclude the presentation.
“Tell me, and I will forget.
Show me, and I may remember.
Involve me, and I will understand.”

During Q&A session, participants asked the keys for getting success in manufacturing transformation. Mr. Chan affirmed to keep the operation size as small as possible (i.e. low overhead) so as to facilitate resource allocation. For example, some US biomedical companies had only 30 people with very good knowledge to support the business development period that could be 1 or 2 year. The other hint is to focus on the area which fits your manufacturing profile.

Dr. Tsang presented the souvenir to the speaker.

For more information: please visit http://www.mediconcepts.com.hk/ & http://www.medicaldevice.org/ .

Hong Kong Jockey Club's Racing Laboratory

My wife and I visited to The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Racing Laboratory, organized by The Environmental and Consumer Goods Subcommittee of the Hong Kong Association for Testing, Inspection and Certification Ltd. (HKTIC) on 4th July 2009.

A beautiful Jockey Club environment and my car

The Racing Laboratory is located on the 6/F of the Central Complex.

In the beginning, Dr. Wan, Chief Racing Chemist, introduced the history of the Racing Laboratory. The laboratory was established in 1970 (39yr) and have achieved HOKLAS accreditation since 1992. There are about 45 similar racing laboratories in the world. The Laboratory has 43 staffs. Among of them, more than 30 staffs are degree holders, including 7 staffs with doctor degree and 7 staffs with master degree.

Some of their researches had been published in international journals for sharing purpose.

Dr. Wan leaded us to visit Drug Laboratory, Drug Store & R&D Laboratory.

Then we had a chance to visit the main laboratory. They have 27 sets of mass spectroscope (17x GCMS and 10 LCMS). Because of restricted drug testing, all process in each instrument was recorded by CCTV (with very high resolution and each instrument monitored by two cameras).

The racing laboratory is using “Laboratory Information Management System” (LIMS) to achieve the objective of paperless and to facilitate the report reviewing system. Dr. Wong showed the amendment of electronic report.

After that we visited the Specimen Store. The Specimens were kept in -4C. For positive samples, there are 3 refrigerators set at -80C for storage.

The sample bottles were also introduced. The bigger one is 200ml for horse’s urine collection and the smaller one is 50ml for rider’s urine.

The sample bottle for horse’s blood specimen was shown.

This special sample bottle was for 200ml horse’s urine and used for Olympic Game.

There are different types of vegetable for horse feeding and all need to be tested.

Dr. Wan said the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s racing laboratory is one of the top laboratories in the restricted drug testing in the world. The average percentage of positive result is 0.06% in the past 7 years in Hong Kong, and it is 0.26% in the world.

Finally, the vice-chairman of the Environmental and Consumer Goods Subcommittee of HKTIC presented souvenir to Dr. Wan.

The accredited test information of the racing laboratory can be found in HOKLAS Directory below.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club - Racing Laboratory (Registration Number 043)

ITEMS, MATERIALS OR PRODUCTS TESTED
Equine, canine and human body fluids; materials that an animal may have received or may have been intended to receive

SPECIFIC TESTS OR PROPERTIES MEASURED
Chemical tests:-
Qualitative and, where relevant, quantitative analyses for prohibited substances as defined by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and the Rules of Racing of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and overseas clients