Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): HKSQ AGM 2020 & Seminar on Local Production of Facial Mask in Hong Kong

2020年10月17日星期六

HKSQ AGM 2020 & Seminar on Local Production of Facial Mask in Hong Kong

HKSQ Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on 17 Oct 2020 and then a seminar named “Local Production of Facial Mask, Overcoming Obstacles-Lessons from Hong Kong's Reindustrialization (口罩港產化，披荊斬棘之路-香港再工業化的教訓)” was presented by Dr. Aaron Tong (Former Chairman, HKSQ). Because of COVID-19 outbreak worldwide, all HKSQ activities performed in online-base. Before the end of AGM, we took a group photo for memory.

After AGM, Dr. Aaron Tong (Former Chairman, HKSQ & Managing Director, TQM Consultants Co., Ltd.) shared his experience to revitalize facial mask production in Hong Kong during COVID-19 outbreak period.

First case Dr. Tong shared was the first facial production line which reactivated in Hong Kong. The machine stopped production more than 6 years and Aaron’s team (included MIE friends) to repair it within one day. Double the production amount was within one week and those production throughput was increased upto 8x after two weeks. They got the order from government within 5 day!

Then Dr. Aaron Tong introduced the government’s Local Mask Production Subsidy Scheme which upto HK$2 to 3 million for first 2 production lines.

And then Dr. Tong shared the list of companies joined the scheme.

After that Dr. Tong briefed different difficulties of facial mask production line such as equipment order, setup problem, urgent delivery problem, lack of material, etc.

The quality of facial mask was not stable because of urgent production and some parts were not from original manufacturer. Many tailor-made tools to fix the production line that cause variance.

Material shortage was a great problem at that time and even not enough time for testing.

One of key problems was lack of competence technician for machine tinning. Communication gaps were observed between Mainland China and Hong Kong.

Dr. Tong said one of key cost was cleanroom requirement from Hong Kong Government. So that the cost and time should be considered for building cleanroom.

Finally, Dr. Tong briefed that he assisted SGS to overcome the technical problem for establishing PFE testing based on ASTM F2100.

Lastly, he pointed out a challenge of facial mask manufacturers in Hong Kong that supply more than demand! He said TQM could assist to apply EU and USA requirement for selling mask aboard.