The Factory Z199¹, a defence-security enterprise under the General Department of Defence Industry, is tasked with researching, designing, and manufacturing optical military equipment for the Military’s training and combat readiness missions as well as taking part in electrical-electronic and optical electronic equipment production and business for the country’s socio-economic development. To fulfil the assigned task, the Factory’s Party Committee and Directorate have taken various flexible, creative measures, promoted a spirit of unity and self-reliance; therefore, the Factory has seen solid progress in its production and business and contributed to successfully fulfilling its defence-economic task. It has achieved an average annual growth rate of over 8%. Its projects have been executed as planned. Its staff members’ employment and life have been stabilized and increasingly improved with the per capita income of 12.8 million VND each month recorded in the beginning of 2019. With the achievements in the past 20 years, the Factory was given three Labour Orders (Third Class in 2009, Second Class in 2014, and First Class in 2019) and many other noble rewards by the State.

The Factory’s exhibition of its products

To gain those achievements, first of all, the Factory has always grasped and flexibly applied the Party’s guidelines on closely combining economy with national defence and vice versa. This is a matter of utmost importance to promoting the Factory’s self-reliance and helping it to develop under the mechanism of the socialist-oriented market economy. Grounded on higher echelons’ resolutions and directives, particularly the 11^th Politburo’s Resolution on “building and developing defence industry towards 2020 and beyond” and the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 520-NQ/QUTW on “leading the Military’s task of economic development in line with national defence towards 2020,” the Factory has frequently educated its staff members to clearly understand the guidelines on combining economy with national defence and vice versa as the basis for creating and encouraging a sense of unity in the performance of their tasks. Advocating that national defence production is the central task and economic production serves as an important mission, the Factory’s Party Committee and Board have determined to continue closely combining economic development with national defence production and use the economic outcome to support national defence production and especially national defence projects. To that end, the Factory has focused on controlling the production plan, creating more employments for its staff members, and improving their life. The Workshop 91 has dispatched many of its technicians to join the Project I and the Project on “enhancing the capacity to manufacture optical military equipment,” directly manufactured and sold hi-technical spare parts to national defence projects and products. When the targets for national defence products are low or allocated late, the Factory proactively deploys workers from the Workshop 23 to the Workshop 91 in order to ensure the latter’s labourers’ employment and income. In addition, the Factory has taken advantage of redundant resources and enhanced the effectiveness of equipment exploitation within national defence projects so as to boost its capability in manufacturing materials, selling products, and creating proactiveness in business. In the early period of merger, economic production always took up 90% of the Factory’s annual turnover. However, since 1995, as the Factory has been assigned to perform the more demanding national defence task, the economic production has made up only 60%-70% of its turnover. This has proved the sound guidelines on closely combining national defence with economy and vice versa as well as the Factory’s effectiveness of its production operation and organization.

Inspecting optical products

Fully aware that the existence and development of an enterprise greatly depends on the quality of its personnel, the Factory’s Party Committee and Board have always taken measures synchronously for building the high-quality personnel. To do so, the Factory has kept rearranging and reorganizing the workforce in accordance with its model of operation, while formulating the regulations on the training and development of a contingent of cadres and technicians with specific policies to encourage them to self-study and self-improve the task performance, skills, and professional competence. Significance has been attached to recruiting high-calibre labourers, ensuring staff members’ material and mental life, frequently holding professional training courses, sending cadres and technicians to attend training courses at home and abroad, and organized visits to other countries to learn from their production process. At the same time, the Factory has launched many short-term refresher courses on mechanical engineering for cadres, engineers, and workers as well as emulation movements and technical contests for technicians. At present, over 65% of the Factory’s staff members are working under contract. All those workers and employees have good health and high-level professional competence; however, the political awareness and observance of discipline of a number of them have yet to meet the requirements of a defence-security enterprise. Besides, the Factory is stationed in the area with the rapid urbanization and heavily impacted by the dark side of the market economy, which, to some extent, has negatively affected its staff members’ ideology. Thus, the Factory has always attached great importance to carrying out the work of political, legal, ethical education associated with the ideological management and orientation. It has concentrated on raising its staff’s self-awareness towards the internal regulations, labour discipline, technological procedure, production safety, exploitation of modern equipment, practice of thrift, and waste and corruption prevention and combat, while building the standard working style and relationships within the Factory, and good service for customers amongst its staff members. As a result, its cadres, employees, and workers have always possessed good political qualities, high-level professional competence, good management and working skills. They have been promoting their role and meeting the requirements for the Factory’s production, business, and sustainable development.

Testing the night-vision telescope

To enhance the effectiveness of its production and business, the Factory has made accurate investments in strategic goods, diversified its products, and stepped up its marketing campaign. To that end, in the national defence production, the Factory has researched, designed, manufactured, and mastered many kinds of new products, particularly night-vision telescopes of various types; it has developed over 12 types of night-shooting equipment for infantry divisions and 3 types of night-shooting telescopes for the Tank and Armour Corps. National defence products, particularly night-vision equipment for full-strength infantry regiments manufactured by the Factory have been highly appreciated by the Ministry of National Defence and the General Department of Defence Industry. Therefore, it has been assigned to manufacture this type of equipment in bulk for the Military’s training and combat readiness mission.

In the economic production, the Factory has developed a proper strategy for production and business, built and advertised its trademark, and expanded the market both at home and abroad. While maintaining the quality of its traditional fans, the Factory has developed more types of new products. Since 2014, to meet the order by the Department of Barracks under the General Department of Logistics, the Factory has researched, designed, and manufactured new types of ceiling fans in accordance with the particularities of military bases, which have been highly appreciated by cadres and soldiers in terms of quality and model. Moreover, the Factory has introduced a number of new fans with attractive design, stable quality, and appropriate price, such as remote-controlled ceiling fans, remote-controlled wall fans, and 3-blade or 5-blade remote-controlled ceiling fans to the market. At the same time, due regard has been paid to developing several new products to meet consumers’ demand, such as induction cooker, infrared cooker, and welding machine. The Factory’s economic products, especially its electrical fans have become highly competitive in the market both at home and abroad; they have been continuously given awards, namely the “Vietnamese High-Quality Goods,” “National Famous Trademark,” and “Top 50 Famous Brands” between 1999 and 2018. They have been consumed across the country and exported to a number of Latin American and Southeast Asian countries. The Factory is among few military-run enterprises which have been capable of developing their brands and markets both at home and abroad, particularly amidst the conditions of open market and intense competitiveness.

In the market economy, it is imperative for each enterprise to increase their competitiveness and product quality. Hence, the Factory has made investments in renewing technology and modernizing its equipment and facilities, while enhancing the movement to encourage technical initiatives and innovations. In addition to exploiting the invested equipment, the Factory has repaired and upgraded over 4,500 square metres its workshops, accelerated the investment and technology projects, such as “renewing technology and increasing production of electrical fans,” “making more investments in equipment, technology, and workshops to manufacture high-quality electric engines for the military mission and export,” and “investing in equipment and technology to manufacture high-quality single-phase electric engines.” Thanks to the movement to promote technical initiatives and innovations, on a yearly basis, the Factory applies over 150 technical initiatives and innovations to its production process. Typical projects include “researching and innovating the rotating ceiling fans for the Military,” “designing and manufacturing new remote-controlled fans QĐK-91,” and “researching and raising the quality of 110v fan engines exported to Cuba.” Those technical initiatives and innovations have contributed to improving the Factory’s production capacity and quality of national defence and economic products, boosting its productivity and business quality and effectiveness as well as boosting the country’s socio-economic development.

The obtained outcome and experiences have laid a solid foundation for the Factory Z199 to continue seizing the opportunity, overcoming difficulties and challenges, and promoting a spirit of unity and self-reliance to enhance its production, business, and sustainable development.

Sr. Col. Tran Van Hoa, MA, Director of the Factory
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1- The Factory Z199 was founded on October 9^th 1999 under the merger between the Factory Z191 and the Factory Z123, consisting of 2 member units, namely the Photoelectric Workshop 23 and the Electric-Electronic Workshop 91.