The Workshop 387 is a unit of the Military Region 5’s Technical Department and tasked with maintaining, repairing and testing military vehicles and machinery of the Military Region 5 and other units stationed in the area. To keep pace with the modernisation of military vehicles and machinery, the Workshop’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have always proactively taken measures to apply technical and technological advance as a determinant to the successfully fulfillment of the unit’s missions.

To that end, the Workshop’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have enhanced their leadership and direction via specific plans relevant to the unit’s practical condition. The Workshop has promoted the role of all-level party committees and commands in raising staff members’ awareness and renewing their way of thinking so as to make a huge positive change in the application of technical and technological achievements. Great value has been attached to heightening cadres and party members’ role model-setting responsibility for acquiring technical and technological advance, implementing preferential treatment policies to encourage each person’s dynamics and creativity, and bringing into play collective knowledge and self-reliance in each mission. At the same time, due attention has been paid to building up staff members’ determination to surmount all difficulties, undertake scientific researches, and apply them to repairing and maintaining vehicles and machinery. Besides, the Workshop has actively promoted coordination between its commissions and sub-workshops in the application of scientific and technological advance.

At present, the Workshop is repairing and maintaining military vehicles and machinery of various types and different technical conditions. Some of them have been in use for ages, leading to the rarity of spare parts. However, many of its vehicles and machinery are modern. That has necessitated the Workshop organising and using its personnel and technical equipment properly and effectively. To deal with that issue, the Workshop’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have focused on developing human resources to meet the task requirements. Emphasis has been placed on improving cadres and mechanics’ professional competence. To this end, the Workshop has built and developed a contingent of young cadres, engineers, and mechanics via a lot of measures. In addition to the work of recruitment under regulations, the Workshop has attached significance to assigning experienced employees to train young cadres, engineers and mechanics with great potential.

The training and retraining of cadres and technical employees have been carried out comprehensively in terms of political zeal, morality, discipline, and professional competence. The Workshop has provided sufficient technical training courses for its staff members, with a focus on enhancing their capacity to use new equipment, overcoming their weaknesses, and employing new technologies. To raise the quality of training, the Workshop has placed emphasis on renewing the method and organisation of training and retraining. A part from the duration of theories, priority has been given to holding training courses on maintenance and repair at sub-workshops. Due regard has been paid to organising intensive training courses on identifying malfunctions and maintaining and repairing every single part of vehicles and machinery. The work of operating training courses has been carried out closely, scientifically while staff members’ skills have been tested regularly under regulations. At the same time, consideration has been given to holding Workshop-level contests amongst mechanics and taking part in Military Region- and Army-wide ones.

It should be noted that the Workshop’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have concentrated on selecting and dispatching young engineers and highly skilled mechanics to acquire new technologies from other units. As most of the Workshop’s cadres, employees and mechanics are trained to maintain and repair old-generation vehicles and machinery instead of the new ones, the Workshop has proactively cooperated with the Department of Vehicles and Machinery, the Vocational College No.5, the Central Coast Vocational College, and the Toyota Da Nang Company in organising training courses for its cadres and mechanics. After being trained, those staff members would be assigned to design documents and take charge of training courses for the whole Workshop. Moreover, it has encouraged its cadres, employees and mechanics to attend training courses at educational facilities both inside and outside the Military. As a result, the Workshop has built a pool of experienced cadres, engineers, and technical employees capable of approaching new technologies.

Commander of the Military Region 5 inspecting the Workshop

The rapid development of science and technology, particularly for vehicles and machinery has forced the Workshop to frequently update and renew technologies as well as modernise its assemble line for maintaining, testing and repairing vehicles and machinery. Up to now, its pieces of equipment, such as CNC milling machine and lathe have been modernised to meet the demands for maintaining and repairing new-generation vehicles and machinery and manufacturing spare parts in bulk. In the past, parts of machinery whittled by old-generation machinery much depended on mechanics’ skills and experience; therefore, the Workshop was unable to ensure the uniform quality of its products. However, it now can manufacture a series of parts of machinery with the higher quality, less labour, and lower cost.

Furthermore, the Workshop has frequently raised its cadres, employees and soldiers’ awareness and responsibility for managing and preserving technical equipment to avoid loss, failure, fire, explosion, and degeneration. It has enhanced the movement of practising thrift during its repair projects, self-manufactured parts of machinery and materials, and actively exploited the existing materials to reduce cost and the price of its products.

Additionally, the Workshop has maintained the Technical Day and the order for preserving, maintaining, using, testing equipment of various types within its affiliates. It has also stringently maintained the regulations on management at each level, closely grasped the quality and quantity of equipment via profiles, managed the use time, and sufficiently recorded regular maintenance and repair. Doing so has enabled the Workshop to improve the quality and effectiveness of maintaining and repairing vehicles and machinery, gradually master the technology of repairing new-generation vehicles, and ensure the absolute safety of its personnel and technical equipment during missions at the unit and others.

To raise the quality of products, increase productivity, reduce cost and labour, and guarantee safety, the Workshop’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have stimulated technical initiatives and innovations, promoted collective knowledge and creativity, and applied scientific and technological advance. Due regard has been paid to launching and developing movements of technical initiatives and innovations within the Workshop’s mass organisations, such as “The youth firmly advance into science and technology” and “Club of creative youth” by the Youth Union, “Creative Women’s Union” by the Women’s Union, and “Good labour - creative labour” by the Trade Union, being highly appreciated by the Military Region. The movement of technical initiatives and innovations has been closely combined with the Determination to Win Emulation Movement, the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics and lifestyle, and the campaigns, namely “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period and “managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment effectively, sustainably, safely, economically, and ensuring traffic safety.” Such movements have encouraged cadres and employees to undertake and effectively apply more technical initiatives and innovations to repairing, testing, and managing vehicles and machinery.

It is worth noting that materials and spare parts within the Workshop are rare due to an increase in the number of vehicles and machinery to be maintained and repaired. To settle this issue, cadres and technical employees of the Workshop have proposed and applied technical initiatives and innovations to their work. Doing so has also encouraged staff members of the Workshop to master technological processes, upgrade and improve vehicles and machines’ technical and tactical features and stability, and deal with the rarity of materials and spare parts of old-generation vehicles and machinery, thus making contributions to the unit’s capability in repair and maintenance.

To enhance the effectiveness of the movement, the Workshop has formulated a procedure for research and initiative in a close, scientific manner. In the beginning of a year, collectives and individuals must submit their researches and initiatives to the Workshop’s Science and Technology Council for approval. Besides, the Workshop has always created a favourable condition for its cadres, employees and mechanics to actively improve their knowledge. Researches and initiatives have always derived from mobile missions at units and the task of repairing and maintaining vehicles and machinery at the Workshop. On a yearly basis, about 3-5 researches and initiatives have been fulfilled. Many of them have been rewarded by the Military Region and the Military, while being widely applied across the Military. In many consecutive years, the Workshop has been in the vanguard of the Military Region’s movement of technical initiatives and innovations. Up to now, the Workshop has always quickly, qualitatively, effectively, safely repaired new-generation vehicles and machinery from units.

With its proactive, creative measures to apply scientific and technical advance, the Workshop has always ensured the quality of maintaining and repairing vehicles and machinery and the absolute safety of its personnel and equipment. It has become a reliable centre for maintaining, repairing, and testing military vehicles and machinery for the Military Region’s affiliates and military units stationed in the area.

Col. NGUYEN TRUNG CANG, Head of the Workshop