Journey at Sanmina
Poh Hwa’s career at Sanmina Singapore has been a long and fulfilling one, with numerous promotions over the years. She began her journey at Sanmina in 1986 as a Functional Test Operator. On her first day, she remembers feeling understandably nervous, as she was new to the working world. But her positive attitude and disciplined work ethic became crucial factors to her career growth at the company.
In 1987, Poh Hwa was promoted to Lead Operator, assisting in production and operational growth. In 1991, she was transferred to the materials department as Materials Planning Assistant, where she educated herself on the products, production and planning process required for the job. She was promoted to Production Control Planner in 1994, in charge of scheduling production of a product for a key customer.
Four years later, Poh Hwa was promoted once again to Master Scheduler. This was a big advancement, as she was now in charge of planning across all customers and range of products at the company. She took the challenge head on and in 2005 was promoted to Principal Master Scheduler. While there was constant travel involved with this position to work with three plants across Asia, Poh Hwa took it in stride and found great satisfaction collaborating with colleagues and appreciating the cultural diversity across the regions.
Poh Hwa was promoted to Production Control Manager in 2010, which is her current position. Every week, she has a very busy schedule with numerous responsibilities and meetings. The beginning of each quarter is filled with forecast planning, capacity planning and other activities that must be performed and presented to management in order to determine the best quarterly strategy for each customer.
Free Time
Poh Hwa has always enjoyed jogging and has made it habit to go for a run before heading into the office. As an avid traveler, she has also accumulated a vast collection of travel photos and enjoys arranging the images in photo albums to preserve her travel memories.
Secrets to Success
Over the years, Poh Hwa has been able to maintain a high level of passion, determination and engagement in her work. She attributes this to simply loving her job. Tasks such as planning and scheduling bring her joy, while meeting deadlines and achieving goals provides her with a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.
One of Poh Hwa’s proudest achievements was successfully ramping up additional revenue with her team, based on a challenge from the COO. His personal recognition of her efforts is a memory that she cherishes.
Poh Hwa feels that having the right attitude, embracing continuous learning, and always taking a disciplined approach have been the keys to her success. Discipline is something that she feels is especially important in the manufacturing industry, in order to properly follow and comply with specific procedures, processes and safety standards.
She is also adamant that her growth wouldn’t have been possible without support from the managers she worked with over the years. They imparted valuable knowledge and skills and took the time to recognize her successes, paving the way for her remarkable career growth.
What’s Next
Poh Hwa believes that her final goal at the company will be to find a suitable successor when she’s ready to retire. She aims to impart her invaluable industry skills and knowledge to the younger generation, so that the know-how she has gained over the years is retained at the company.
Career in a Single Word
Looking back at her career, Poh Hwa feels that a single word can’t really sum up her time at Sanmina, other than “Great!” The personal and corporate goals she’s achieved, the support from colleagues and management, and her overall love for the job have made her experience at Sanmina one that she will most definitely look back fondly upon.