The workshop used to make molds to produce hundreds of millions of Colgate toothbrushes sold worldwide. The brush mold is not the only product made by the mechanical engineering company. Lap Phuc also specializes in precision mechanical engineering products, making molds for many products and accessories for well-known brands, such as Tesla, General Motors, Suzuki, Panasonic and Sanyo.

The director of the workshop is Nguyen Van Tri. At the age of 64, he still has a passion for the career. He works every day at the workshop, supervises production and gives guidance to workers if necessary.

More than 30 years ago, Tri was a worker at Vikino, an agricultural machine manufacturer, one of the leading mechanical engineering companies in the south.

Tri said he learned the meticulous working process from Japanese workers. He accumulated knowledge through self-study and the actual work. Starting as a technician, he was appointed manager of a production workshop.

In 1994, when the company carried out workforce restructuring, he left the business and started a company at the age of 35. With the knowledge accumulated from years of working at Vikino, he decided to produce prototypes. 

However, he understood that experience alone was not enough. He needed to apply high technology in production to improve the competitiveness of products. 

That was why after the company was founded, he went to Taiwan to buy a CNC milling machine, one of the most modern machines of this kind at that time in Vietnam. This helped workers understand digital techniques, precision measurement, and cutting in 3D space.

To buy the milling machine, he had to borrow money from relatives and friends, and sold an 80 sqm house in district 10 in HCM City.

“The money from the house sale was just enough to buy one fourth of the machine. However, if I had not dared to buy the machine, the company would not have gained such achievements,” he recalled.

Colgate was one of Lap Phuc’s first large partners. Thirteen years ago, Colgate-Palmolive set very high standards for toothbrushes. The head of the brushes must be smooth, while the line between the two halves of the brushes must have no ripples or sharp edges so the brushes won’t hurt users.

After one year, finally, Tri’s company could create a mold product that satisfied the partner, while many other mechanical engineering companies decided to give up. With the machine the precise molds, Colgate Palmolive Vietnam in My Phuoc III IZ in Binh Duong manufactured 250 million products a year, sold all over the globe.

Joining value chains of big manufacturers

The success of the project with Colgate helped Lap Phuc gradually join the global value chains of big manufacturers, including Suzuki, Panasonic, Sanyo and Omron.

Four years ago, the company began making precise molds for well-known automobile manufacturers such as Tesla and General Motors.

An automobile is created from thousands of accessories. Tri likes to make the car parts that are the most difficult to make, because this can bring higher economic efficiency, and also more respect from partners.

Tri said a US company monitored Lap Phuc for eight years and sent staff to Lap Phuc once every year to see how the company performed before it decided to place orders.

“In the last 30 years, we obtained contracts from partners not because of luck,” Tri said, adding that the achievements are the result of effort and investments. The company has had to reinvest big money in equipment and machines.

Asked about the future business strategy, Tri said that he wanted the company to do outsourcing for global mechanical engineering corporations.

At present, contracts come to the company through international mechanical engineering groups which act as intermediaries (mostly from the US). A big problem for the US precise mechanical engineering is lacking successors in the field. American young people don’t want to take this hard work. Therefore, US companies take orders and then outsource to the companies like Lap Phuc. 

Tran Chung