The story of two outstanding workers and billion-dollar initiatives
Initiative and creativity are the “sweet fruits” of working with all your heart, passion and responsibility. That “sweet fruit” has turned To Quang Thuc and Duong Xuan Manh into outstanding individuals, pioneering party members and the pride of thousands of workers and laborers in Nghe An.
"Red Seeds" on the Mombasa Grasslands
In Nghia Dan district, the endless green grasslands are considered a prominent recognizable image. The important person who contributed to creating that beauty is engineer Duong Xuan Manh (born in 1984) - the main author ofinitiative“Mombasa Grass Seed Production”.
Born and raised in Vinh city, when Manh registered to study Agriculture-Forestry-Fisheries (Vinh University), everyone thought that this was just a temporary choice. However, Manh's academic achievements and dynamism proved the opposite. Manh was even honored to be admitted to the Party right in the classroom. The pioneering spirit, daring to think, daring to do continued to be promoted by this young man after working at the International High-Tech Agriculture and Application Joint Stock Company (TH Group).
Previously, TH Milk Food Joint Stock Company had to use 100% Mombasa guinea grass seeds imported from Brazil or Thailand. Using imported seeds is not only costly but also depends on the market, not proactive in supply. From that inadequacy, Mr. Manh and his colleagues decided to produce grass seeds themselves. This decision led the young agricultural engineers to a long journey that requires meticulousness, perseverance, and dedication in all 4 stages: collecting seeds, drying, classifying seeds, and preserving.
“All beginnings are hard, we encountered difficulties right from the first step - collecting seeds. Instead of harvesting manually like in Thailand, we researched and manufactured a seed hopper into the grass harvester so that we could harvest both grass and seeds at the same time. After many trials, we were able to harvest the best batches of seeds from the healthiest, most seasonal fields, ensuring that labor and time were minimized,” said Mr. Manh.
From the high-quality seeds harvested, agricultural engineers need to find a method of drying and preserving. Although it does not cost as much as the harvesting stage, this is a stage that depends heavily on environmental factors and requires high precision. Mr. Manh shared: “Just a small error in temperature, humidity, number of drying times or preservation process also directly affects the quality and germination rate of the seeds. With the erratic weather and climate conditions in our country, ensuring an absolute environment for testing is impossible. Therefore, we have to do it, do it again and again, and fail many times. After countless experiments, we have found the standard formula with almost absolute precision. Even the material used to hold the seeds must be wood and cannot be any other material.”
The results of the research process of Mr. Manh and his colleagues have helped the company proactively source seeds for production and cultivation, overcoming the situation of delayed planting season due to late arrival of seeds. At the same time, taking advantage of large volumes of grass seeds from the fields and reducing the cost of buying seeds, reducing production costs.
According to calculations, the cost of grass seed production at the company is more than 20,000 VND/kg. Compared to the purchase price from Thailand of nearly 300,000 VND/kg, the company can save more than 720 million VND per year. Since its completion in 2022, the Mombasa guinea grass seed production project has been widely and regularly applied, bringing hundreds of millions of VND in benefits to the company each year.
Young Party members are passionate about creativity.
Born in 1992, To Quang Thuc is one of the youngest party members admitted to the Party Cell of Tan Thang Cement Joint Stock Company, after 3 years of working here as an engineer. For Thuc, work is a happy journey when creativity is "planted" on the "land" full of inspiration with enthusiastic and kind support. One of the "sweet fruits" of that creativity is the project of using additives to reduce fuel costs for the production process.
Mr. To Quang Thuc confided: “In recent years, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, wars in some countries and the freezing of the real estate sector, the cement industry has fallen into an extremely difficult period. In that context, from the company's movement, the Technology Department where I work has cherished the desire to find a solution to help reduce production costs for the business. After a period of research, from the research of the Key Laboratory of Petrochemical Refining, I realized that the properties of the FNT6VN additive can help replace current raw materials with a lower-grade oil. This idea quickly received consensus and support from the company's leadership."
Although coal and oil account for 40% of cement production costs, businesses rarely pay attention to finding alternative materials. The main reason is because the production machinery is cumbersome and the risks in each experiment are high. Indeed, in 1 year of research, Mr. Thuc's Technology Department failed many times, finished products had to be discarded many times, and machines had to be maintained and repaired many times...
“However, the company's leaders have never stopped believing in us, and we have never thought of giving up. It is this "stubbornness" that has helped us find the standard additive formula to replace ND0 oil while still ensuring product quality. At present, our company is the first unit in Vietnam to use 100% of FNT6VN oil in cement production. This research project has helped save 35% of production costs, bringing in a profit value equivalent to 3.2 billion VND/year," Mr. Thuc shared.
In addition to the above initiative, Mr. Thuc also successfully researched many operational solutions to reduce electricity, replace coal fuel, saving the company hundreds of millions of VND each year; Researched solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to move towards the industry's carbon neutrality goal...
With passion for work, constant creativity and pioneering efforts in labor and production, Mr. Duong Xuan Manh and Mr. To Quang Thuc are two individuals representing thousands ofworker, laborerNghe An was honored at the Conference "Recognizing exemplary workers and laborers who are Party members" organized by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor in Hanoi on the evening of February 16.
