Master of Science in Technology quits high-paying job to return to hometown to start a business

(Baonghean) - With a master's degree in engineering from Hanoi University of Science and Technology and working for one of the largest corporations in Vietnam with many career development opportunities, Ho Xuan Vinh decided to give up everything to return to his hometown to start a business in the field of machine manufacturing.

To go is to return.

My first impression of Ho Xuan Vinh (born in 1987) - Deputy Director in charge of machine manufacturing at Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited, Hamlet 6, Quynh Van Commune, Quynh Luu District is dynamism and liveliness.

Graduating from Hanoi University of Science and Technology in 2010, Xuan Vinh joined Viettel Group and had the opportunity to work in China, Singapore and Cameroon. Good job, attractive income, working in an international environment, many opportunities for development, but in 2015, while working at Nexttel - Viettel's company invested in Cameroon, the 8X guy decided to quit to return home to start a new journey.

Looking at Vinh's decision, many friends and colleagues were surprised, but for this master's degree holder, it was the right time to build his own career. "Before becoming a boss, I decided to work for hire to learn. 5 years at Viettel is the necessary time to practice knowledge, understand the working and operating methods of a large corporation. It was a pre-planned journey, not a rash, impulsive decision of youth" - Xuan Vinh shared.

Ho Xuan Vinh (right) introduces to customers the automatic unburnt brick production line. Photo: Thanh Duy

Vinh's father - Mr. Ho Van Hoan is a good mechanic and has many inventions in this field. From a small mechanical workshop established in the early 90s of the last century, Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited was established and has many practical machine manufacturing products for farmers such as: fuel-saving stoves, tobacco cutting machines, corn husking machines, banana choppers, unburnt brick molding machines.

Born into a family with such a tradition, Ho Xuan Vinh grew up in his father's mechanical workshop. And the love and passion for machine building gradually seeped into him without him realizing it.

Therefore, after finishing high school, Xuan Vinh decided to take the entrance exam to Hanoi University of Science and Technology to study Mechatronics and then complete a master's program in engineering. In his heart, Vinh always determined that one day he would return to his hometown to continue his father's career with his knowledge, experience and passion to create breakthrough products for the company.

“Previously manufactured machines were simple, manual, and semi-automatic. This was only suitable for small-scale production, but when production scale became larger, it could not meet the demand. My goal is to manufacture automated products, increase productivity, reduce operating labor, and be environmentally friendly,” said Xuan Vinh.

“Double” of scientific and technological innovation

Returning to Vietnam in 2015, Xuan Vinh began researching and manufacturing many mechanical products to serve production needs. Notably, the automatic unburnt brick production line.

The previous unburnt brick pressing machines in Nghe An were small manual machines, using a vibration mechanism to shape the bricks, with limitations that needed to be overcome such as low productivity, under 3,000 bricks/shift and requiring 6 workers to operate, bricks ensured basic construction quality but were uneven because they were affected by many human factors, making it difficult to ensure quality for large construction projects requiring high progress and quality. Imported production lines from China and Japan were expensive, usually from 1 to 5 billion VND, not suitable for the investment capacity of the majority of people and small and medium enterprises in Nghe An. With that analysis, Xuan Vinh began researching and manufacturing this production line.

Although he had anticipated it, when he actually started doing it, he encountered many difficulties. First of all, it was about capital because during the manufacturing stage, he had to experiment, and each time he did it again, it was very expensive.

Secondly, there were almost no reference documents, he had to search for English documents online, through his old university teachers and listen to the needs of customers to come up with the most optimal solution, especially to create a fully automatic control system, using PLC circuit programs to control the motors of the production line to operate smoothly and continuously.

After 7 months of hard work researching and testing, with failures that made him think he had to give up, in January 2016, Ho Xuan Vinh completed the automatic unburnt brick production line, on an industrial scale and capable of mass production for commercialization.

“This is the first automatic brick production line manufactured in Nghe An. Many new technologies are applied such as hydraulic pressing, frequency converter vibration, automatic material feeding, automatic tray feeding, and brick picking and lowering robots,” said Xuan Vinh.

“The production line costs only 400 - 500 million VND, with a capacity of 120,000 - 140,000 standard bricks/8 hours. The bricks produced are sharp, sturdy and ensure Vietnamese quality because the molds are manufactured using milling technology for high precision. In particular, the production line has absolutely no negative impact on the environment because it does not discharge solid, liquid or gaseous waste.”

Currently, Ho Xuan Vinh's automatic unburnt brick production line has been known to customers near and far, not only supplying in Nghe An but also reaching out to Thanh Hoa and Dak Lak provinces...

Ho Hoan Cau Company's automatic brick production line workshop, managed by Ho Xuan Vinh. Photo: Thanh Duy

Ho Xuan Vinh also successfully researched a vibrating machine to create garden paving bricks. Up to now, decorative bricks and garden paving bricks have only been machines that use hydraulic pressing technology, fixed brick molds, each time pressing 1 brick, after pressing, the surface must be grinded before it can be used. The product price is high, requiring skilled operators and users. From that reality, he created a vibrating machine to create garden paving bricks with 3 parts: a vibrating shaping machine, a brick vibrating machine, and a plastic mold.

“The product shapes bricks using high-frequency vibration technology through plastic molds, creating many different types of bricks at the same vibration. When vibrating, fine powder particles will settle to the bottom, creating a smooth, glossy pattern on the surface of the brick and without the need for grinding, the brick has achieved the aesthetic quality to be put into use” - Xuan Vinh said about the machine's superior features compared to hydraulic presses.

The price of the product is only about 40 - 50 million and provides a variety of products, without requiring highly skilled workers to operate. Currently, this product is also very popular in the market inside and outside the province.

Up to now, after more than 2 years of returning to start a business in his homeland, although there were times of joy and sadness mixed together, most importantly, the initial successes have affirmed that his choice was correct, bringing the company to develop more and more professionally, with good technology products, reasonable prices, meeting market demand.

The mechanical workshop managed by Ho Xuan Vinh is creating jobs for 52 local workers with an average income of 6 - 8 million VND/month. Regarding the long-term strategy, the 8X inventor affirmed his determination to continue researching and successfully commercializing more high-quality, reasonably priced machine-made products on the market.

Thanh Duy