Cienco 4: Laying a Firm Foundation

On 29 October 2012, at Concorde La Fayette Hotel (Paris, France), Civil Engingeering Construction Corporation No.4 (Cienco 4), was honored to receive the International Gold Star for top Quality Management awarded by Business Initiative Directions (BID). However, the prize itself has presented seven strict requirements to the awardee in which focus is laid on satisfying customer expectations and managing human resources to maximize the potential…

 

One interesting thing lies in the fact that all seven requirements for awardee are included in Cienco 4’s trademark development strategy. Mr Le Ngoc Hoa, General Director stated: “We have realized all of these targets and this makes our trademark value”.

 

50-year established trademark has made Cienco quite confident in its ability to undertake key projects throughout the country. But few comes to the knowledge that Cienco 4 owns a secret which has contributed to “belt No. 3 phenomenon”.

 

When Mr Pham Quang Vinh (currently know as Vice Chairman of Vietnam Road Administration) acted as Cienco’s general director, he built a relationship with Sumitomo Corporation, one of the leading international contractors. Visiting Sumitomo’s work sites, Cienco 4‘s leaders wondered why Vietnamese workers could do such good job?

 

Mr Le Ngoc Hoa said: “We are unable to compete with them in technology but we need to learn and follow the way they run and manage the project and science tasks". To do this, we need to have a good catch of labor’ psychology first. At site 1 in belt 2, the weekly meeting is organized to draw experience and monthly a appraisal is conducted to timely reward individuals who have made ​​outstanding achievements and provide more support for workers.

 

Simultaneously, due attention is paid to discipline issue. Leaders go to the sites to directly examine workers. If violation on labour uniform or construction requirement is discovered, the offender will be responsible for such. If the offender is the team leader, he or she will be sent to another site for 3 months.

 

Following the training method under a Japanese’s management model at work sites in  belt No.3, Cienco 4 has successfully developed a good team with high self-discipline. The corporation has arranged quite a few construction pickets and worked at night with the focus laid on labour safety and hygiene. Mũi thi công cọc mũi

And success after success, Cienco 4 continuously won bids for Package 5, Package 1 Nhat Tan-Noi Bai.

 

In fact, Cienco 4 is greatly influenced by the economic recession. Mr Le Ngoc Hoa, the corporation’s general director shared “We have 26 member companies which are seriously affected by public investment reduction. From corporation to member units, we are supposed to share with each other job opportunities if available”.

The full understanding and great encouragement of the leadership of Ministry of Transport especially Minister Dinh La Thang is of great significance to Cienco 4 and contractors. In the early morning of the 1^st of the New Year, Minister Thang and the corporation’s leaders even spent time going to see the work sites and visiting workers.

 

 Since the meeting at the end of 2011, mechanism of payment to contractors has been improved. Payment deadline is shortened and advance payment is raised from 20 percent to 30 percent. Instant effect spread over all the work sites including the ones constructed by Japanese contractors. Related procedures are quickly carried out and promptly reported to the leadership of the Ministry.

 

Reduced waiting time has helped save dozens of VND billions of traveling cost. When Cienco 4 started the construction of Vinh - Ha Tinh 1A national highway, Minister Dinh La Thang emphasized the proper implementation and directly worked with BIDV to help enterprises to timely mobilize fund. The Minster’s aggressiveness and decisiveness has constituted active performance of related units and agencies from the Ministry to project management units and work sites.

 

In the first 10 months of 2012, Cienco 4 exceeded the planned target of VND 6,680 billion/5,700 billion. Civil work packages for the next years have achieved 60 percent of workload. Specifically, Co Co bridge project in Hoa Phuoc with a total value of VND 600 billion and Vinh - Ha Tinh 1A national highway expansion project valued at VND 2,430 billion (including site clearance cost) are under construction.