Nanyang Butterflies - Chapter 3

Nanyang Butterflies - Chapter 3

Mr Moe laid three uniforms on his desk. He took up the one with the EM Three tag and scrutinised it at length. It was what Ms Lim had told him. Quality was worse than what he expected. His random cloth for wiping his BMW, which is also Singapore's best selling car, looked better. He made a grim face.

This was not what he set out to do.

When he first started South Ocean Garments, he had only four employees. Today he employed 400 seamstresses and workers and made a million dollars but the uniforms paled in quality.

The strategy was really simple then. There was a huge demand for Engineering uniforms, so he should just make as many as he could at a relatively average quality. The trick was to sell much cheaper than market price and manage the cost well. It worked. But soon, the market was flooded with Engineering uniforms and the prices fell like that was no tomorrow.

But in a few months, there was an anticipated huge demand for Biochemistry uniforms and he caught onto that wave as well. Again, the good times didn't last long. The market got stuffed with Biochemistry uniforms and prices collapsed. The Finance uniform prices started out fine and held up better but still prices were falling down and some of the lower quality stuff got really commoditized.

Somehow Mr Moe never learnt not to catch such fads in fashion and to focus more on producing fundamentally stable uniforms.

But Mr Moe did do something that worked well until recently. He decided earlier on that he had to build up three different Lines to cater for different needs. EM One, Two and Three. Each for a different quality standard. At first this segmentation worked to his advantage. After all, there was always a diversity of needs and it didn’t make sense to produce different quality products on the same Line. 

Ocean started to be more and more profitable. Word got out that a textile factory was making uniforms, willing to train seamstresses and paid well. People queued to join South Ocean Garments. But there were only limited vacancies.

It got a bit crazy. People queue overnight. Boyfriends queued for their girlfriends. Parents for daughters and occasionally sons. Fights broke out. It was ugly. Singaporeans showed their true ugliness in such situations. So he did away with queues and resorted to alumni references.


If an alumni worker referred her relatives, then these people would get in priority queue to join. Whatever vacancies remained would go to a public ballot for people living within one kilometre. But things took a different turn. Suddenly everyone who joined had a relative who worked at Ocean before. Girls who worked at Ocean became prized brides and land prices around his factory shot through the roof. It was quite delirious.

But now, even more difficult issues were surfacing.

Seamstresses on EM Two and EM Three were asking why they were not worthy of EM One. Seamstresses on EM One thought they were better when in reality they were not that more skilful. Even Ibrahim asked why he was assigned EM Three. Not forgetting that the biggest issue now was the poor quality of products. The quality was falling way below the industry standard.

Mr Moe wished Mrs Tee could come back tomorrow.

Mrs Tee was hired to be the principal and executive operator as well as the sales and marketing person. The idea was for Ms Lim to focus on training and admin, and for Mrs Tee be the overall in charge doing strategic planning, operations including sales and marketing, PR and other liaison work. Of course it was a small outfit then, a lot of work overlapped between Ms Lim and Mrs Tee. Ms Lim did marketing as well and Mrs Tee could also coach and train seamstresses.

Mrs Tee was as passionate as Ms Lim. She wasn't just adept in dealing with day-to-day mundane matters. Her real talent was much more than that. She was the street-smart one and the innovator at Ocean. She came up with so many ideas to improve utilization and cut costs. Mr Moe really relied on her.

Mr Moe poured himself a glass of his favourite Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky and contemplated deeply about the issues at hand. Then he picked up the phone and started dialling.


* * * *

Crystal Lee covers Fireworks


It was a hot and busy Monday morning at South Ocean Garments. The seamstresses were working especially hard to complete a big order by the end of the week. Su Zhen did 19 pieces before lunch. It was a new personal record.

She was holding a colour pencil for marking on cloth and day-dreaming when Ms Lim walked up to Su Zhen with a defect uniform. She was all ready to reprimand Su Zhen. At the corner of her eye, Ms Lim saw a familiar character walking into the factory. It was Mrs Tee. Ms Lim was surprised. She should still be on maternity.

Mrs Tee was the same age as Ms Lim, but definitely a stronger manager and now a new mother who could not afford to rest. But the two were never actually that different. Mrs Tee started out coaching and enjoyed training seamstresses like Ms Lim and was given to do a lot more. Ms Lim never recovered fully from Mei and when her workload doubled, she just succumbed to the stress.

“Hi there, long time, Ms Lim” Mrs Tee beamed.
“Oh, you look new.” Mrs Tee said, referring to Su Zhen.

“Hi, I’m Su Zhen.” Su Zhen said.
“Which Line are you assigned to?” Mrs Tee asked.
“EM Two.”
“Oh ok… try to get to EM One, the pay is 20% higher.”

“Hello Mrs Tee. How come you are not taking care of your baby?” Ms Lim cut in coldly.
“To see Mr Moe lah, he asked me to come back today.” Mrs Tee said.
“He is in his office.”

“Ok thanks." Mrs Tee turned back towards Su Zhen and said, "Nice meeting you, Su Zhen."

Su Zhen asked Ms Lim, "Who is she?"
Ms Lim did not reply her.


* * * *

It was a short meeting. Mr Moe informed Ms Lim that Mrs Tee would be back to help out given the situation in the company. She would also take over the training of new seamstresses including Su Zhen. Ms Lim was not happy but obliged.

Mrs Tee looked around and found Su Zhen day-dreaming again, playing with her pencil.
"Hi Zhen, can I call you Zhen? From today onwards, I will take over your training. Lunch together?" Mrs Tee asked.
"Oh... ok..." Su Zhen woke up in a flash.

Lunch used to be a simple affair. There were six primary stalls at a local canteen. The newer workers would eat at Stall P1 and P2 where the food was simpler but also cheaper. The senior colleagues would eat at Stall P5 and P6 that served meals with more stuff. But recently, a lot of new workers started eating at the higher numbered stalls. So Stall P1 and P2 needed to prepare more elaborated food as well. It became a mega-competition.

So Mr Moe asked two more hawkers to come in to open up two more Mini-Stalls. To differentiate, they were named as Stall K1 and Stall K2. The two stalls were supposed to serve simpler and cheaper food. But in just a couple of months, they got into the game of making extravagant food as well. It was hilarious.

~~~~

Mrs Tee treated Su Zhen at one of the original "higher end" stall, Stall P6. After all, it was the end of her probation. Mrs Tee loved coaching new seamstresses. She was doing that job for a while but got tasked to do more strategic stuff as Mr Moe needed help. She always wanted to do more for younger girls. Now that she had the chance, she seized it. She took time to observe Su Zhen and figured out how to help her.

"I see you are doing quite a number of pieces and the quality of work is very consistent" Mrs Tee said with warmth and pride.
"Yah, I have been trying hard."
"Good, keep it up. I will ask the boss for you to be transferred to EM One"
"Really? That's great!"
"That's my job. To take care of you girls." Mrs Tee smiled. Su Zhen grinned widely with a sense of gratitude. She was really grateful.

Su Zhen thought about how Ms Lim scolded her and threw her into EM Two when she completed her Final Exam. Although Ms Lim and Mrs Tee looked about the same age, to her one looked like Devil's Advocate while the other, an Angel. Su Zhen gave a big smile to Mrs Tee. Like an angel, Mrs Tee glowed and rubbed Su Zhen's head gently. Without a doubt, Su Zhen felt that she was now in better hands. Ms Lim was just disastrous. No wonder she wasn't married, Su Zhen thought.


* * * *

Both Ms Lim and Mrs Tee were there when Mei kicked up a big fuss over her transfer from EM One to EM Three.

"Why am I being transferred to EM Three" Mei demanded.
"EM One uniforms require much more skill and experience. I just said that." Ms Lim explained.
"But my pay drops by almost half!" Mei was on the verge of crying. "My mother will not be happy. She is now working fourteen hours at another place to make more money to pay our bills."

Ms Lim did not know how to answer.
Mrs Tee pondered at Mei's words and then asked.

"Is there anything that we can do to help?"

Mei did not answer.

Afterwards, they heard her story from the other girls. Mei's father disappeared one day and her mother was left to take care of the five children. Since Mei was already deemed old enough, her mother decided to let her work. She literally begged Mr Moe to let her daughter take over her job. Mei started out fine at EM One but without guidance during those busy early days, her work quality dropped rapidly. She needed time and guidance, luxuries that Ocean couldn't provide. Mei also showed other talents. She could sing and she was very good with younger colleagues, like Ibrahim. 


* * * *


“Can you tell me about your boyfriend?" Mrs Tee asked.
"Well. he is a really nice guy and he loves me a lot. He said he will write me a song" Su Zhen answered bubbly.
"Wow, he's so romantic"
"But he is also half British, I don't know whether my parents will accept him"
"Well if your parents truly love you, they will support your dream to pursue a different future."
"I hope so."

Mrs Tee held Su Zhen's hand and smiled.

"I remember when I met my husband, we were just like you and your boyfriend. We were young and inexperienced and didn't know whether our parents would accept us. But things work out."
"Really?"
"Of course they do. I just had my baby and now I am back to work. My husband runs his own company! It's call Tee Lifestyle Limited."

“Wow! That's a cool name. What does your husband's company do?” Su Zhen asked
“Oh, it's in a different line. We are expanding and are really busy. Even though I am on maternity, I have to spend all this time helping him. Of course, he doubled what I am getting here. But that's just left pocket to right pocket I guess” Mrs Tee chuckled.
“Oh yah, left pocket to right pocket..."
“Oh, we are hiring more people. My husband wanted to talk to Mr Moe and maybe ask for some workers, I think."

Su Zhen listened half-heartedly and was drifting into her daydream mode.

Mrs Tee sensed that and said, "Well, my message to you is things will always work out!" She paused then got up and announced.

"Let's get back to work!"




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