Top Glove To Expand R&D To Improve Products Quality, Productivity

PETALING JAYA (Selangor, Malaysia), Nov 22 (Bernama) -- Natural rubber glove maker Top Glove Corporation Bhd will continue to expand its research and development (R&D) to further improve the quality of its products and productivity. Executive Chairman Dr Lim Wee Chai said the company, which currently employed 100 researchers, was planning to recruit between 200 and 300 researchers with bachelor and master's degrees next year. "With more researchers, we can produce better gloves for surgical, household and industrial use," he told reporters at the FMM Factory Management Conference 2016 here Tuesday. Earlier, Lim shared the company's journey to manufacturing excellence with the participants. Established in 1991, Top Glove has built a new plant every year on average. It operates 23 factories in Malaysia, four in Thailand and one in China and its annual output is expected to grow by 26 per cent to 58.8 billion gloves by May 2018. On foreign labour, Lim said the company still needed foreign workers, while seeking to cut down the number. "We'll let go some 1,000 workers and replace them with automation. One worker may cost around US$452 (RM2,000) per month. So, for 1,000 employees, it costs the company US$452,995 (RM2 million) per month and US$5.43 million (RM24 million) per year," he said, adding that the savings could be used for automation instead. (US$1 = RM4.41) Themed "Human Resource Productivity and Energy Efficiency", the conference was aimed at maintaining profitability by increasing productivity and reducing cost in the manufacturing sector. The speakers were drawn from the Malaysia Productivity Corporation, Energy Commission, Linde Malaysia Sdn Bhd, and Top Glove. -- BERNAMA