TNAG-1642-FCO40-2289-Public-finance-in-Hong-Kong-Supplementary-Appropriation-(198-1987 — Page 295

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Date:

28.11.86

Time:

8.30

-

12.30

Reporter:

PMS

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CCS:

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supervisors in prison.

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Well, we don't have the same ratio of

I believe, I stand to be corrected, that

supervisors in a factory is one to twelve workers and, well, I

think it is quite high. We have in some workshops one to seventy,

others one to thirty, and the supervisor not only has to supervise

the output, he has to check the output, he has to issue tools and collect them back, which is not so in a factory. We have to be very

careful with tools in a prison situation and we do waste time,

necessary time.

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CHAIRMAN:

Chung Pui-lam, could you ask a question,

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your series of questions.

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MR CHUNG:

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Well, Commissioner, I am sorry, I have to touch upon the productivity again. Just about the carpentry workshop. It appears that in teak wood cutting there is a wastage of about 25%

over the ordinary rate, so could you explain the reason why this

happens?

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CCS:

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Well, sir, we have taken a careful look at

wastage rates of material used in manufacturing the furniture that we

make. It is true, we only recover 55% of the material from teak wood logs for the type of furniture we are making. Given better skills and improved supervision of our labour force, we might be able to achieve

a recovery rate of 60%. It is true, 75% recovery rate can be achieved but this would mean using pre-cut teak wood planks and not logs. The planks, however, are very much more expensive and cost of wood have 28 risen by 40% if we had used teak wood pre-cut planks. Nevertheless

we are trying to improve on our current recovery rate and I am assured 30 that using teak wood logs one can expect at best a 62% recovery rate

for the type of furniture we are making. We are also continuing to update order specifications from our clients to identify areas where alternative and less expensive materials can be used in our effort to

reduce costs.

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MR CHUNG:

So in fact you are taking action to improve

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