In a market economy, advanced and modern technologies are not merely tools, but have become the foundation and a key factor determining the productivity, quality, efficiency, and competitiveness of every enterprise. As for Vietnam, they are also the “key” to successfully building an “autonomous, self-reliant, dual-use, modern defence industry”.
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| A visit paid by leaders of the General Staff to the Factory |
Fully aware of this, over the past 45 years of construction and development, Factory Z183 under the General Department of Defence Industry has consistently adhered to its functions and assigned tasks, promoting the spirit of solidarity and self-reliance, along with its mettle and intellect to proactively access and master new technologies. This has laid a solid foundation for improving its defence and economic production capacity, enabling it to achieve outstanding accomplishments, making significant contributions to the cause of building the Military and developing the country.
Proactively accessing and mastering new technologies - a breakthrough in development thinking
In order to overcome challenges and move forward steadily, the Factory has always attached importance to maintaining the Party’s leadership in all activities and actively promoting the combined strength of all resources. In this regard, a shift in thinking, from “production maintenance” to “development driven by technology and innovation”, has been a key and decisive factor.
From the early years of its foundation, especially during the transition from a centrally subsidised mechanism to an independent accounting model, alongside development opportunities, the Factory faced numerous challenges, including unstable defence production tasks, increasingly fierce competition in economic production, and the fact that most of its facilities and technical equipment were outdated and slow to be upgraded. Against that backdrop, it soon resolved that it must “stand on its own two feet”, abandon outdated thinking, gradually liquidate obsolete equipment, and concentrate resources on modernising machinery and technologies through a leapfrogging approach, in tandem with developing a high-quality workforce to expand its products and markets. As a result, in the period of 1981 - 1987, it gradually mastered many important technologies and overcame difficulties to successfully fulfil its defence and economic production tasks. It produced millions of components for infantry weapons, successfully manufactured a grenade launcher model, completed a project on deep drawing of 105mm artillery shell casings, and developed many high-value economic products.
Building upon those good results and in response to the increasingly demanding requirements for defence industry development in the new period, the Factory Party Congress for the 2020 - 2025 term identified a breakthrough in “modernising technology, equipment, technical infrastructure, and workshops”. This aims to consolidate and upgrade infrastructure systems, production lines, and manufacturing equipment, laying a crucial foundation for sustainable development.
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| The Factory was honoured at Vietnam Top Brands 2025 |
To achieve that objective, the Factory has conducted a comprehensive review of its existing technological system, clearly identifying limitations and priorities for investment. It has proactively developed plans, given advice to higher echelons, and directly implemented key projects on technological investment and new production technologies aimed at significantly reducing the proportion of small-scale, low-value products and services and expanding mass production of high-value products. At the same time, it has invested in building, renovating, and upgrading workshops and infrastructure to meet the demands of expanding production scale and capacity and improve working conditions for its staff. During the period of 2020 - 2025, it accomplished ahead of schedule 20 projects to modernise defence and economic production lines, proactively mobilising resources to invest in hundreds of additional pieces of equipment, marking a significant breakthrough in enhancing its technological and strategic production capacity.
Alongside equipment investment, the Factory has intensified efforts to develop high-quality human resources capable of mastering new technologies. The Factory Party Committee issued Resolution 33-NQ/ĐU, dated 3 October 2020, on “Leading the development of a contingent of cadres, especially those in charge of departments and workshops as well as technical and technological personnel to meet their task requirements in the new situation”. Notably, the requirement to master technologies has been incorporated into position-specific standards for cadres. In the process, the Factory has reviewed and accurately assessed its pool of cadres across technological fields and production lines, particularly key stages, as the basis for personnel planning, training, and professional development focused directly on the requirement of mastering technology.
Training and education have been intensified and reformed in the direction of “training for mastery”, with hands-on practice on equipment and new technological production lines placed at the centre. On-site training, mentoring, and skill transfer have been closely combined with specialised technical competitions and drills, thus fostering technological thinking, professional mettle, and the ability to handle complex technical situations. In particular, the Factory has proactively cooperated with Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Military Technical Academy, Hanoi National Economics University, and other institutions to train its cadres in cutting-edge disciplines and gradually build a core team capable of receiving, operating, improving, and mastering new technologies. Due attention has been paid to refining and effectively implementing mechanisms and policies to attract, utilise, train, and develop high-quality human resources, encouraging self-study and research, fostering a professional, democratic, open working environment conducive to technical innovation. As a result, at present, 100% of the Factory’s cadres and engineers hold university degrees or higher (over 50% hold master’s degrees), 62.2% of its technical workers possess intermediate-level qualifications or higher, and more than 50% of its labourers are high-skilled. This core workforce directly enables the Factory to master technologies for the production and repair of 15 types of defence products as well as technologies for manufacturing packaging and preservation products for ammunition as well as fire prevention and fighting components and materials, thereby affirming its technological self-reliance and enhancing its reputation and competitiveness both domestically and internationally.
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| Fire prevention and fighting equipment manufactured by Workshop A3 |
Harnessing scientific and technological potential to improve production capacity and the quality of defence and economic products
Implementing Resolution 08-NQ/TW, dated 26 January 2022, by the 13th Politburo on accelerating defence industry development towards 2030 and beyond, and Resolution 426-NQ/ĐU, dated 28 March 2022, by the Party Committee of the General Department of Defence Industry on promoting economic production and exports towards 2030, the Factory has adopted a policy of maximising its scientific and technological potential. It has focused on enhancing its capacity to produce and repair artillery ammunition for the Military, gradually participating in the manufacture and export of defence products, expanding the production of economic products for both domestic and foreign markets, taking export as the primary driver of development. It strives to become a world-leading enterprise in the field of packaging and preservation products for ammunition and maintain its leading position in Vietnam in the manufacture and supply of fire prevention and fighting equipment, materials, and components.
To realise that objective, the Factory has consistently adhered to the motto “From value to strength”, regarding science, technology, and innovation as the key foundation for developing high-quality products, building and affirming its brand on the basis of product “value”. On the one hand, it has concentrated on leveraging its technological infrastructure to proactively implement scientific research tasks, especially the development of strategic defence and economic products. On the other hand, it has promoted technical initiatives and innovation, encouraging engineers and workers to research and design specialised equipment and tools aimed at resolving bottlenecks in production lines and improving productivity and product quality.
In addition, the Factory has promoted the application of technology in management, administration, and production, strictly maintaining quality management systems in accordance with advanced standards to optimise processes and improve production capacity. It has also deployed modern management software systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) on the military network and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), closely operating quality management systems in accordance with TCVN ISO 9001:2015 and other international standards, ensuring that its products could meet the requirements set by new export markets. Programmes, such as Kaizen and 5S, have also been actively carried out to create clear improvements in professionalism, safety, efficiency, and environmental hygiene across all processes, thereby optimising production, reducing costs and labour, improving productivity and quality, lowering prices, and enhancing product competitiveness.
Thanks to its practical and effective solutions, in the period of 2020 - 2025, the Factory fulfilled 12 scientific research tasks from General Department to grass-roots levels, coordinating the implementation of 9 research projects at State, Ministry of National Defence, and General Department levels, successfully applying more than 460 technical initiatives in production. This effort has helped save resources, address production bottlenecks, improve productivity and product quality, and provide an important basis for higher authorities to entrust the Factory with the manufacture and repair of 6 new defence products, thereby affirming its technological mastery and reputation within the defence industry system.
With a strong traditional foundation forged over many generations, together with high political determination and proactive, scientific approaches, Factory Z183 is steadily affirming its capability to master new technologies and enhance its defence and economic production capacity. The results achieved and the solutions currently being implemented constitute an essential precondition for the Factory to become a core modern defence industry establishment, successfully accomplish all assigned tasks, and contribute to developing an “autonomous, self-reliant, dual-use, modern” defence industry of Vietnam capable of meeting the requirements of building the Military and firmly protecting the Fatherland in the new era of development.
Col. PHAN QUANG PHUC
Director of the Factor