Kok Yew Chew

1) Lead and grow a Software Support team across China, HK, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, from 13 to 20+ awesome people. 2) Run the day2day system support department, making sure everything runs smoothly and any tricky issues get solved fast. 3) Always looking for smarter ways to work: Happy customers, Happy team and yes, I love myself too. 4) Hire, train, and guide new team members so they hit the ground running. 5) Keep tabs on team performance, give helpful feedback, and make sure everyone’s growing. 6) Handle the budget like a pro, getting the best out of our resources while still hitting targets. 7) Team up with Sales and Projects as a Pre-Sales Consultant: doing demos, estimates, planning, & whatever else they throw at us. 8) Lead software retrofit projects and play the role of Software PM and Software Solution Architect (because someone has to!). 9) Stay in sync with customers and stakeholders to make sure everyone's on the same page. 10) Run weekly check-ins with the team to review tasks and keep things moving. 11) Lead monthly leaders meetings to review project health, budget use, customer satisfaction, and any roadblocks. 12) Keep team engagement high and mental health in check with bi-weekly reviews and open support. 13) Meet monthly with Finance to go over TM and support projects, making sure everything’s financially healthy. 14) Remind CS Admin to send out those invoices on time, because cash flow keeps the lights on! 15) Stakeholder management, regularly meeting with the regional CS team and Key Account Managers(KAM) to stay aligned, spot new business opportunities, and improve customer satisfaction. 16) Empowering the team. I'm not Superman (wish I were), and no one can do everything alone. That’s why I focus on mentoring my team so they can be the extra hands (and brains!) needed to deliver high-quality work together. 17)18) Got questions? Just ask,I’ve got stories for days and I’m happy to share! Anyway, I like the number "18", so let’s just stop here.

I helped run the day2day operations of the East Asia Software Support team, leading 13 awesome team members and making sure customers were happy, issues were solved, and nobody cried over broken systems. Some things I did: - Managed escalations without losing my cool - Trained and hired people smarter than me (on purpose!) - Wrote reports, tracked performance, and fixed what needed fixing - Updated support policies so people actually wanted to follow them - Sat in many meetings—but made them useful - Helped Sales with pre-sales support (yep, budget estimates and all that fun stuff) - Played part-time project manager and software solution architect on retrofit project, because someone had to!

I basically lived out of a suitcase traveling all over East Asia: Beijing, Zhuhai, Shanghai, Hong Kong—working on important Swisslog projects and collecting enough frequent flyer miles to last a lifetime. I wore a bunch of hats—from writing code to leading teams and handling customer relationships. As a Software Project Manager, my job was simple but critical: get things done right. Lead projects, keep systems running smoothly, and make sure the team and customers stayed happy. My motto? Solve problems, don’t create new ones. Save costs, don’t burn cash. Keep the team working, not burning out. If something went wrong, I was the go-to fixer—sometimes at weird hours, but hey, that’s part of the job! The goal? Make sure everything runs without hiccups and customers get a solid return on their investment. Because happy customers = happy life.

I spent a good chunk of time stationed in Beijing leading one of Swisslog’s biggest and most important projects—a true marathon that took 3 years to develop and 2–3 years of onsite support. This was a China government project (confidential) where the tech was at least 10 years ahead of other countries. Swisslog won the contract because we met those crazy-high standards. Even after nearly 15 years since going live, the customer still calls on Swisslog Malaysia to send people to stay onsite—talk about long-term trust! And yes, they’re happy to "Pay" for it... and we’re happy to help. At the same time, I stepped up as Software Project Manager for my first retrofit project. Why? Because someone had to! Retrofit projects are no joke—systems are already live, testing time is tight, and if anything breaks, we have to fix it FAST before handing it back to the customer. Stressful? Definitely. Rewarding? Absolutely. The secret sauce? Planning. One wrong move and the whole system could crash, causing massive losses for the customer. So I quickly learned that good planning isn’t just helpful—it’s everything. This experience taught me how to stay cool under pressure, think on my feet, and lead teams through tough challenges. It also showed me the power of teamwork and clear communication when the stakes are high. Looking back, I’m proud to have played a part in projects that run smoothly years later—and to have grown into a snr, leader & capable software PM who’s ready for whatever comes next.

I spent most of my time traveling between the US and EMEA, writing code and diving deep into automation solutions—because that’s what being a Software Project Engineer is all about. I was excited to gain overseas experience, earn good money, and soak up new cultures along the way. Swisslog invested a lot in me and trusted me with big projects like Procter & Gamble in Italy and some very critical (but confidential) projects in EMEA. Fun fact: that’s where I officially became a fan of pasta and coffee! These projects opened my eyes to how amazing automation really is. The first time I saw a crane moving pallets into an ASRS system, then sending them out on a smart monorail to a gravity conveyor, I thought, “Wow, this is next-level magic!” That hands-on experience showed me how automation can transform warehouses, boost efficiency, and make life easier for everyone involved. And honestly? I loved every minute of it.

Swisslog sent me to the US for voice training on the Vocollect product—and guess what? I became the go-to expert in the field! I didn’t just learn the product; I helped develop the very first Swisslog voice picking solution. Yep, I’m basically the pioneer—no one can top me here! That same year, we landed the big Coca-Cola project in Australia, and they used my voice solution. Talk about a win! After that, I trained a whole crew of folks to handle the product like pros. So, not only did I build it, but I also built the team to keep it running strong.