🌱 Hana’s Journey as Head of Facility at Kembara Oil

When I first stepped into Kembara Oil Sdn. Bhd., the air was heavy with the scent of solvents and the rhythmic pulse of machinery. It wasn’t just a factory floor — it was an ecosystem of energy, people, and responsibility.

As Head of Facility, I carried the mandate of leading both the Solvent Extraction Plant and the Fatty Acid Plant. On paper, it sounded straightforward: deliver production, ensure safety, control costs. But in reality, it was a journey that tested not only my technical skills but also my patience, empathy, and resilience.

💡 What I Learned:

• Technical Mastery: I became fluent in the language of processes — balancing yields, minimising solvent losses, optimising distillation. Nights spent troubleshooting column upsets taught me more about resilience than any textbook could.

• Safety as a Culture: Solvent and fatty acid handling reminded me daily that safety is not a compliance formality, but a culture built on habits and values¹.

• People Before Processes: My team — operators, engineers, and contractors — were the heartbeat of the plant. Empowering them through trust and training shaped a stronger facility².

• Financial Discipline: Managing OPEX and CAPEX taught me that innovation often comes not from bigger budgets, but from smarter choices — energy efficiency, lean practices, and continuous improvement³.

• Crisis Leadership: Emergencies became my real classroom. Whether it was a solvent leak or an equipment breakdown, I learned that calm decisions in chaos earn trust faster than any title.

At the end of each day, the value wasn’t just in tonnes of fatty acids refined or solvent recovered. It was in the culture we built — a safer workplace, a more resilient team, and a leader in me who transformed from being technically capable to strategically responsible.

🌍 Looking back, my journey at Kembara Oil wasn’t just about production; it was about learning that true leadership is the balance between efficiency, safety, and humanity.

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📚 Footnotes / References

1. Reason, J. (1997). Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents. Ashgate.

2. Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78–90.

3. Womack, J. P., & Jones, D. T. (2003). Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. Free Press.

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