Still in its final planning stage, the convertible table is best for holding computer gadgets, including the monitor, central processing unit (CPU), printer and keyboard. "The foldable table can also be transformed for other uses," said the productive inventor, who also accepts ideas and inventions from free-lancers.
His courage in taking the risk eight years ago saw one of his inventions make a breakthrough in the export market. The invention was the convertible, collapsible and portable snooker cum ping-pong table marketed under the trademark "Queeni".
An assortment of other board games, including chess, chequers and snakes and ladders can also be played on the table using an additional board provided as part of the set. It sells at $200 per unit. The product, which won the 1987 National Award for Product Excellence, is exported to West Asia, Japan, Australia, West Germany and Italy. More than 25,000 units are sold worldwide yearly.
On reflection, the inspiration that drew Mr Ting into this business he says came from seeing his colleagues fail in their attempt to devise a Bahasa Malaysia version of the Scrabble set. "I was a senior instructor with the Industrial Training Institute in Jalan Kuchai Lama then. I sat all day thinking of possible changes to create a game similar to Scrabble so that every Bahasa Malaysia word can be formed from the set of letters," he said.
The rest is history. His inventions have not only fulfilled his desire to see the national language put to full use but has also resulted in a multi-million business. Mr Ting said the limited loan he had was used to buy small production machines, including a 13,000 hot stamping machine to print the letters of the alphabet on plastic tiles. He also bought a $4,000 plastic injection moulder to mould plastic parts.
"Most of the money went to the contract manufacturer, especially the paper printer who produced the playing boards and packaging boxes for the sets, while some was spent on plastic sheets for the tiles." he said. "I had to produce quality products with competitive prices to compete with the cheaper imported sets as there was no import duty on them," he said, adding that all games sets were imported then from China or Hong Kong.
From a cottage industry with only three workers to help in the wrapping and packaging, SPM today has its own office-cum-factory in Petaling Jaya. It has 25 permanent staff and 15 temporary workers to help in the various departments. Additional temporary workers are employed especially during the year end and school holidays when the demand doubles.
Even with up-to-date machinery the company today still employs contract manufacturers to produce certain parts for its games to retain economies of scale. It has successfully developed 30 popular modern and traditional games of which eight are exclusive inventions. On the assumption that his products are all duplications of the English version of various established parlour games, he said this was not true as the games involve more than just plagiarism.
Pointing to an example, he said: "Sahibba has a different number of alphabetical tiles due to the different frequency of letters used in both languages to form a word." (In Bahasa Malaysia, the letter "A" is used two and a half times more than in English. The use of "Q" and "V" is almost unknown in Bahasa but is common in the English vocabulary.)
"For this, I used more than 15 Malay dictionaries of various versions and editions before coming up with the right proportion for each letter to the alphabet," he said, adding that it took more than two years to develop the game. It is understood that Sahibba at $25 a set, is the most popular board game with more than 20,000 sets sold each year. Saidina, which took a year to develop, has a market of 12,000 sets a year. As for the snooker cum ping-pong table, he said it is now gaining popularity in the US and is expected to break into the UK and Dutch market this year. In fact, the company won a $7.2 million contract with a Japanese company to export the products in Japan. "Japan is our biggest potential buyer and we have exported more than 10,000 sets since 1987," he said.
Before moving into a foreign market, he said the company studies the types of popular game in the region. "Snooker was the in-game a few years ago but it is now losing its popularity to other games so I expect sales to slow down. As a substitute, I had to continue inventing new products arid at the same time take advantage of the ringgit's depreciation by intensifying my export market," he said.
The secret of his success in the export market is to participate in international trade fairs to promote and analyse market prospects personally. Mr Ting has been traversing the globe with Mexpo to promote his products and is attending the 'Yokohama Trade Fair 89 for Asian manufacturers this July.
"To export a product, one must be aggressive and handle all deals and transactions personally, just like the Japanese and Taiwanese have been doing." He added that the main obstacle hampering inventors' efforts are the "copy cats" who scoop all the profits by pirating and marketing similar designs.
"My snooker table has been copied by a manufacturer and the matter has been taken to court. "But I believe the world is my market as long as I continue to be creative and introduce new designs," he said confidently.
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