Kolon Group Chairman Lee Woong-yeul arrived at Seoul Railroad Station along with thousands of rush hour commuters at 8 a.m. on March 17. He got out of his dark gray Rolls-Royce, and was greeted and guided by Kolon Corp. President Ahn Byung-duk. The station in downtown Seoul was a starting point of the first of Chairman Lee’s rounds of field trips to his group’s operations across the nation, which he launched for the first time this year.
Chairman Lee’s two-day field trip starting on March 17 took him to Kolon Global’s BMW after-service center in Gwanju; the construction site of the Jangbogo Grand Bridge, in Wando Jeollanam-do; Kolon Industries’ plants in Yeosu, Jeollanam-do, and Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do; and Kolon Industry FnC’s logistics center in Dongtan, Gyeonggi-do. He traveled some 1,300 km aboard a Carnival SUV.
He makes the observation tours to his group’s operations across the nation once or twice each year to meet with field executives and staff members to lend an ear to their voices and direct his management tenets. This time, Chairman Lee stressed such production innovation moves as the introduction of the “Industry 4.0” initiative, including smart factories, as well as the establishment of online platforms and the innovation of distribution and services using big data.
Kolon has suffered a setback in sales in recent years. The group saw sales decline from 10.419 billion won in 2012 to 9.918 billion won in 2013 and 9.167 billion won in 2014. The group, which also saw sales decline last year, is desperately trying to secure new growth engines for its survival.
“We need a breakthrough, as Go guru Lee Se-dol placed his 78th piece on the board, which turned out to serve as a crucial occasion to defeat Alphago, Google DeepMind’s computer Go program recently — the sole win in five games,” Chairman Lee said. He noted that Kolon will have to find its own solutions with a keen insight into the future to win its corporate competitive edge.
The first leg of Chairman Lee’s tour was Kolon Global’s BMW After-sales Center in Gwangju, Jeollanam-do.
He told officers and staff there to work out steps to dramatically improve customer service using big data. Lee then travelled aboard a Carnival to a construction site in Wando, where Kolon Global is building part of the Jangbogo Grand Bridge. Chairman Lee then hopped on a boat to scrutinize the work on the upper deck of the bridge after he had lunch with construction crew members.
On the last leg of his tour, Chairman Lee toured Kolon Industry’s plant in Yeosu, which has the world’s largest hydrogenated hydrocarbon Resin production capacity. The plant has successfully improved production the process to increase production without a facility expansion. Hydrogenated hydrocarbon is in wide use for producing such sanitation items as children’s diapers, sanitary towels, and adults’ napkins.
“Painstaking work and repetition of innovation for the purpose of enhancing process efficiency has contributed to being reborn into a world-class workplace,” Chairman Lee said. If the Industry 4.0 initiative is introduced with a focus on efficiency, he said the worksite would be a leader in an era of “supper connections” with a further reinforced competitive edge.
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