Notables, including Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, KATS Administrator Lee Seung-woo, prize winners and quality management officials, pose at the 45th National Quality Management Convention, which took place at COEX on Nov. 13.

The 45th National Quality Management Convention, organized by Korea Standards Association (KSA), took place at COEX on Nov. 13. Among about 2,000 people on hand at the event were Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, KATS Administrator Lee Seung-woo, prize winners and quality management officials.

During the event, 439 awards, including 5 national orders and medals, were presented to individuals and organizations which contributed to quality innovation and quality management initiatives.

The National Quality Management Convention is an annual event designed to award persons and bodies which have contributed to improving quality, reducing unit prices, and enhancing productivity through quality management initiatives and encourage field workers with excellent achievements.

The event is the sole national quality management rally in which multiple field workers from the manufacturing and service industries participate, and it is an event in which managers and employees from large- and small-sized companies and mid-size enterprises come together to pledge their determination to ramp up national competitiveness and show shared growth.

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon delivers a speech at the 45th National Quality Management Convention. (Photos: MOTIE)

In his commemorative speech, Prime Minister Lee stressed innovation. “Innovation will be the life of our economy in the future, as it did in the past, and it does in the present,” he said.

“Ninety percent of countries around the world are falling into a sagging economy simultaneously, the United States and China, key trade partners of Korea, are engaged in trade conflicts, and Japan is continuing to impose economic retaliation against Korea,” Prime Minister Lee said.

The event was hosted by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) under the umbrella of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE).
“We have to join in the 4th Industrial Revolution,” he said. “As far as causes of issues are complicated, solutions ought to be in combination. In any case, the name of the game is innovation including quality innovation,” Lee said.

“The made-in-Korea brand was once imagined as cheaper products, but it now certifies quality and technology, and Korean-made refrigerators and TV sets are displayed on nearly department stores of all countries, and it is owed to outcomes of companies and laborers’ all-out efforts over half century,” he added.

The coveted Order of Industrial Service Merit, Silver Tower went to Executive Vice President Chung Sang-seop of Samsung Electronics’ Foundry Business in recognition of his role in improving competitiveness by launching wafer production of its revolutionary process node, 7LPP, the 7-nanometer (nm) LPP (Low Power Plus) with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology, in the first time in the world.

President Lee Hyung-chun of Samkwang Precision Industrial Co. was presented with the Industrial Service Medal for localizing 100 kinds of springs, including E-ring and Snap-ring through endless innovation in the spring segment.

Koh Young-oh, part of the Geoje Shipyard at Samsung Heavy Industries, was decorated with the Presidential Award for developing an overall task circle management system and improvement activities leading to economic benefits worth 97.7 billion won.

Hwang Hee-jae, senior technology officer with Hyundai Motor’s plant in Ulsan, received the premier’s award in recognition for improving a painting quality process.