Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

After taking a sip of his coffee, Gun-Ho continued, “You said that you are having a meeting every Monday morning, right? Who are the people that are attending the meeting?”

“We have two managers, two supervisors, the maintenance manager, and myself. We, 6 people, have a meeting every Monday. It’s the highest-level meeting in the production department. Oh, there is one more person who comes to our meeting— an office manager who records the meeting. She used to work in GH Logistics doing accounting work there. She works here as an office manager. She handles all paperwork in the production department in recording and organizing them.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“Every record is signed by me, and then it goes to President Song for his signature as well. We have another regular meeting where team leads and other low-level management people attend. It’s held every other week. I preside over that meeting as well.”

“Really?”

“The meeting we have every other week where all the management personnel in the production department attend is held right after I attend the executive meeting, so I could promptly deliver all the instructions corresponding to the matters we discuss in the executive meeting. I learned a lot from you and President Song how to preside over a meeting. Haha.”

“Really?”

“Since I’m taking night classes at Korea University of Technology and Education, I picked up a few technical words and terms from there, and I used them during the meeting. I believe that makes me look intelligent and educated. I had a conflict with the team lead in the maintenance team before when I first joined this company, but we no longer have any issues. He doesn’t challenge me anymore. Now, he can’t say that he is more educated than me.”

“It has been already more than 6 months since you transferred to that university.”

“Summer break will soon start in my college. Since I transferred to the college as a third-year student, I have 1 and a half years left before graduating. I will then obtain my bachelor’s degree in engineering. Haha.”

“Your tuition is paid by the company, right?”

“Yeah. President Song is a difficult person to deal with, but he didn’t raise any issues when he signed the paper for my tuition. It was quick.”

“Study hard. And, how are things going with A Electronics’ product orders? Did they increase the volume of their product order?”

“They did. They are gradually increasing the volume of their product orders. It’s not a dramatic increase though. Their number of product orders changes seasonally. We get less product orders from them during the summer like right now, and also during the winter. During the spring and fall, they order a substantial number of products. We actually talked about it during the meeting this morning.”

“You did?”

“It’s July now. Once the summer vacation season is over, A Electronics will increase their product order significantly. We have to prepare for the season because we are expecting to see an acute increase in H Group’s product order as well. We have to make a good plan in advance. I told the managers and supervisors to check our production process again, and if they see any part without a standard procedure, they will have to establish a system and a procedure that the workers should follow.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“When we opened our second factory, we divided our production department into three teams: 1, 2, and 3. And, that caused an imbalance in the process. So, I yelled at our manager and supervisors this morning about it. They will need to find out the cause that created the imbalance as soon as possible. Once President Song finds out about it, he’s not going to yell at those managers and supervisors, but he will call me to his office and yell at me.”

“Hmm.”

“I told them to bring me a solution about how to reduce our lead time (the amount of time spent during the process from the point where raw materials are brought in and the point where a product is completed). I told them that if they can’t think of any solutions because they are too old to be creative, then they will have to squeeze an idea out of the younger and sharp workers among team leads or others. Haha.”

“You said that?”

“Actually, that line originally came from President Song. He said that to me before, and I’m recycling that line.”

“Haha, is that right?”

“By the way, President Song told me to select two workers from the production department, so he could send them to the U.S. for a field trip. I’m still thinking about who I should pick. There is a supervisor in the production team 1. He is very smart, and he is a hard worker. I want to pick him for the trip, but if I do that, the other managers will complain about it. So, I think maybe I should pick the manager from the team 1 and the maintenance manager.”

“Well, whoever you pick, it’s totally up to you as the director of the production department.”

“When I worked in a small factory in Yangju City doing a welding job, I didn’t have to think about all these matters. Now, I am the director of a large factory, and I’m facing problems that I didn’t have to deal with before. I guess that you have more problems than me to worry about in your position, huh?”

While talking with Jong-Suk, Gun-Ho received a call from President Song.

“It’s me, President Song, sir. Where are you right now?”

“I’m at the production site.”

“I just received a call from H Group. They want to see me and the chief research officer right now.”

“You should go then. Do you know what it is regarding?”

“It seems that they want to make a minor modification on the product that we provided them with a sample. H Group is certainly very particular and picky.”

“Well, go now and find out about it. We’d better respond quickly for this kind of request.”

“Okay, sir. I’m leaving now.”

Jong-Suk’s eyes widened in surprise and asked Gun-Ho, “It was from President Song, right? What do you mean when you said that we have to respond quickly? What is it about? Are they complaining about our product? Did they find a defect in our product?”

“No, relax, man. They just want to make some changes or corrections with the new product that we showed them with a sample.”

“Oh, I see. What a relief. I thought we produced a defective product. I think I’m being neurotic or something.”

“I think your work as the production department’s director isn’t easy at all.”

“It’s good that I’m paid well, but it comes with heavy responsibility. It feels very burdensome sometimes.”

Gun-Ho said as he tapped Director Jong-Suk Park’s shoulder, “I’m heavily relying on you. There is no one but you who can handle the work being in charge of GH Mobile’s entire production.”

“Haha. Thank you, bro.”

“What about the H Group’s product order?”

“A Electronics’ product currently takes up 30% of our entire production. H Group takes up 15% which is equal to S Group’s volume of product order, which President Song had worked for before. However, once we start manufacturing the H Group’s new product that we gave the sample product for, we will get really busy. We will have to produce an additional 100,000 pieces for each product. We will need more extruding machines and injection molding machines, not to mention more production workers.”

“Hmm, everyone will get busy.”

“When you were not here last week— you were in Japan— President Song presided over a meeting with all of our executive officers. He mentioned that we will have to hire 50 more production workers once H Group confirms that they will place a product order of the new product. We will then have 700 workers in total in GH Mobile.”

“I see.”

“Since we have about 100 people in the management, which means that 600 people are production workers who I need to manage.”

“I see. You will become busier.”

“I don’t feel overwhelmed though since our production department is very well organized. We have three production teams with a separate maintenance team. Each team has its own manager, and they are of huge help to me. The thing is that there are some conflicts between the three teams.”

“Conflicts?”

“It seems that those three production teams are competing with each other rather than helping each other.”

“Hmm, really? I guess you will need to train and educate each team’s manager. Talk to President Song about it, and tell him that each production team’s manager needs to receive training about managing a conflict at work. He will find a training program provided by the Korea Management Association or some other organization for you.”

“Yeah, maybe I should find a training program for them.”