During our Warsaw sales conference, we visited the LG TV and monitor factory. I know what you’re thinking…how dull. I’m not a process freak by any stretch of the imagination, but if you want to learn about and see in action all those things you read about such as globalization, zero defect quality control, just in time delivery…blah blah blah, then visit the LG factory in Warsaw with 2500 people employed across many production lines. Each line has a moving conveyor, which takes 6 minutes from beginning to end. The start of the conveyor has an empty chassis and off the other end is a fully tested TV which is wrapped, boxed and taped up. Each employee has 6 seconds to complete their assembly task whilst the TV moves past them. If you sneeze, it needs to be quick. As about 5000 TVs roll off each line in an 8 hour shift, there isn’t enough room to store sufficient parts. The SAP system is online to their suppliers who they insist are locally based. The suppliers have to replenish materials HOURLY.

Jang Hyeu Lee, the President of LG, personally showed me around the facility and I was fortunate enough to have dinner with him in the evening so that I could ask him some difficult questions. I expected to be fed an evening of statistics, but the cool thing about Jang, which really surprised me, is that he spends a lot of time on the softer issues. When I asked him to outline his primary responsibilities and activities he said, “To add tension into the organization, if you don’t have tension, discipline and quality will go. The production starts at 6am. If anyone is not through the gates by 05.50, I personally will be talking to them. One cannot enter the factory gates, deposit ones belongings and be at your position to start  whilst breathing normally, inside 10 minutes. You must compose yourself, or you will let your colleagues on the production line down”.

When asked what were some of the greater challenges in setting up in Poland, Jang replied, “Managing sickness levels. Poland had a 10% sickness level. We give the workers production targets. If they succeed them by 10%, they get 5% more pay. They cannot do this without each other. I don’t manage people’s sickness, their colleagues do “ The sickness levels at LG are 0.9 percent.  
Everywhere you went in the factory there were pictures on the walls of individuals or groups involved in activities or receiving awards, in every staircase and every corridor. They take caring and motivation seriously. In hoping to catch Jang off guard, I asked him why if there was only one shift per day, it began at 6am…was there cheaper electricity early in the morning?

“We start at 6:00 so that our workers can miss the traffic and with them leaving at 2, they can meet the children from school.”
Overall we were overwhelmed and impressed with the LG TV factory in Warsaw and by Jang Hyeu Lee.