The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 11
Only Noblemtl
11. Factory Test Run
The proposal was accepted more easily than expected.
I thought it would take some time, but he surprised me by accepting the job right away when he was offered the position of head of a new factory.
“Unexpected, huh?”
“What? Ah! I accepted the offer right away.”
Kwak Ji-moon smiled lightly, caressing the coffee cup in front of him.
When he smiled, the deep wrinkles at the corners of his mouth became deeper.
“I thought you’d be a little worried. You’re quitting a job you’ve had your whole life, right?”
“I’m worried because I watched from the side as you saved us.”
“I guess it’s true that we saved it. Didn’t our food run smoothly without any problems before?”
“No, our food industry has had a very hard time. Until the early 90s, the factories were bustling, but the market share of the ramen market stagnated, and during the IMF crisis, we were shaken for a while because of promissory notes.”
“Really? I thought the company was doing well.”
“On the outside, it was like that. It must have seemed like a company that didn’t expand its business and just piled up cash. But during the IMF crisis, many of the factories we were dealing with collapsed. We were gradually entangled in that and suffered great losses. If we hadn’t had enough cash on hand, we would have gone down too. Oh my! Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. The promissory notes the company received kept defaulting, and when they had to collect the money, they would rush in and demand cash.”
Kwak Ji-moon shook his head as if he didn’t even want to think about it.
“I didn’t know that at all?”
“Who goes into someone’s home and tells them everything about the company? The chairman or president isn’t that kind of person.”
I thought so.
“Anyway, the company is invigorated by that strange equipment you built. But, you know, we stopped increasing our production capacity, right?”
“I know.”
“It’s all because of concerns about personnel reduction. If you rapidly increase personnel and then later reduce the number of personnel, that would be too much for the two of you. Even during the IMF crisis, there was a lot of talk about cutting employees! For a while, there was no work, so you were idle. But you two didn’t cut employees.”
“Wasn’t it difficult back then?”
“But the chairman stayed up all night worrying about the financial issues and never laid off any employees. Fortunately, sales increased right away and we were able to overcome the difficult times, but it must have been a huge trauma for the chairman and the president.”
“···.”
“That caused a big problem for the company.”
“What is that?”
“Factory automation has been greatly delayed. Other companies are making a fuss about automating their factory equipment, but we are far behind. When you brought the equipment, I was wondering what it was, but its performance is amazing. That’s what I thought when you said you were building a factory. You will become a company whose production depends almost entirely on automated equipment. Am I wrong?”
He smiled broadly. As expected, old ginger tastes spicy.
“No, you saw it correctly. It will be a factory that is almost entirely automated and partially assisted by human workers.”
“Huh! I guess I was right.”
Factory Manager Kwak nodded and smiled with satisfaction.
“So, have you thought about the factory site?”
“Not yet. I’ve been looking around here and there, but nothing really catches my eye.”
“How big should it be? Do you have an idea?”
“I wish the site was bigger. I need to think about expansion as well.”
Manager Kwak, who had been frowning for a moment and thinking, hit the table.
“There was a food factory all day long. Food all day long······. You don’t know. It was a factory that made sweets, but it was a company that went bankrupt along with Myeongtae Confectionery. It was a place that had a deep connection with that.
“The size of the factory is roughly what you think it is. It has a large site, so we are having trouble finding a buyer.”
“I should go there sometime.”
“Yeah, and by the way, what about the personnel?”
“There will be 12 automated machines running to make noodles, and people will also be needed to make the soup, so roughly 20 people will be enough.”
“Hmm, 20 people. Once the automated equipment is installed, it won’t be a big deal.”
Factory Manager Kwak hesitated for a moment, wondering what he wanted to say. I quickly spoke first, thinking I knew what he meant.
“Of course. There won’t be much physical exertion involved. So, the factory manager can pick around 20 people. It doesn’t matter if they’re old or women.”
Perhaps because he heard the sound he wanted, Factory Kwak’s face brightened.
“That’s really good news. There are some guys from our group who haven’t been able to find a place. If we bring them in and pass the dice around, we’ll probably get some really useful guys.”
No matter how good a company is, there are bound to be people who leave the company for one reason or another.
As for me, it didn’t really matter.
“That’s great. We’ll secure the factory site as quickly as possible and take care of the rest.”
After that, Manager Kwak left the office satisfied after discussing the rough outline of the factory while chatting about this and that.
I was satisfied with the factory that Manager Kwak recommended. It was the size I wanted, and most importantly, the seller was very proactive.
They lowered the price to their desired level by intervening with a brokerage firm. The appraised value was 15 billion won, but it was not accepted twice in the auction, so they negotiated and settled for 8.2 billion won. They could have lowered the price if they had dragged on for more time, but time was the key.
Since the IMF crisis had just ended and the land market was still frozen, there was no great difficulty in purchasing.
All the machines inside were disposed of, and the ordered equipment began to be installed one by one.
After a week of fuss, the desired fixtures were finally in place.
“This is an automated ramen production facility?”
Chairman Cho and Director Cho, both looking around the tidy factory, carefully examined the machines inside with curious eyes.
When I said I would take it for a test drive, he came running like crazy.
“What brings you here?”
“Hey, you’re opening a factory, so of course I should come and see you. But you’re trying to run the factory without even holding a ceremony! No matter how much the world changes, you have to keep going.”
“Yes, we definitely have to hold a memorial service to prevent accidents.”
I’m the type of person who doesn’t care either way, but I couldn’t just let it go when they said something like that.
“Okay, then let’s do it after the test drive is finished.”
I just gave in to the passion of these two people.
As I put in the prepared ingredients and turned on the machine, the equipment began to move smoothly.
The two people kept exclaiming in admiration as they watched the noodles being created.
“Oh my! It’s so soft. The thickness of the noodles adjusts itself.”
As the noodles were cooked in hot steam and went through the process of being put in and out of the boiling water, sighs erupted from those watching the process.
Chairman Cho, who has been making ramen by hand since the early days of the ramen industry, had a deeply moved expression on his face.
“Back in my day, we had to carry sacks of flour on our backs to make noodles. I got burned countless times frying the noodles in that boiling water.”
Chairman Cho was the one who kept repeating the phrase, “It’s my time,” which is the specialty of older people.
A variety of emotions crossed his face.
He had a somewhat happy and bitter expression on his face as he thought about how the world has changed a lot with automation.
At first, the investigator looked at the production facility with curious eyes, but he also had a complicated expression.
“You have 21 employees? The amount of material produced by the automated machine you just installed is 300 million bags per year. At this rate, there won’t be any more positions for employees later.”
“It’s still early days. If we expand the facilities a little later, we can produce up to 1 billion units.”
The number of our food production staff exceeded 250. When I heard the number of people in the new factory I had created, I was at a loss as to what to do next.
In my view, it was a needless worry.
The words just came out of my mouth without me realizing it.
“If automated equipment comes in and the number of production personnel decreases, why worry? Just move on to other industries.”
When you enter a new business, you will inevitably need people.
“A new field? What field do you mean?”
The investigator, who was very interested in entering the new business, sparkled at my words.
“It’s a liquor factory.”
The process in which the maturation period exerts its greatest power is, of course, alcohol.
Regardless of whether it is the Earth age or the space age, alcohol is one of the most consumed products by humans.
It was a must-have item, especially in the high-end liquor market where maturation requires a lot of time.
“You little bastard! What are you talking about! We’re a food company, what the……”
The investigator, who thought I was joking, looked angry but soon tilted his head.
I don’t know what the principle is behind the aging machine installed in the ramen factory, but doesn’t it create a rich and deep flavor in a short period of time?
The same goes for alcohol, the really big market is not the ramen market but the alcohol market.
“Alcohol? Alcohol…….”
The investigator was in deep thought for a moment.
Regardless, I closely observed the process of the equipment producing finished products and then packaging them in a consistent manner.
The quantity we were supposed to make as a prototype today was all produced without any accidents.
I sent the employees who had worked hard to prepare for the test drive off to a company dinner and sat down in the president’s office separately from my grandfather and father.
Unlike other companies, it was a very small space, but it was the perfect space to have separate conversations.
“What do you have to say?”
In the president’s office, several jars lined the walls.
“Oh, so that’s what you’re going to say.”
The jars were all labeled. They contained a variety of alcoholic beverages, from soju to whiskey.
“Let’s see. Hmm, is this high-quality soju? Or is this Andong soju?”
Chairman Cho opened the jar labeled “Soju” and sniffed it, tilting his head.
“No, it’s just the regular, commonly sold diluted soju.”
“Really? It doesn’t just smell like diluted soju?”
Chairman Cho took a sip of soju from a cup hanging in a corner.