Gun-Ho asked President Song, “Do you think we will need to open a cafeteria in the second factory building as well?”
“The idea of it came up during the meeting last time, and I’ve been thinking about it. And, now since we have 50 more workers in the second factory building, we hired a cooking lady to work in that location.”
“One cooking lady would be enough?”
“She just needs to prepare cooked rice and soup in the kitchen in the factory no. 2, and all other dishes will be cooked in the first factory’s kitchen and sent to the second factory. Once we have more than 200 workers working in the factory no. 2 in the future, we will hire one more cooking lady.”
“Hmm, that sounds good.”
“I will contact the screw manufacturing company in Seattle and find more about it, to prepare the trip there.”
President Song took the screw manufacturing company’s contact information that Gun-Ho gave to him before walking out of the office.
Gun-Ho asked Secretary Hee-Jeong Park to bring him a cup of Solomon’s tea. Gun-Ho leaned back on his sofa while having the tea. He was thinking of various things when his phone started ringing. It was CEO Park from A Group’s planning and coordination department.
“This is Gun-Ho Goo.”
“It’s me, CEO Park.”
“Hello, sir. I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to you at Minister Jin-Woo Lee’s book publication party the other day. How are you?”
“I left the party early that day too. There were just so many people, and I didn’t want to stay longer.”
“GH Mobile is currently providing high-quality products to A Electronics without any defective products.”
“I was told of it. It’s mid-June now. Before the weather gets warmer, would you like to have a round of golf with us?”
“Golf? Which country club do you have in mind?”
“Minister Jin-Woo Lee will play golf at Golden Bay this week. He will soon join the political party—Gongmyeong. Once he joins the party, he will be too busy to play golf. So, he wants to have his last round of golf this week.”
“Where is Golden Bay located?”
“You don’t know of Golden Bay? It’s a country club situated in Taean County in South Chungcheong Province. The club is operated by Hanwha Corporation. You can enjoy the ocean view of the west side while you play golf there. Because of the fantastic ocean view, they charge more than 200 million won for a membership fee. I believe that Taean County is in a close distance from Jiksan Town where your company is situated.”
Gun-Ho was not very interested in playing golf with them, especially if he had to drive all the way to Taean County. However, he couldn’t just say no to them. Minister Jin-Woo Lee was the one who had presided over his wedding, and CEO Park was one of GH Mobile’s major client companies. He had to join them for golf.
“Of course. I will be there with pleasure.”
“We will have a morning round, so you will have to come very early in the morning. Minister Jin-Woo Lee stays late at night these days going fishing and enjoying other activities. He will be staying in the Tuscan Village at Golden Bay Golf & Resort.”
Gun-Ho wanted to have some fresh air and went down to the production site to take a walk.
The maintenance department was one of the areas where Gun-Ho rarely visited. But that day, he stopped by the maintenance department’s office. The office was located in the corner of their workshop. There were lathes with various tools hanging on the wall at the maintenance workshop. Also, they had a metal shelf on one side, and all sorts of machine parts were stored there in an organized way. Gun-Ho could also see an oxyacetylene torch. On a metal table, a lot of pieces of machine parts were scattered.
There were two workers working there. One of them was the maintenance team’s team lead; he was writing something on the logbook.
“Hmm.”
Gun-Ho entered the office while tying his hands together behind his back. The team lead quickly stood up from his seat when he saw Gun-Ho.
“Mr. Director is in the production site, sir.”
The team lead seemed to think that Gun-Ho was there to see Director Jong-Suk Park.
“I’m not here for him. What are you doing now?”
“The workbench motor is broken, and we were repairing it.”
“Hmm, I see.”
The maintenance team’s duty was to keep the machines in the production site in a working condition. It was like mechanics’ work in an auto repair shop. Gun-Ho looked around their workshop. Jong-Suk used to spend a lot of time in a place like this.
‘Jong-Suk Park is now 36 years old. It has been ten years since he worked with machine maintenance.’
Jong-Suk Park had worked in the maintenance team of a factory since he was in Pocheon City and Yangju City. He obtained various skills certificates while working there. He had 7 skills certificates in total including for his welding skill.
Gun-Ho asked, “Mr. Team Lead, how old are you?”
“I’m 46 years old, sir.”
“How long have you been in the machine maintenance field?”
“I used to work as an auto mechanic before, and I joined the machine maintenance field later. It has been twelve years.”
“I believe that you have more work experience in this field than Director Park.”
“Mr. Director Park is younger than me, but I can’t compete with him in this field. He can spot the broken part of a machine by hearing the noise from the machine.”
“Is that right?”
“When we worked with the world-renowned engineer—Mr. Sakata Ikuzo—Director Park was his favorite colleague.”
“Oh, do you know Mr. Sakata Ikuzo?”
“Of course, sir. We all worked with him together for several months.”
“Hmm, I see.”
At the moment, the team lead’s smartphone started ringing, he then answered the phone. Gun-Ho could hear the person’s voice on the other line. It was Jong-Suk. He seemed to be in a hurry.
“Brother? Is the motor not ready yet?”
“It’s done.”
“You didn’t work on it but asked someone else to do the job, did you? The workers here are doing nothing but killing the time because they don’t have the motor.”
“Okay. I will bring the motor right away. I’m on my way. Someone is in our office right now. That’s why…”
“Who? Who is there?”
“Mr. President is here.”
“Mr. President? President Song?”
“No, Mr. President Goo is here.”
“Oh, Mr. President Goo is there? Okay, I will be there.”
Gun-Ho walked out of the maintenance department, and the team lead followed him out.
“You can go back to work.”
When Gun-Ho gestured to the maintenance team lead that he could go back to his workshop, the team lead went back to his worksite.
At that moment, Gun-Ho saw Jong-Suk Park running toward him.
“Bro, you are here.”
“It seems that you are doing a great job here.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Is that motor attached to the workbench often broken like that?”
“Yeah, it’s just old. That machine has been here from the Mulpasaneop era.”
“Don’t we need to buy a new one then?”
“We can’t buy it anywhere. That machine was built here in this factory.”
“Oh, is that right?”
“We just need to simply fix the motor at the maintenance department whenever it’s broken. They are just too slow doing it. Once it’s fixed, it will work for another year without any problems.”
“Hmm, really? I actually came here to talk to you about the twin screws thing. You said that you can build the machine that Dyeon Korea is using if you have the twin screws, right?”
“Yeah, I said that.”
“Then, build one. I want you to build Dyeon Korea’s machine with the people at the maintenance department.”
