Gold Award for
Western Power

Pres. Kim Jong-shin gets the top award at the 32nd National Quality Management Rally

The Korea Western Power Co. is an independent power company set up in 2001, taking over thermal power plants from the Korea Electric Power Corp.
"Human, Technology, and Environment"are the major factors the company's guiding principle in its corporate ideal in making contribution to society by producing top-quality energy. The power company's 1,700 employees have been putting out all of their energy to satisfy its customers and creating social value through high-quality energy at low cost under the vision of "Leader of Industrial Development in the 21st Century."Western Power as of June 30 announced its assets totaled 3,419.1 billion won and sales totaled 2,227 billion won as of the end of 2005 and net income of 180 billion won with top credit ratings.
The company's total power generation capacity recorded 7.28 million Kw from its power plants in Taean, Pyeongtaik, West Incheon, and Samrangjin, taking up 12 percent of total power generated nationally. The power output will be expanded by 1.6 million Kw when Nos. 1 and 2 Cheongsong pumped water power plants with 600,000 Kw power generation capacities are completed this month and Nos. 7 & 8 thermal power plants in Taean with total power capacities of 1 million Kw are completed in March 2008.
The company is planning to build the Karolim tidal power plant capable of generating 480,000 Kw in electricity and an environmentally-friendly and most modern combined cycle power plant capable of producing 450,000 Kw of power in the near future.
Following are excerpts of an interview with Kim Jong-shin, president of Korea Western Power Co. on the occasion of winning the Industrial Medal Gold Tower at the 33rd National Quality Management Conference organized by the Korea Standard Association on November 24.
Question: What were your thoughts after winning the award?
Answer: I think the award I received is a reward for the efforts of all officers and staff of the company to upgrade both the company's competitive strength and service to supply better quality power to their countrymen and customers. It is also the recognition of efforts to reform management and their results since the establishment of the company by the government, rather than my personal achievement.
All of us at Western Power are glad that the company won the gold tower industrial medal this year, following the Korea Quality Grand Award last year, which is the result of all of us at the company doing our best to win the awards on a sustainable basis after introducing the quality management system since the establishment of the company. I promise that all of us will try hard to have the company step up a notch to become a World Best Genco by pursuing the reformative quality management program so that the company can supply inexpensive and good quality power to the people winning their trust.
Q: What are special characteristics of your company's quality management activity and what are key factors that you have been pushing in the activity?

A: Our company launched the reform activity ahead of others with the understanding that corporate competitiveness depends on the level of quality competitive edge. The company secured the ISO 9001 International Quality Management System Certificate, the establishment of the national quality management model in 2003 and the introduction of the 6 sigma in 2004 under an all company and sustainable reform activity.
The company has been trying to maintain its supply of best-quality power and the trust from consumers, which are the two most important elements in a power company's basic responsibility and as a leader in the power generation industry, playing the role of leading competition in the power industry.
Since I came to the company in 2004 as CEO, the company has been trying to step up a notch with its base of achievement since the company was launched.
The company has been pursuing a goal of making itself a company respected and preferred by young people under the 3-C slogan of Clean (the establishment of ethical management), Competitive (strengthening competitive capacity), and Companion (realization of harmonious management). All of us have been doing our best to achieve the management goal.
"Vision 2007 Realization of the Company for Young People"has 7 largest objectives under the 3 sectors: Securing Management Body Conditions for Moving Toward Value, Maximizing Core Capacities, Creation of Future Growth Engines, Boosting dynamic Organizational Nature, Realization of Organization Member Satisfaction, the Establishment of Kind, Clean and Stable Corporate Brand, and Activation of Social Contribution Service and 48 detailed implementation tasks.
Sustained cost reduction efforts have succeeded in cutting 106.5 billion won last year. The effort for management reform will continue to push the company's major operation targets including the supply of energy to the Chongla District in Incheon as part of the company's effort to find new future growth engines. The company has also been working on social service programs by setting up the Western Social Service Team with the ideal of sharing management. The company has also been focused on securing coals for power generation on an economically stable basis, along with its work on management reform through the six sigma program.
Q: What makes your company strong and what have been its core power sources?
A: Our company was the first one to build up the revolutionary quality management system among the power generation companies in 2002. All of its jobsites including the head office obtained the ISO 9001 certificate and OHSAS/KOHSA 18001 security health management certificate. We have upgraded the quality management system to world level by modeling it after the Malcolm Baldrige system, top global standard for quality management in the world and at the same time, promoted projects based on the Six Sigma Program to win the honor of acclaims that we are the best power company in the country for two years in a row. As a result, the company becomes the first winner of the National Quality Management Rally award in 2003 as a power generation company. We have not stopped there and continued to work for the productivity reform campaign and for the first time became the winner of the Korea Quality Award in 2005 as a state-owned company.
From 2003, the company established the management reform plan and has been pushing it over 17 projects as model projects under the plan, earning 33.5 billion won in effect and it was introduced to the office sector.
Q: What are some of the plans you have to sustain these programs and for their further development, which appears to be crucial to the success of the programs?
A: I plan to have the quality reform system take a deep root as the best one with the participation of all of our officers and staff based on the awareness of quality and its culture accumulated until now. I have set the realization of the Y-project 2007 as the management goal to lift the company a step up to be a company respected by young people and secured a management structure moving toward value upgrading by implementing the programs in seven large business areas. The Six Sigma Management Reform Program will be tailored to suit the company's nature as a state-owned company. The company will achieve the success in reform through fair reimbursement based on the BSC evaluation system.
The company will continue push reform management activities based on reform of process, quality and personnel in order to be a company that wins the trust of the public and where employees can achieve their dreams in all areas of the company's operation, not limited to the construction of power plants and operations.
Q: What are your ideas on management philosophy, view of quality and fostering talented personnel?
A: Management Philosophy-When I assumed the top management of the company, I made clear that I would make Western Power, the company that can sustain its development and respected, where talented people would gather so that the company would be the one preferred by young people. In order to make the company to be like that, it has to be an exciting one for employees to work for, be competitive and have a good image. I pored over and racked my brain to come up with means to make the company that we want. As a result, we have been pushing 50 large objectives in the 7 strategic areas of the company's operation.
Quality View-Professor Peter Drucker said, "If the 20th century was the century for production revolution, the 21st century is the age for the revolution for quality management."The quality management has emerged as a major factor for corporate competitiveness. The value of the electricity good has been evolutionized with the change in the value of social life. The installation industry has to upgrade the quality of process to enlarge the management DNA, which is possible with quality reforms, productivity reforms and cost reforms hit the highest management level. We have been operating the quality management team under the management reform office since January, last year. For tools to run the quality management, we have been operating the Six Sigma's management, recommendation, the activation of units and the production reform system, among others. To achieve management objectives, we have to implement quality reform.
Talent View-In my view, talented employees should be able to cope with changes in management environment actively and develop new management paradigms in the power market to secure a better competitive position, creative people lead change and reform. These are my views for talented persons to work for Western Power. Among our basic policies for the development of these persons who will lead the company in the 21st century are the training of experts by positions, the curriculum tailored for personal lessons support system and the creation of organizational culture to lead change and reform-four in all. By so doing, we can pull up the training of creative and challenging talents for systematic education of specialized generalists so that they can speed up the realization of the company's objectives with regard to management direction, vision and ideas. nw

Western Power President Kim Jong-shin

Western Power President Kim Jong-shin receives the Industrial Merit Medal Gold Tower from Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook at the Korea Quality Management Convention at Coex Center in Seoul Nov. 24.