For Survival, We Are Running again

``Are you saying that productivity is decreasing and facilities are out dated? No Way!`` (Hur Young-Jae, the fisrt Bupyung factory, quality management department)

``We are doing our best.``(Lim Sung-Whan, the first assembling department)

``We are not same any more.`` ( the chief of the first car body, Kim Soo-Bong)

Dae Woo Bupyung factory, that was pointed as a separate sale and might have to search a way to survive, was full of energy, crying out, `I want to work`

Yet behind this confidence and energy, there was a fear related to the separate sale to General Motors.

Tack Young-Kwan with 17 years of experience (42, the first assembling department) said, ``If the separate sale is not successful, we should search our own way to survive, and we are quite afraid of that.`` If the factory should search their own way to survive, it would bring a large scale of lay-off. So families of workers are also very anxious about it.

But the 270 thousands pyung - factory is now full of energy.

It is hard to find workers on the main and side road, since they do not leave the production line except twice a day for break.

Chief of the Bopyung Factory Han Ik-Soo said, ``It was not a phenomena that we could see before. The atmosphere of the factory is rapidly changing. The voluntary participation is very high.``

Different from the boring and long sale deal, the atmosphere of the factory is vital. Special working time is also revived.

``The average special working time per a person was 30 hours; even as much as 15 hours on August, a vacation season.`` (Kim Young-Wha, quality management department)

The vital atmosphere is partly by the 5.1 billion of black ink of July. The reason of black ink results from reformation of company structure, which is done partly through lay off.

Dae Woo Motor Company cut 30 percent of its jobs (7410 jobs) from last October to this July. Executives` efforts was one of the reasons of the black ink.

Bupyung Factory changed its program and made a system that gives responsibility to each person for his/her line. The tragic atmosphere of the production line even has a slogan which states, ``On the border of life and death, should we work.``

Chief Han said, ``Although the quantity of the production decreased, productivity and quality is improving 9 percent and 40 percent each.``

Five p.m., the first assembling line at the first Bupyung Factory.

On the electric sign on the wall, it was written: ``The goal of today: Lanos 363 current achievement: 363, the rate of operation: 100 percent.``

Workers of Bupyung Factory is expecting that new car T-200 (Project title, succeeding model of Lanos), which requires a mass production, will bring hope.

``We should survive until then.`` - a monologue by a worker.

daviskim@donga.com