Hyundai Steel is accelerating the spread of a companywide culture of innovation by holding its in-house contest, the "Innovation Festival." The aim is to secure intensive cost improvements and sustained competitiveness even amid a difficult business environment.
Hyundai Steel held the "1st Innovation Festival" on the 16th at its training center in Dangjin, South Chungcheong. The Innovation Festival is a program designed to identify excellent cases of innovation activities promoted in each institutional sector and spread them companywide. Its core is to share practical improvement activities derived from all areas—production, research, quality, and more—so that insights can be immediately applied to frontline operations across various fields.
At the first Innovation Festival, 22 excellent cases were selected across eight fields. Seven cases were delivered as oral presentations, representing each institutional sector with examples in work-process improvement, cost reduction, quality enhancement, and safety reinforcement. The introduction of a predictive maintenance system for the No. 1 hot-rolling line improved equipment stability, and optimizing the oxygen balance fed into the electric arc furnace achieved cost savings. Production quality also improved through upgrades to the No. 3 CGL cold-rolling facility at the Suncheon plant.
Lee Bo-ryong, president of Hyundai Steel, who attended the event, said, "We are not in a period of simple change but in an 'era of transition,' and accurate awareness of environmental shifts, along with organizational reform and preemptive responses, is essential for survival." Lee emphasized, "Such a transition requires, above all, collaboration across the entire organization, not by individuals."