Ssangyong shuffles into the black

Shuffling workers between assembly lines increased productivity at Ssangyong Motor Co., putting the company in the black in the first quarter after three quarters of deficits, the company said.
The system, implemented in January, placed workers on the assembly lines where they were needed, according to demand, and also raised management efficiency, said Choi Hyung-tak, president of Ssangyong Motor.
Ssangyong was the first automaker in Korea to introduce and carry out such a system.
Ssangyong’s first-quarter revenue climbed 14.9 percent from the previous quarter to 833.9 billion won ($899.8 million) while net profits amounted to 9.3 billion won, according to a regulatory report filed by the company late last month.
Its ratio of raw production costs to the sales price fell from an average of 84 percent last year to 79 percent in the first quarter. Hypothetically, the company saved 500,000 won in production raw costs on each 10 million won car.
“The move to the black followed our implementation of the shuffling system,” said Choi. “We no longer have any workers at our Pyeongtaek factory going home because they have no work to do.”
Ssangyong’s union went on strike for a month last year and the two parties negotiated for five months on wages and group negotiations. On Aug. 30, labor and management agreed on the shuffling system and not to lay off people or make other drastic changes. At the time, the company said that if the workers did not accept the system, it would close the factory. The labor union made management promise that it would not conduct any intentional restructuring.
Last year, workers on assembly lines passed away work hours by listening to lectures when things got slow. The company said that an average of 20 percent of workers were idle at any given time.
In the case of the four assembly lines at Pyeongtaek, which produces models such as the Chairman, the shifts were realigned. There is now only one day shift, with a reduced capacity from 18 to 14.
The people who didn’t have work to do were “shuffled” and sent to assembly lines for different cars.
“Before the shuffle system, we kept day and night shifts even if we had a lot of stock and the workers spent most of the time taking educational courses,” said a Ssangyong worker who asked not to be identified.

By Kim Tae-jin JoongAng Ilbo [wohn@joongang.co.kr]