The 35th national quality management contest was held at COEX in Seoul on Nov. 25 with the attendance of some 1,700 government officials, businessmen, workers and other guests.
The annual event, sponsored by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and managed by the Korean Standards Association (KSA), is designed to spread quality management activities to all industries by presenting national quality awards to excellent companies and businessmen that greatly contributed to improving the quality of goods and services, a KSA spokesman said.
At the 2009 national quality management contest, a total of 15 companies and organizations received national quality awards in recognition of their excellent quality management activities.
Korea Plant Service Engineering (KPS) and Yura Corp. won the Korea Quality Grand Award, and eight companies and organizations, including Asiana Airlines and Sungkyunkwan University, received a Quality Management Award. Meanwhile, the Korean Air Force got the Talent Development Award.
In the medical service sector, which was newly established this year, Bundang Cha Hospital of Cha University and Korea University Anam Hospital won the Quality Management Award.
In the education sector, Sungkyunkwan University and Dongkuk University won the Quality Management Award.
By presenting awards to universities and institutions in the medical service, education and public sectors, KPS hopes to spread the quality management activities to the nation's key industries, the spokesman said.
In the meantime, nine companies and organizations, including Hi Mart, received the Service Quality Excellence Award. Five companies, including Kumho Polychem, won the Quality Competitiveness Excellence Award.
In recognition of their contribution to promoting quality management, Kwon Oh-hyun, CEO of Samsung Electronics in the semiconductor business, and Chung Dong-hak, CEO of STX Engine, received the Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit. A total of 85 entrepreneurs received awards.
In addition, 28 workers, including Kyung Soo-ho of Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, took the Quality Master Hand Award and 222 circles, including a circle of Dongbu Steel, garnered the Best Circle Award for their creative activities to improve businesses in the office, public and service fields, the spokesman said.
Delivering an address at the event, Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said, "I extend great thanks to enterprises and workers that make best efforts to provide consumers with high-quality products and services through quality innovation and improvement of processes. I hope quality management for customer value and happiness will become corporate culture and build an industrial foundation for a sustainable Low Carbon and Green Growth strategy.
"The best way to attain sustainable growth in an era of limitless competition is to bolster the price competitiveness of Korean products and attain top-class quality. By doing so, we should move global consumers," he concluded.
Meanwhile, the national quality management contest started in 1975 to present awards to enterprises and workers that made great contributions to strengthening industrial competitiveness by playing a leading role in the industrial spread of quality management, improvement of productivity and cultivation of creative thinking.
In the course of quality innovation, executives and employees join hands, seek labor-management harmony, and jack up morale, greatly contributing to spreading quality management activities to all areas in the country, the spokesman said.
Through the national quality management contests, 443 excellent companies, 3,923 best circles, 1,270 master hands and 1,611 contributors have so far received awards, the KSA said.
