 |
||
| ▲ Green Tec / CEO Lee Jeong-gon | ||
Pump is a mechanical device using suction or pressure to raise or move liquids, compress gases, or force air into inflatable objects such as tires. Where there is liquid or gas there likely are pumps.
While the domestic pump market is estimated 1.5 trillion won (1.3 billion USD), the global market is estimated about 50 trillion won, the reason a South Korean pump specialist Green Tec is ambitious to be the No.1 pump maker in the world.
Located in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, Green Tec makes pumps for general industrial use, power generation, irrigation and agriculture, and water treatment and underwater applications with cutting edge three dimensional techniques and IoT.
Alongside the manufacturing, the company provides services for repair and maintenance, system planning, installation, energy diagnosis and pump engineering.
Green Tec currently is carrying out a national project that involves development of underwater cameras to monitor underwater pumps. The years of accumulated expertise and capabilities of the company has been well received by the development of the world’s first endoscopy camera-loaded double suction volute pump which uses mobile and remote wire and wireless communications to monitor and control the pumps in real time.
It detects possible malfunction before it happens and alerts to change the heating parts. As a result, it has secured raised efficiency, performance and precision.
Green Tec CEO Lee Jeong-gon worked for LG (Lucky GoldStar) as an engineer before quitting the job to establish Green Tec in 1993. He poured yearly 36 million won (31,222 USD) in technical training of staff and 4 to 5% of the sales in research and development.
He rewarded monthly 500,000 (433 USD) money prize to a staff with improvement suggestion and free overseas travel alongside scholarship for children for the staff with 15 years of continuous services.
The result was that Green Tec obtained performance certificates for 618 kinds of foreign body detective underwater pumps February this year from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
CEO Lee has been proving his technical virtuosity and business acumen by receiving numerous citations and prizes: a SMEs and Startups Minister’s citation and a Daegu Regional Tax Office special venture prize in 2011, a Trade, Industry and Energy Ministerial prize at the 2013 Enterprise Innovation Awards, a Daegu Gyeongbuk Regional SMEs and Startups Office citation in 2015, a K-BIZ Chairman’s prize in 2016, a North Gyeongsang Provincial Governor’s prize in 2018, and a Procurement Service director’s citation and an Interior and Safety Minister’s prize in 2019. This year, he has listed his name in the 12 Respected Entrepreneurs given to those who set up role models for win-win management.
The goal of Lee and his team is clear: the world’s No.1 pump maker. For this, Lee and his team are currently focusing on development of high efficiency boiler water supply pumping, high efficiency oil well pumping and high efficiency foreign body detective pumping.
It is encouraging that Green Tec has built a smart factory in the Korean Water Cluster Daegu which will play the springboard to jump higher.
“I want to push up Green Tec into the World Class 300 first. When it’s done, it might be more plausible to be the world’s No.1 pump maker. Nothing is impossible if we set up a goal and try hard and harder and hardest. I want to wow the world with our innovative techniques.”
권동호 기자 dongho2010@naver.com
