Samsung Galaxy Mobile Korea manufacturing plant: like a college campus

Have you ever considered the production of tens of millions of smartphones and tablets that Samsung sells every year? Is the scene in your mind a crowded dormitory for workers? An extremely tiring production environment? Sweatshops? We've all seen stories and photos of that kind, but that's not what I saw in Samsung's mobile phone manufacturing plant. At the beginning of April this year, I had the privilege of visiting Samsung's Galaxy handset manufacturing plant in Gumi, Korea. It is not so much a production center as it is a university campus dotted with recreational facilities and musical fountains and outdoor speakers made of stone shapes. The design of the factory is naturally simple, clean, and can even sit on the ground to eat. Outside people must put on their shoes when they visit the factory to avoid fouling the factory. The air in the factory is very fresh, giving people a feeling more like a nursing home than the tens of thousands of smartphones produced by Nissan. Most of the workers in Samsung's manufacturing plants are young women around the age of 20. The Samsung receptionist who took us into the plant said that many workers had entered the factory as soon as they had graduated from high school because they had not been admitted to college, and that they had left the factory when they got married, but Samsung offered Yeda courses for workers who wanted to further their studies. The factory regularly assesses workers ' performance and hangs a huge bulletin board on one wall of the factory, with photographs and performance scores for each worker. This can foster a sense of competition among the workers, reminding them that their supervisors are looking at their performance. There are many workers ' lounges, library and game rooms in the production plant. In addition, there are classrooms and model workstations where employees can learn how to assemble new products. Basically, it's completely different from the sweatshops you imagine. The turtle tail is an industrial town, about 3 hours ' drive from Seoul. The city center is full of Samsung, LG and other Korean electronics companies in the production plant, the middle of mixed with factories, shopping malls and hotels. Workers usually live in apartments around each production center.