Making the best products involves more than just combining good ingredients in an optimal formula. You see, it's important to maintain total product quality, even though tens of thousands are manufactured each and every day. This is the reason Skincare Manufacturing Technology Team has been tasked with putting in place the specialized manufacturing technology infrastructure of AMOREPACIFIC. This award-winning team has seen its efforts to boost group productivity and improve quality go from success to success. We met Kang Myoung-gu, whose performance in the team has really stood out.

I first came across AMOREPACIFIC through its internship program when I was in the university. I became interested in cosmetics while learning about the process management strategies and facilities that I saw in books through studying chemical engineering, my major. I've been with the Skincare Manufacturing Technology Team since the team was first assembled, but before that I previously worked in the Production Team, QA Team and Production Support Teams.

The Skincare Manufacturing Technology Team studies and tests processes and facilities in order to ensure that the optimal formula developed at the R&D Center is implemented at the production site. We also design processes to ensure consistency in product quality when products are mass-produced through replicating the initial formula developed within a small lab. We also develop specialized manufacturing technology for the AMOREPACIFIC to make exciting new products that are unprecedented in the market.

Having the optimal formula, even-quality ingredients, skilled workers and good facilities are all essential to making good quality cosmetics. When I was new to the job, I wondered why there was such a minute difference in quality when products were being produced on the same day under the same conditions using the same facilities. I remember I wished I had second sight to see into big facilities like Superman. Then three years ago, our team was set up and I decided to fulfill my long-cherished desire to see whether things inside manufacturing facilities were being mixed well.

The key innovation is to build technology manufacturing infrastructure to quantify phenomena that do not meet the eye, and predict and understand changes in the flow of fluid, as required. Mothers have long known that taste and texture of rice, porridge, muk (jellied food) and tofu differ depending on the speed, direction and time of stirring ingredients in an iron pot with a rice paddle and the temperature inside the pot. In fact, master craftsmen in all fields have long known the merits and demerits of the equipment and tools they use. In just the same way, having specialized infrastructure of our own will be of great help in developing and producing new products.

In a cooking contest, you can see that the taste of the food chiefly relies on the skill of the chef, even when the same amount of ingredients and the same recipe are used. As with chefs, so too with cosmetics makers, who are constantly seeking new recipes while providing products with good, consistent quality. Innovation in manufacturing technology allows customers to recognize the value of our products as the best. It also helps build up our own inimitable competitive edge.

We are working in close cooperation with the R&D Center on developing a new innovative product. We'll enhance our manufacturing technologies so that they can play a key role in developing new products capable of astonishing the world.