Eaton

Today marked the first company visit for the Plus3 South Korea group. The South Korean offices of the global company, Eaton, located in Pyeongtaek, featured two main stories. The first floor enclosed the main factory line and warehouse, while the second floor featured the corporate offices, where most business and engineering-related employees were stationed. I have had prior experiences with Eaton through facility tours and career fairs in the Greater Pittsburgh Area, however Eaton Korea was different than I anticipated. In Pittsburgh, Eaton has a large presence in the innovation of electric-related products. In Korea, though, Eaton focused on the manufacturing of Automobile parts. The picture to the right depicts a sample part product offered by Eaton Korea.

The tour of Eaton Korea began on the 2nd floor, through an interactive presentation by one of the plant’s managers. He explained the purpose of Eaton Korea, as well as the various car-focused products they manufactured. As someone easily fascinated by numbers, I was impressed by Eaton Korea’s yearly revenue of ~100 million USD. At the conclusion of the presentation, the group proceeded downstairs for a tour of the factory’s assembly line and warehouse. We saw various employees working with machinery to produce the various car parts.

Particularly interesting, the factory floor featured a mix of autonomous and manual machinery. When referring to manual machinery, I am talking about the people helping craft the car components. For example, one of the stations consisted of the production of a fluid container, where an employee was placed at the end of the line observing the output for defects.

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience to visit Eaton Korea. The spokespeople were generous and, amidst a language barrier, made their best attempts to help us understand Eaton Korea. I am grateful for the opportunity to enhance my learning of machinery, relevant to my field of study, in a real world environment

Hyundai Mall

During the long drive back to Seoul, I was still thinking about the exciting tour we had in Eaton. Seeing their automotive parts production line opened my eyes to the broad field that is computer engineering.

Before I knew it, however, we had arrived at Seoul’s Hyundai Mall. This luxury-focused establishment features many high-end retailers and is a great place for some lovely sights. I wanted to buy a jacket yet decided against it after I saw the price tag of almost ~400,000 won. I walked with a group of friends all over the mall and was enchanted by the forest-like habitat found on the sixth floor. An image of the greenspace may be found below.

Wishing to find something more affordable, my group head to the basement, where all the food stalls were located. We split up, and I went with Alex K. and Taylor S. to get some tasty acai bowls. While it wasn’t originally our intentions, the unique pop-up shop had a long line, which caught our attention. I ended up ordering a tropical themed acai bowl which I thoroughly enjoyed. Overall, it was nice perusing the mall and noting the different brands that were popular in Korea.

Bears vs. Heroes

To conclude the day’s adventures, we went to the Gocheok Sky Dome, where we watched an exciting baseball game between the Doosan Bears and the Kiwoon Heroes. Since the home team was the Heroes, we were all cheering for them. Unfortunately, the team lost, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the long-time Heroes’ fans passion for their team. Unique to Korean baseball is a platform within the seating area where the team’s cheering squad amps up the team. I enjoyed the game, and if I had more time in Korea, would make attending a KBO game a tradition.

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect”.

-Former President Ronald Reagan