Invest KOREA

Connecting Signals, Connecting Worlds

Molex Korea meets the demands of an uber-connected era

In an industrial part of Ansan, Gyeonggi-do devoid of the sleek, urban trappings of high-tech times, Molex Korea creates a component integral to our high-tech lives: connectors.

They’re in your phone, TV, computer, refrigerator - in any electronic device. They’re what make the touch of your finger on your smartphone transfer to the menu option you want. They connect one signal to another, one device to another and, ultimately, people and experiences.

“It’s kind of a bridge function,” said Kim Hyo-jeong, with Molex Korea’s Marketing Communication department.

As a producer of connectors for a fast-changing and increasingly connected world, Molex must transform accordingly to meet demand. That’s why Lee Jae-hoon, managing director of Molex Korea, runs his company with the motto, “Let’s change it, otherwise we’ll be changed by others.”

The Illinois-based Molex established its Korea facilities 27 years ago. The leading global supplier of interconnect products has 39 manufacturing locations in 16 countries and customers in the telecommunications, data communications, consumer electronics, industrial, automotive, medical and other industries.

Molex designs, develops and distributes more than 100,000 products, including electronic, electrical and fiber optic interconnects. Main connector types include board-to-board connectors, wire-to-board connectors and wire-to-wire connectors.

Molex Korea’s domestic customers include all the business units of Samsung and LG, Hyundai Motors, Kia Motors, Daewoo Motors and other automotive companies. With these global conglomerates churning out thinner, faster, more powerful products, Molex Korea is also churning out thinner, faster, more powerful connectors.

Connector height can be a limitation to creating thin products, Lee said. So his engineers get creative about overcoming this limitation. What they did with two connectors in the past, they figure out how to do with one. They create a 0.7mm-thin connector with 42 miniscule pins and terminal gaps about as thin as a strand of hair.

“We’re trying to stand on the edge of improved technologies,” said Lee, who encourages his engineers to do this by traveling to other countries for training on the latest in their trade. Molex Korea also works with other Molex entities to develop new concepts and share their advanced technologies.

In addition to keeping up with changing technologies, Molex Korea has a customer-oriented attitude toward service that has reduced the product development period from three to four months to one month. It also invests about 4 to 5 percent of its revenues into research and development and launched its own technology research institute in 2003.

Through an ERP system run by SAP, the Korea facility can also manage customer orders for Molex’s 100,000 products, including Molex Korea’s 4,500 products.

The 500-person operation experienced 37 percent growth last year and expects about 26 percent this year thanks to major customers that are growing and a focus on expanding industries like the telecommunications and LCD TV sectors.

Molex Korea has achieved more than just good numbers. For the last two years, it received the Good Place to Work award from Korea Economic Magazine and Job Korea. Lee, who has been at the helm of the Korea branch for four years and with the company for 23 years, says he encourages his employees to change and to communicate, as communication is key to being creative and staying current. “We try to make our working place to be [one of] pleasure. The site of, let’s say, fun,” he said. “We’re working under some pressure, but not wrong pressure. Right pressure.”

With growing sales and capacity restrictions in their current facilities, which are more than 27 years old, the site is undergoing a two-phase rebuilding with a $30 million investment from Molex headquarters. Phase one involves the construction of a new facility, which will be completed by October. In phase two, the current buildings will be demolished and replaced with new facilities by August of 2012.

With the new development, Molex Korea will begin manufacturing electronic parts and connectors previously imported from Japan. This is projected to generate a production inducement effect of 2.173 trillion won (US$2 billion) and an import substitution effect of 54 billion won for the next five years.

The new development is sure to help materialize Lee’s “three-by-three vision” for Molex Korea as well, which is to increase revenue three-fold within three years.

“That’s a really tough goal but we think that’s our mission statement,” said Lee.