The government selected 'Smart Factories' as one of the eight innovative growth projects, and announced that it will invest 1.3 trillion won next year, which is more than double the 440 billion won budget for smart factories, with the goal of distributing 30,000 smart factories by 2022.

What is the smart factory that has emerged with the advent of 5G?

▶ Smart Factory and 5G ◀

A smart factory is an intelligent factory that applies ICT technology combined with digital solutions in the production process to improve productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction. However, LG U+ Advisor Park Jong-wook reinterpreted it as a factory with a flexible and intelligent production system for producing customer-tailored products.

The most significant characteristic of the demand for the 4th industrial revolution is the change from a supplier-centered mass production system to a demand-centered customer-tailored production system. In order to maximize productivity while accepting various customer requirements, it is becoming an important task to make factories intelligent and have a flexible system.

▲ Stages of a smart factory

The smart factory is divided into five stages. Stage 1 is a manual stage that focuses on experience-based improvements, and Stage 2 is computerization, which manages data through systems. In the third stage of automation, work is done to control standards and rules and improve efficiency, and in the fourth stage of information, data-based analysis and optimization are performed. In the final fifth stage of intelligence, AI-based predictive control and autonomy and flexibility are performed. Among these, the core stages of smart factories are in the third stage of automation and the fourth stage of information.

The existing factory is a vertical and closed system with mass production centered on suppliers. It is also a line production system of an automated system. Therefore, the existing one reflects only a part of customer requirements and the manufacturing cycle is long.

However, smart factories utilizing 5G are building an autonomous, distributed, open system with demand-oriented, customer-tailored production, and have a flexible production system with an automated, intelligent system. Therefore, they reflect various customer requirements and have a short manufacturing cycle.

Therefore, factory intelligence requires a high-quality wireless network for big data collection and analysis control through hyper-connectivity of facilities, and a flexible production system with high mobility and variability.

▶ 5G Features and Benefits ◀

5G has the advantages of wireless mobility, variability, ease of deployment, and hyper-connectivity, and has high-quality performance of ultra-high speed, ultra-low latency, and hyper-connectivity compared to existing wireless networks. This has brought about an era in which the advantages of wireless can be actively utilized to ensure factory intelligence and flexibility.

▲ LTE vs 5G (1) Movie 'Kingsman' Blu-ray 1080p uncompressed version

As shown in the table above, 5G has a maximum transmission speed 20 times faster than LTE, a transmission delay 1/10 times faster, and a connection count 10 times faster, accurately demonstrating the characteristics of 5G, which are ultra-high speed, ultra-low delay, and hyper-connectivity, compared to wireless LTE. The current 5G is planned and consumed for B2B (Business to Business) rather than B2C (Business to Customer).

The current telecommunications market is extremely saturated. So each telecommunications company is thinking about how to find new markets in the future. In that respect, while the communications market has so far been a 'person vs. person' market, there are high expectations for creating a new market in the industrial IoT sector that realizes new values such as 'person vs. object' and 'robot vs. object' in the future.

If we look at the network infrastructure, which is one of the components of the smart factory, communication performance includes data transmission volume per facility (User Experienced Data Rate (Mbps)), authentication/encryption/stability (Security & Stability), data transmission volume per factory (Area Traffic Capacity (Gbps/km2)), and time taken for data to arrive (Latency (ms)). Flexibility includes the advantages of wireless, such as support for movement (Mobility & Flexivility (km/h)), sensors/facilities to connect (Connection Density (devices/km2)), and ease/economic feasibility of construction and operation (Installation & Operation ($/device)).

Existing LTE and Wi-Fi have far lower performance than wired. Therefore, wired has been used in limited ways in actual factories. Now, in the case of 5G, if performance is approaching that of wireless, it is an era in which the advantages of wireless, such as mobility, variability, and hyper-connectivity, can be actively utilized. As a result, the combination of smart factories and 5G will not only improve product productivity, but also play a major role in shortening production time and reducing defect rates.

▶ LG U+ Industrial IoT Business ◀

Currently, LG U+ Industrial IoT's business area is building industrial IoT solutions for smart factories based on wireless network services and providing total services. The current direction of promotion is to start with indirect areas such as safety, security, environment, and logistics in large and complex factories where there are many wireless needs based on the advantages of wireless networks such as wide coverage and mobility, and to expand to direct areas such as facilities, quality, process, and production with the recent emergence of 5G due to advancements in communication technology.

In 2016, we launched LTE-based safety/environment/security/logistics solutions to LG Chem’s Daesan plant and in 2017, we launched facility solutions to chemical, steel, and power plants and expanded to other affiliates and general companies. From the second half of 2018 to the present, we are currently verifying and applying 5G-based interconnection solutions centered on six sites.

Currently, LG U+'s industrial IoT solution has been introduced to 32 factories of six major manufacturing affiliates of LG Group, and the solution has also been introduced to factories in major industrial complexes and public institutions across the country.

▶ Status of wireless network-based solutions ◀

Looking at the current status of industrial IoT solutions expansion, it can be broadly divided into safety, environment, security, logistics, facilities, and production/process/quality.
A closer look at the current situation is as follows.

▲ Current status of industrial IoT solution expansion

- safety -
> Industrial cam: App-based on-site video relay, drone video linkage
> IoT Helmet: Dedicated Helmet-based Field Video Transmission, IP-PTT, Location Control
> IoT Earthquake Safety: Sensor-based Seismic (3-axis acceleration), Range Setting and Real-time Notification
> IoT Gas Safety: Combustible/Toxic 48 Types Concentration Measurement, Explosion-Proof LTE Network Integrated Terminal
> Worker safety management: App-based worker location location (hazardous areas, evacuation routes, etc.), utilization of beacons and beacon readers

- environment -
> IoT flow management: flow (water, wastewater) usage management, uninterrupted construction (external wall-mounted terminal)
> IoT Odor Diagnosis: Sulfur/Amine/VOC Series Diagnosis (Sensor-based), Odor Source Tracking (Atmospheric Modeling))

- security -
> LTE Radio: App-based radio, voice/video transmission

- distribution -
> Vehicle control: App-based location and route control, driving log

- facility -
> IoT motor diagnosis: current/voltage-based diagnosis (dedicated terminal), big data-based (13 million analysis DB)
> IoT pump management: temperature/pressure/power measurement (dedicated terminal), flow rate/head/efficiency management

- Production, process, quality, etc. -
> 5G-based: 5G-based smart factory solution under development

▶ Smart Factory Solutions and 5G Utilization Cases ◀

The fundamental purpose of smart factories in factories is to improve failures, defects, and SCM loss, to improve personnel operation efficiency, and to resolve safety and environmental risks. The solutions for this are equipment predictive maintenance solutions such as vibration, current, and sound, quality prediction solutions such as FDC (Equipment Analysis System, Fault Detection and Classification), and intelligent CCTV to manage security and safety. These solutions are making factories smarter.

But these solutions can unlock the value of wireless if they are directly connected to 5G, which offers mobility, flexibility, ease of deployment, and hyper-connectivity.

Here are some examples of 5G use cases:

- In a factory that molds smartphone cases, 5G is applied to autonomous logistics robots, and environmental sensors and surveillance cameras are installed on AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) to be used as processing tools for various management purposes, such as securing visibility as well as logistics transport.

- Existing drones are directly controlled by people, but smart drones equipped with 5G can directly inspect structures and check temperature changes by mounting a thermal imaging camera on the drone to check flare stacks in petrochemical plants.

- Function of patrolling for the security or safety of factory personnel within the factory complex using smart drones

- Connect a video camera to heavy equipment and control it remotely with 5G

▶ Expected effects and development direction of smart factories ◀

According to the 'Analysis of Socio-Economic Ripple Effects in the 5G Era' published by the KT Economic and Management Research Institute, the manufacturing industry is expected to surpass finance, automobiles, and media as the industry with the greatest expected effects, which has become a hot topic.

idth: 700px; height: 466px;" />

Smart factories realized with 5G technology are expected to be a factor that can greatly help future manufacturing by bringing added value and efficiency to manufacturing. However, 5G smart factories still need to improve on issues such as stable data supply and security. There are some issues, but I hope that these issues will be improved and developed to bring about a new wind of change in domestic manufacturing.