▲Inside the ‘Smart Manufacturing Demo Factory’

Presenting a vision of a truly smart factory with a flexible production system based on hyper-connectivity
Digital Twin Platform, Edge-Cloud Utilization Data-Based AI Operation Management

On July 28, an advanced smart factory was unveiled that goes beyond the concept of automating existing factories and performs optimized artificial intelligence operations through digital twins from product planning and design to process design and development and production application. In particular, the first 'Smart Manufacturing Process Innovation Center' in Korea, which supports the development of key processes such as ultra-precision processing/assembly/inspection requested by small and medium-sized companies, verifies them through trial production, and provides one-stop support up to actual production, has opened in Korea.

Our magazine recently visited the 'Smart Manufacturing Process Innovation Center' opened by the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do.

The 'Smart Manufacturing Process Innovation Center' is the first national smart green industrial complex project and is located in Changwon National Industrial Complex, the country's top industrial complex in the field of mechanical processing. By converging cutting-edge ICT and manufacturing technologies, such as digital twins, industrial IoT platforms, 5G, and artificial intelligence, we present the direction of future manufacturing technology, while at the same time carrying out specific missions of process development and actual production commissioned by manufacturing companies using the approximately 6,800㎡ factory infrastructure that has been built.

In Germany, a factory with a flexible production system based on digital twins is called a smart factory of the 4th Industrial Revolution. To achieve this, all production elements within the factory must be connected and digitized.

Along with this, it is necessary to evolve to a stage where everything that produces and operates products within the factory can be implemented as a digital twin, and various manufacturing services can be expanded to the cloud, etc.

When you visit the 'Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center', the first thing that catches your eye are various machine tools and industrial equipment from companies such as Hyundai Wia, Doosan Machine Tools, Hwacheon, Siemens, and Fanuc.

First of all, these devices are connected to wired and wireless networks that utilize 5G and TSN (Time Sensitive Network) technologies that support ultra-high-speed, ultra-low-latency communications, and are connected using OPC-UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture), an international standard industrial IoT technology. From product development to production, everything is hyper-connected.

A hybrid cloud has also been built that can freely create IT/OT convergence between the automation level and the manufacturing application level that integrates and manages factory operations.

It is now possible to digitize and datafy every detail of the entire process, making it possible to predict the entire process and operate it using artificial intelligence.

Song Byeong-hun, head of the Smart Manufacturing Process Innovation Center at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, said that the key to operating a hyper-connected and optimized AI factory using such cutting-edge technology lies in the “digital twin platform.”

Digital twin is a technology that predicts results in advance by implementing equipment and various objects in the real world in a virtual environment on a computer and simulating various situations that may occur in a virtual manufacturing environment in advance.

The center is currently planning to conduct pilot production of its products in consultation with companies in the aircraft, defense, and precision machinery industries.

In other words, the center can operate the entire manufacturing area, from process design and production planning to production operation management and quality control, based on digital twin data, and all processes are controlled through a self-built hybrid cloud platform.

The center manages △preemptive management of machine tools based on data, △preventive management such as tool/workpiece setting, △active control such as thermal displacement management, △information management/correction, etc., and is demonstrating autonomous operation through artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and is educating companies selected for the program with its know-how.

Various domestic and international supply and demand companies are meeting through the center's 1:1 matching program.

Center Director Song Byeong-hun said, “We develop new products, operate them, and provide services.“We are creating a digital standard that enables hyper-connectivity based on 5G across all manufacturing areas. We are also researching core technologies that can manage artificial intelligence (AI) through various manufacturing data. We will operate the center through a manufacturing digital twin platform and present specific cases that can be applied to companies in demand,” he said.

▲Song Byeong-hun, Head of KETI Smart Manufacturing Process Innovation Center

▲A data center where all data from this factory is collected is built in a container with the names of the organizations and companies that participated in the 'Smart Manufacturing Demo Factory'.


▲External view of the 'Smart Manufacturing Demo Factory'