■ What's changing this year... The main goal is to advance smart factories.  

This year, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups changed its promotion system to the Intelligent Smart Manufacturing Innovation Promotion Team and announced key plans for the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Support Project.

This year's key focus is a shift from quantitative expansion to a focus on building smart factories and upgrading them. A total of 83.6 billion won will be provided in support.

A truly smart factory goes beyond automation; it is a smart factory where devices think, control, and manage themselves in real time.

While Korea's current smart factory development is limited to the basics of production information digitization, the plan is to support advancements that will enable real-time data collection, analysis, and control. Furthermore, the project preparation period for companies building advanced smart factories will be extended from 30 to 45 days, facilitating design preparation.

Finally, some projects, such as those specializing in specific industries, will be abolished, and new projects will be established to build smart factories that are linked to investment, inter-ministerial collaboration, and supply chains.

Supply chain integration involves multiple smart factories interconnected through data and network-based interconnection to perform material management, order receipt, production, distribution, and marketing. By forming a consortium of companies with a need for collaboration of five or more, we can support the construction of smart factories in a cluster format, providing a glimpse into a future factory system without location restrictions.

■ Key Contents of the 2023 Smart Manufacturing Innovation Support Project

The smart factory construction project is divided into a general government type and a large-medium-small business win-win type.

The government-funded general model, which previously offered support in three categories—Basic, Advanced 1, and Advanced 2—based on individual company needs, will be redesigned to provide a single, unified support model for Advanced 1. For the large-medium-small business win-win model, the government will provide a total of KRW 21.6 billion in support if companies voluntarily establish such programs.

We will also support specialized smart factories, including those focused on strategic sectors. Up to 7 billion won will be provided to interagency smart factories focused on pressing issues like semiconductors, nuclear power plants, and industrial accidents. 3 billion won will be provided to root companies and carbon-neutral smart factories. 18.1 billion won will also be provided to companies utilizing robots.

Additionally, 8 billion won will be invested to support the use of manufacturing data. This will support the development of AI solutions and support customized analysis models linked to the KAMP (Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing Platform).

Additionally, we are operating a 'Manufacturing Data Facilitator Training Program' to help small and medium-sized enterprises acquire data utilization capabilities. We also provide free training for employees.

Introduced for the first time in 23 years, the program also supports consortia with smart factory solution development capabilities. Targeting consortia of suppliers, rather than manufacturers, the program supports the development of solutions that incorporate various manufacturing innovation features.

Private companies building their own factories will receive 1 million won in subsidies for quality assurance. Companies that receive quality assurance will receive preferential treatment when supplying to public institutions or applying for policy funding.

Consulting support is also available, allowing you to receive expertise from experts for up to six months.