The industry's opinion was conveyed that in order to foster the smart manufacturing industry, it is necessary to establish a step-by-step support plan that companies can feel.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo) held a ‘Corporate Meeting for Establishing a Plan to Foster Smart Manufacturing Specialized Companies’ at the conference room of the Technology Guarantee Fund Seoul Headquarters in 63 Building, Yeouido on the 20th.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the 'New Digital Manufacturing Innovation Promotion Strategy' in September of last year, and is currently supporting the digital transformation of 25,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers in cooperation with the private sector and regions, including fostering 5,000 advanced companies by 2027, based on the achievement of distributing 30,000 smart factories.

In addition, in order to establish the national task of ‘digital manufacturing innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises for leap forward as a manufacturing powerhouse’, we recognized that the capabilities and roles of smart manufacturing suppliers are important. Accordingly, we have been studying ways to foster smart manufacturing suppliers since the end of last year, and based on this, we are establishing a ‘plan to foster smart manufacturing specialized companies for advancement of the manufacturing innovation ecosystem’.

The relevant ministries are planning to jointly announce the measures being prepared in September, and this preliminary meeting has been held to provide an opportunity to hear the opinions of businesspeople and experts.

This meeting will be attended by smart factory construction companies, suppliers, Korea Productivity Center, and Nemo ICG Co., Ltd., which are smart manufacturing companies. About 30 people, including research institutions participating in the supply company capacity enhancement research project, experts from academia and industry, and support organizations, attended.

At the meeting, the Korea Productivity Center proposed a definition of the smart manufacturing industry as a policy target and a classification system for major items and services, and introduced market prospects and domestic and international situations according to the classification system.

Lee In-gap, head of the Smart Manufacturing Consulting Center, who gave the presentation, said that according to the outlook of overseas market research firm Markets and Markets, the global smart manufacturing industry size in 2028 is expected to be approximately USD 346.8 billion (KRW 438 trillion), growing at an annual average of 22.0% amid the global digital transformation and intelligence trend, and that it is a new growth industry with high growth potential that requires strategic fostering.

NemoICG Co., Ltd. announced the results of a survey on the technology level of major countries and our small and medium-sized enterprises by classification system and the results of an analysis of promising countries for overseas expansion of smart manufacturing specialized companies.

Taesik Eom, director of Nemo ICG, said, “When comparing the technology level between 2019 and 2024, Korea’s overall average increased by 4.2% compared to the United States, the world’s top technology country, and Korean small and medium-sized enterprises increased by about 8%, showing increased technological competitiveness in most fields. However, China increased by 12.3%, approaching our technological level or, in some fields, surpassing it.” He added, “In order to have global competitiveness, it is urgent to strengthen the technological competitiveness of specialized smart manufacturing companies.”

The companies in attendance stated, “Up until now, in the smart factory distribution and expansion project, smart manufacturing suppliers have been subject to management and supervision and sanctions for improper procurement, and the government has lacked a systematic fostering policy,” and made a suggestion, “From now on, we need to establish a step-by-step support plan that can be felt in order to grow into a global specialized company.”

Academic experts say, “Both advanced and emerging countries need to strengthen their manufacturing industry through manufacturing innovation.As the role of digital transformation in responding to the decline in the production population in manufacturing sites is growing, it is timely that this measure recognizes the smart manufacturing industry as a new growth industry with a huge gap and presents a blueprint for its fostering direction.”

Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-joo said, “It is very important for our country to make a leap forward as a world-class manufacturing powerhouse by building a virtuous manufacturing innovation ecosystem through balanced implementation of smart factory distribution policies that support the digital transformation and utilization of artificial intelligence in SMEs and smart manufacturing industry fostering policies.” He added, “We will faithfully reflect the voices from the field and expert opinions today in the policies to be announced in the future and strengthen communication with the industry in the future to establish detailed implementation plans to foster specialized smart manufacturing companies.”

Meanwhile, Minister Oh Young-joo presented the Minister of SMEs and Startups' commendation in the order of Grand Prize, Excellence Award, and Excellence Award to a total of five consortiums selected through expert review among the consortiums of introducing and supplying companies that applied for the '2024 Smart Factory Best Practice Contest' prior to the meeting.

Mr. Hwang Su-jeong, CEO of DM Tech Consulting, a supplier of the 2024 Best Practice Contest Grand Prize-winning consortium, presented an excellent case of AI field application through facility data analysis in the metalworking process, and Mr. Jeong Hoon-jae, Vice President of Mibo, a supplier of the grand prize-winning consortium, presented an achievement such as improving manufacturing defect rates and increasing production efficiency through an advanced real-time production monitoring system and process automation.

Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-joo said, “In the successful construction of smart factories for small and medium-sized manufacturers, cooperation between introducing companies and supplying companies is inseparable,” and “The SMEs and Startups Ministry will discover best practices in building smart factories so that many companies can refer to them, and will provide full government-level support so that companies with best practices can continue to innovate and grow even after construction.”; he said.