Korean SMEs are embarking on a full-scale partnership with Germany to strengthen their manufacturing competitiveness through smart manufacturing innovation and enable them to enter the global market.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Kwon Chil-seung) agreed with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) to establish a cooperation channel in the field of smart manufacturing innovation, formed a Korea-Germany working group, and held its first meeting online on the 29th.

The Korea-Germany Working Group is comprised of world-class experts in fields such as smart manufacturing standards and security technology, who will work to create tangible results that will benefit small and medium-sized enterprises through actual project implementation.

Germany is well known as a key institution in the policy triangle that actually drives Industry 4.0 policies, with experts from all three institutions participating: Wolfgang Klaassen, Group Leader of PI 4.0, Anja Simon, Chief Technology Officer of LNI 4.0, and Jens Geiko, CEO of SCI 4.0.

In Korea, the committee members include Park Han-goo, head of the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Promotion Team, which oversees the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' smart manufacturing policy and project implementation; Professor Cha Sang-gyun of Seoul National University, chairman of Kemp AI; and Professor Hong Seung-ho of Hanyang University, chairman of the Standards and Technology Advisory Committee.

The working group decided to first form and operate three sub-committees that urgently require cooperation on major issues, including international standard development, GaiaX, and cybersecurity, and then expand cooperation to areas such as the 5th generation (5G), artificial intelligence, and training of professional personnel.

The International Standards Division develops international standards related to smart manufacturing and manufacturing data.We are proving international standards, such as AAS, developed to implement artificial intelligence-based CPS by pushing the boundaries of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies.

The GaiaX division will jointly research the development of GaiaX to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises are not dependent on specific countries or platforms when trading or utilizing data, and will also discuss ways to verify whether GaiaX can be utilized by businesses.

The Cyber Security Division plans to discover and research security technology development projects and practical examples that can be applied to smart factories of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Korea and Germany.

Kim Il-ho, head of the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Planning Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “The launch of this Korea-Germany working group is significant in that it marks the beginning of full-scale cooperation between Korea and Germany to advance smart factories based on international standards and establish a manufacturing data utilization base.” He expressed his expectations, saying, “This cooperation between the two countries will enhance the technological development capabilities of Korean small and medium-sized enterprises and provide an opportunity to secure an advantageous position for entering the global market through the development of collaboration models between companies and participation in standardization.”