Changwon City established 170 smart factories in 2021, exceeding its target and achieving the highest performance in Gyeongnam Province.

Changwon City (Mayor Heo Seong-mu) announced on the 14th that it established 170 smart factories in 2021. This is the highest performance in Gyeongnam Province.

This achievement represents 130% of the initial target of 130 companies, a figure that is comparable to or even surpasses the performance of other metropolitan local governments as a basic local government. It is analyzed that this rapid smartification was achieved due to additional support of 10% from the province and 10% from the city, in addition to the 50% national government funding of the total project cost.

The city has built a total of 795 units from 2014 to 2021 and expects to fully achieve its self-established goal (800 units) by 2022.

In particular, although the quantitative figure for 2021 is smaller than that of 209 companies in 2020, it is assessed that both quantitative and qualitative growth were achieved, as the proportion of advanced technology increased significantly from 19.6% in 2020 to 36.5% in 2021 due to the intensive promotion of advanced technology in accordance with the plan at the beginning of the year.

The goal for the dissemination of smart factories in Changwon City in 2022 is 100 locations. In addition to establishing basic and advanced versions of existing general-type smart factories, the city will build them in various forms tailored to the needs of adopting companies, such as carbon-neutral smart factories and K-Smart Lighthouse Factories. To resolve operational difficulties, the city plans to provide comprehensive assistance for the successful system implementation of adopting companies, including providing additional local funds for after-sales support projects.

Ryu Hyo-jong, Director of the Smart Innovation Industry Bureau, expressed his opinion, stating, “Smart factories will be an excellent solution for survival for small and medium-sized enterprises suffering from internal and external adversities,” and added, “If value chain linkages are achieved through the smartification of Changwon’s manufacturing sector as a whole, the overall synergy will undoubtedly be limitless.”