The government supports the utilization of manufacturing data by training incumbent workers at small and medium-sized manufacturing companies as manufacturing data facilitators, and plans to train a total of 100 facilitators this year.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is recruiting the first batch of trainees for the 'Manufacturing Data Facilitator Training Course' from April 6 to May 6 to support AI and manufacturing data-based manufacturing innovation in the field of domestic small and medium-sized manufacturing companies.

The 'Manufacturing Data Facilitator Training Program' is a course designed to support education on artificial intelligence (AI) and data utilization for employees in manufacturing sites. It was established as a new initiative this year to reflect concerns that experts relatively lack understanding of the manufacturing environment and that manufacturing companies find it difficult to properly grasp AI solutions.

The curriculum is structured in stages, ranging from basic theoretical education on manufacturing data and artificial intelligence (AI) to field practice. The total duration of the training is 8 months (2 months of remote learning + 6 months of field practice), and the training costs are fully covered by government funding.

The educational institution is the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and it carries out tasks including the recruitment and selection of trainees, the establishment of educational plans, the operation of the curriculum, and post-program performance management and analysis.

We plan to select candidates for this first recruitment round from among current employees of companies selected for the 2022 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Solution Demonstration Project. Selected trainees will receive non-face-to-face training from May 16 to July 8 (8 weeks, 160 hours), covering everything from basic concepts of manufacturing AI to practical application stages such as analysis methodologies for various problem types, and from July 11... Until December 30, you will be matched one-on-one with an AI expert at our company to practice problem-solving processes such as production process optimization, quality prediction, and pre-diagnosis of equipment failure (predictive maintenance) through the collection of manufacturing data, exploration of manufacturing AI algorithms, and AI analysis.

The second round of trainees is scheduled to be recruited in August, targeting companies participating in the 2022 Intelligent Factory (Smart Factory) Advancement Project, and the number of selected trainees for each round may vary depending on the application status.

For reference, we plan to train a total of 100 manufacturing data facilitators in 2022.

Lee Hyun-jo, Head of the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Planning Group at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, “We expect this to be helpful to companies struggling to find employees equipped with both AI and data utilization skills, as workers who complete this training will be able to understand the solutions and increase their data utilization.”

For more details, please contact the Manufacturing AI Big Data Center at KAIST (042-350-1323) or check the business announcement on the Ministry of SMEs and Startups website (www.mss.go.kr), the AI SME Manufacturing Platform (www.kamp-ai.kr), or the Smart Factory 1st website (https://1st.smart-factory.kr).