With the development of AI, IoT, big data, and 5G, not only are major processes automated, but the smart factory market, which thinks for itself, is growing continuously. In particular, Korea has achieved the encouraging result of achieving 30,000 smart factories last year, and research on core smart factory technologies is actively underway.

An opportunity has been created to look back on the current status of the domestic smart factory industry, which is cruising along thanks to national efforts, and to look into the status of key technology development with field experts.

Building smart factories is a key task for our country, a manufacturing powerhouse, and there is a consensus that continuous efforts are needed to develop key technologies such as digital twins and meta factories.

On the 19th, KIEI Industrial Education Research Institute held a seminar titled ‘Smart Factory and Digital Twin/Metafactory New Technology Present and Future Prospects Seminar.’ The seminar explored smart factory growth plans from various angles, including △smart factory core technologies and testing and certification, △smart factory implementation element technologies, △smart factory domestic and international application and verification cases, △domestic smart factory security policy, △digital twin technology trends, and △metafactory technology and prospects.

■ Smart factory market status and testing and certification and security

Schneider Electric Director Jang-ik Son presented the overall status of the global smart factory industry and Schneider’s key solution components.

Director Son said, “As investments in ESG management are being considered worldwide, it is important for not only our own factories but also all companies in the supply chain to achieve carbon neutrality in order to implement RE-100,” and argued that “the purpose of building smart factories is to ultimately make the global supply chain more efficient.”

Recently, the importance of SW is increasing to meet smart factory requirements, and Schneider has reduced costs with an integrated platform called EcoStruxure by pursuing openness. Director Son said, “Schneider, which has five global lighthouse factories*, plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 based on smart factory solutions.”

*This refers to a role model factory that is implementing digital transformation. In Korea, Pohang POSCO, LS Electric, and Changwon LG factories have been selected. As of this year, there are 132 global cumulative factories, and 13 lighthouse factories for sustainability.
Song Tae-seung, head of the Korea Industrial Technology Testing and Research Institute, presented on smart factory core technologies and testing and certification.

“Smart factories, where applications, platforms, devices, and networks are organically integrated and operated, require discussions on interoperability and security,” said CEO Song. “We have introduced testing and certification to demonstrate the superiority of domestic equipment over imported equipment when popularizing smart factories.”

Smart factories require modularization for internal efficiency, and the development of a test evaluation certification model is important. The main test and quality certification services presented include: △Industrial Ethernet communication △Industrial wireless communication △Component reliability △Collaborative robot safety suitability △Industrial cyber security, etc. Recently, ESS fire-related predictive maintenance tools have been in the spotlight.

“We can accelerate Industry 4.0 through reliable certification,” said CEO Song. “The technologies and products of our suppliers that have the smart factory quality certification mark will become the cornerstone for their entry into domestic and international markets.”

Next, Bae Byeong-hwan, head of the Korea Internet & Security Agency, presented smart factory security policies.

The head of the company said, “Despite the continued discovery of new security threats targeting the manufacturing industry, it is difficult to respond immediately,” and cited multiple attack paths and motives as the reasons. In particular, the OT area is often targeted for attacks due to its low level of security awareness.

He also said, “As interest in OT security at the national level increases, we have established a security living lab capable of security testing on smart factory control equipment, thereby encouraging the spread of smart factory equipment with built-in security.”

Kang Jeong-hoon, director of the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI), discussed smart factory implementation element technologies and application cases.

Director Kang said, “The SW market is not as developed as expected, and clouds such as Azure and AWS are still insufficient for factories,” adding, “This is because manufacturing data is sensitive and sharing it on the cloud is difficult.”

The smart factory's cloud data platform provides data processing capabilities to users, and manufacturing data is standardized. The virtual container is a technology that is separated and used in block form to increase the work efficiency of field engineers, focusing on data.

In the presentation, Director Kang said, “We have reached a level where we can detect abnormalities at the edge. “Ultimately, the edge and the cloud must grow together to be able to process high-speed data,” he said.

■ Smart Factory Core ‘Digital Twin’
Team leader Jiyeon Son of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute discussed the current status of R&D in digital twin technology.

Team Leader Son argued that “it costs too much to build the infrastructure to digitally twin the entire factory, so at this point, it is better to focus on key facilities to get a better return on investment.”

In addition, for factories that are currently hesitant due to the high risk, he suggested measures such as the need for preemptive investment, establishment of infrastructure platforms, and securing specialized solution capabilities.

Lee Eight's Managing Director Ryu Su-young presented a case study on digital twin technology.

Eight is a company that possesses various simulation and digital twin technologies, including liquid, gas, and blood flow, and has recently achieved results in smart factory technology, including verification of a signal optimization algorithm at Hwajeong Station in Goyang City.

Executive Director Ryu introduced the Hyundai Motor Innovation Center, where a smart factory technology test bed has been built, the LG Smart Park in Changwon, which is aiming for completion in Phase 2 by 2024, and BMW, an overseas case. In particular, it was reported that production optimization was achieved by building a data-based ML digital twin of the Irish ESS system in Korea.

■ Meta Factory is evolving  
The concept of a meta factory, which has been recently studied, was also presented. Meta factory is a term first used by Hyundai Motor Group, and refers to a metaverse factory that is an extension of the digital twin concept.

In Korea, we are virtually testing scenarios to create optimal operating conditions without having to have personnel on site by operating and managing overseas factories through access to the metaverse.

Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centers (HMGICs) located in Singapore are test beds that will demonstrate smart mobility and intelligent manufacturing platforms that integrate AI, IoT, and robotics. By integrating and managing the entire value chain data in a 7-story building with a total area of 90,000 m2, operating costs were reduced by more than 30% compared to before.

Hyundai Motor aims to produce up to 30,000 units here annually by 2025, and has announced that it will begin producing the Ioniq 5 here in April, followed by the Ioniq 6 and Kona Electric.

Seok-hee Han, Director of the 4th Industrial Revolution Research Institute, and Sang-yeon Kim, Vice President of SK Corporation, discussed the present and future that will be realized as the metaverse, and said, “The meta factory, which will operate with the concepts of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), is a concept that maximizes the platform orientation that supports products with added advanced simulation functions and the manufacturing decision-making process.”

He also suggested that “Hyundai Motor Company’s ‘Meta Factory’ technology is already available individually, and fusion and integration are the main challenges going forward.” He predicted that “from a practical perspective, Meta Factory will be approached in terms of upgrading the simulation level by utilizing technology fusion.”

SK Vice President Kim Sang-yeon asserted that “metafactory, which is an extension of existing business, will be a new future food source,” and that “the advantages of the metaverse should be complementary to the shortcomings in the manufacturing sector.”

He also argued that “it is time to reimagine technology to prepare for the metaverse future, and we must consider the side effects of short-term use.”

Last year, our country achieved 30,000 smart factories, but in reality, this is only 5% of the total, and 70% of them are still at the initialization level. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 9th that it plans to provide a total of 146.2 billion won in support for smart factory projects this year and will fully promote the advancement of smart factories. In addition, it is solidifying its plan to foster 100 companies by 2025 through the K-Smart Lighthouse Factory Support Project.

Our country is continuously solving the challenge of developing core smart factory technologies to secure manufacturing competitiveness. We hope that our country, which has unlimited growth potential including meta factories that are expected to become a new growth engine, will be able to take an active role in the smart factory industry in the future.