Overseas companies and some large corporations are strengthening their digital capabilities by building manufacturing infrastructure utilizing the metaverse. On the other hand, domestic small and medium-sized enterprises were unable to make any headway due to insufficient funds and technological capabilities, and a solution was proposed to address this.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 3rd that it will be promoting the 'Metaverse Factory Construction Support Project' to enable manufacturing SMEs to utilize the metaverse to optimize processes and transfer know-how from highly skilled workers.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) has planned a new project this year to help manufacturing SMEs leverage metaverse technology to enhance their competitiveness, taking into account the trend of overseas and large corporations adopting metaverse as a digital capability, as well as the reality that SMEs lack the necessary technology and financial resources.

This project supports the costs of hardware, software, etc. required to build a metaverse factory for a consortium between a company with a manufacturing plant (an adopter) and a company that can build a smart factory using technologies such as CPS and XR (a supplier).

A 'metaverse factory' is a manufacturing site that meets four minimum requirements at a level higher than simulation, which is at least level 3 in the digital twin classification: △ Building a virtual environment of the real manufacturing environment through CPS and digital twin △ Analyzing the acquired manufacturing data through artificial intelligence △ Applying the analyzed data to the overall process or manufacturing-related activities (logistics, design, industrial accident prevention, etc.) △ Satisfying the conditions for AR/VR virtual solution convergence through HMD, etc.

Through this, it is expected that small and medium-sized enterprises will be able to utilize the technology in areas such as △improving and optimizing manufacturing processes, △predictive maintenance of equipment, △transferring know-how from highly skilled workers, △enhancing safety in hazardous processes, and △remote control of clean rooms.

In order to maximize the use of private sector expertise in business promotion, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has established a 'private sector-led, government-led' model in which the private sector autonomously carries out detailed business planning, etc. by presenting only the minimum requirements.It is promoted in the 'method'.

Additionally, to ensure that Metaverse Factory serves as a leading example of digital transformation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and serves as a benchmark for other companies, we plan to give preference to consortiums that have secured a large number of adopters and those that present effective methods for scaling up to other companies after implementation.

Kim Woo-soon, Director General of Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “Utilizing the metaverse can implement the most advanced form of digital transformation in the manufacturing industry, but considering the reality that it is not easy for small and medium-sized enterprises to build it independently, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has started providing support.” He added, “We hope that many consortiums with various ideas will participate to build a metaverse factory optimized for small and medium-sized enterprises, and that this will not only lead to manufacturing innovation but also become an excellent model for domestic manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises.”