The Only 'Lighthouse Factory' in Korea, POSCO, Admired Even by the President

POSCO to Invest a Total of 20 Billion KRW by 2023 to Support Innovation Growth of SMEs
Chairman Choi Jeong-woo Pledges Active Efforts to Enhance Industrial Ecosystem Competitiveness by Supporting Smart Factories for SMEs

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Choi Jung-woo, Chairman of POSCO, toured the smart innovation and win-win cooperation sites with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) alongside President Moon Jae-in, who visited POSCO, the only 'Lighthouse Factory' in Korea, and encouraged the employees.

On the morning of the 9th, Chairman Choi introduced President Moon Jae-in to POSCO's smart factory progress together with employees participating in the smart factory project.

POSCO is collecting and structuring factory data accumulated over the past 50 years of field experience and know-how through its own smart factory platform, 'POSFRAME.' POSFRAME learns from the collected data itself to create optimal process conditions and controls the production process in real time.

POSCO also introduced the smart data center, a core infrastructure for the convergence of steel and smart IT technology, the status of win-win cooperation promotion, and the actual molten iron production process at the state-of-the-art smart blast furnace, the No. 2 blast furnace, where AI technology is applied.

The smart data center collects and stores big data obtained in real time through Internet of Things (IoT) sensors installed in factories within the Pohang Steelworks, serving as a key infrastructure for building POSCO's smart factory.

The smart blast furnace contributes to cost reduction and quality improvement, which are difficult to improve with existing technology, by automatically controlling the blast furnace's burden using deep learning-based AI technology. As a result, fuel input per ton of hot metal decreased by 4 kg, and the daily production of the blast furnace increased by 240 tons. This amount is enough to produce 85,000 mid-sized passenger cars annually.

From 2016 to 2019, POSCO carried out 321 tasks to build smart factories, achieving a total cost reduction effect of 252 billion KRW.

The event was further meaningful with the attendance of representatives from win-win smart factory participating SMEs, including Ahn Sang-chul, CEO of Dongguk Industry, Kim Cheol-gyu, CEO of Comprehensive Polstar, as well as Min Kwang-gi, CEO of L.C. Miner, and Kim Jung-gu, CEO of Vision ST, who are POSCO smart factory partner SMEs.

POSCO is promoting the 'Win-win Smart Factory Construction Support and Smart Capability Enhancement Consulting' project together with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to help the innovative growth of SMEs and create a robust ecosystem. It plans to invest a total of 20 billion KRW by 2023 to support 1,000 companies.

Regarding the 'Win-win Smart Factory,' as of last year, construction was completed for a total of 110 companies, including 59 non-trading companies. A survey conducted on 25 companies with completed performance measurement showed that productivity and quality increased by 43% and 52%, respectively, in facilities and processes where smart projects were applied, while costs and delivery times decreased by about 27%.

POSCO Chairman Choi Jung-woo said, “We will continue to provide world-class premium products and services through smart technology, and by sharing and supporting smart factory experiences with SMEs, we will actively enhance the competitiveness of our industrial ecosystem.”