Samsung Provides 'Smart' Support to SMEs Making COVID-19 Test Kits... Production Volume Jumps 80%

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] Solgent, which imports tubes from Germany to manufacture COVID-19 diagnostic kits, received the devastating news that tube supply would be impossible until December. This triggered an emergency in securing the tubes, a core material for making diagnostic kits. Although they quickly switched to another product, quality issues arose. At that time, about 20 Samsung Electronics experts with an average of over 25 years of experience, dispatched to Solgent, collaborated intensively and developed a new mold in just two weeks. They created a customized tube that prevents reagent leakage without a rubber ring and improved the defect rate by 40%.

According to the industry on the 2nd, Samsung Electronics’ smart factory establishment support for COVID-19 diagnostic kit manufacturers, in collaboration with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Federation of SMEs since April, is showing tangible results. Samsung Electronics has stationed dozens of engineers for months at COVID-19 diagnostic kit manufacturers such as Solgent, Kogen Biotech, and SD Biosensor, where production processes were slow despite surging export demands overseas, providing tailored smart factory support.

A Solgent employee is assembling the caps of diagnostic reagent containers using automated equipment.

Diagnostic kits are mostly produced in small quantities with many varieties, involving a lot of manual work in reagent dispensing, testing, and packaging across all factories. Samsung Electronics recognized the urgent need to introduce mass production systems and improve production efficiency amid the explosive demand for COVID-19 diagnostic kits. This aligns closely with the SME smart factory support project, which Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Electronics pays special attention to. The smart factory support project is part of Samsung’s 180 trillion won investment and win-win plan announced in August 2018. Vice Chairman Lee reportedly directly instructed expanding win-win efforts with diagnostic kit companies, citing previous cases where four mask manufacturers improved production capacity by 51% with Samsung Electronics’ assistance.

To rapidly increase the productivity of diagnostic kit manufacturers, Samsung Electronics focused on supporting mold development, logistics route optimization, packaging process improvement, and automation equipment introduction. As a result, Solgent’s weekly diagnostic kit production increased by 73%, from 12,000 units before Samsung’s smart factory support to 20,000 units after, while Kogen Biotech’s production rose 79%, from 5,600 to 10,000 units. Kogen Biotech, which recorded sales of 11.5 billion won last year, has raised its expected sales for this year to 80 billion won.

Samsung Electronics is currently supporting the establishment of smart factories for about 30 SMEs related to overcoming COVID-19, including mask, diagnostic kit, hand sanitizer, and eye protection equipment manufacturers. Last month, Samsung expanded smart factory support for domestic SMEs overseas. At PTAK, a mask manufacturer in Poland, Samsung Electronics’ Polish production subsidiary dispatched equipment and manufacturing experts to transfer know-how on equipment setup, operation, on-site management, and quality control, increasing mask production from 23,000 to 69,000 units per day, tripling output.