Promotion of DX in Manufacturing Sites... Ministry of SMEs and Startups Issues Integrated Announcement for Smart Manufacturing Innovation Support Project

Support of 218 Billion KRW (Based on Government Proposal)
Expansion of Manufacturing Data Utilization Infrastructure

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 14th that it will conduct the "2024 Smart Manufacturing Innovation Support Project Integrated Announcement," providing a total of 218 billion KRW (based on the government proposal).

Minister Lee Young, Ministry of SMEs and Startups
Photo by Yonhap News

This integrated announcement contains the details of next year's Smart Manufacturing Innovation Support Project. It aims to faithfully implement the "New Digital Manufacturing Innovation Promotion Strategy," which presents the blueprint of the smart manufacturing innovation policy announced last September.

First, digital transformation (DX) of manufacturing sites will be promoted through the spread of smart factories. To this end, a total of 162.1 billion KRW will be provided to build smart factories considering the on-site demand of small and medium manufacturing enterprises. Moving away from the existing uniform government-led support, from next year, customized support will be encouraged according to the DX capabilities of companies.

Companies with excellent DX capabilities can apply for the "Autonomous Factory" project, which minimizes worker intervention through AI- and digital twin-based real-time monitoring, analysis, and prediction, and the "Digital Collaboration Factory" project, which supports consortia composed of cooperating companies across the upstream and downstream value chains.

Companies with average DX capabilities will be supported through projects such as the "Government General Type" for building advanced smart factories, the "Large-Small Win-Win Type" led by the private sector with government participation, the "Inter-Ministerial Collaboration Type" for fostering strategic industries through cooperation with related ministries, and the "Carbon Neutral Type" project for carbon reduction response.

For companies lacking DX capabilities, such as root manufacturing companies, assistance related to manufacturing robots and automation equipment will be provided to improve working conditions at manufacturing sites and alleviate labor shortages.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will also expand the foundation for utilizing manufacturing data by standardizing and activating analysis of manufacturing data. Different data information from on-site equipment will be standardized, and a "Korean-style Manufacturing Data Standard Model" will be created to enable linkage of equipment and process data. To activate manufacturing data analysis using AI and create a manufacturing data trading ecosystem, projects supporting manufacturing data processing and purchasing will also be promoted.

Starting next year, regional TPs (Manufacturing Innovation Centers) will provide one-on-one matching with manufacturing innovation experts to smart factory support companies, offering full-cycle consulting from project planning to construction. The operating institutions for the "AS Support Project," which supports maintenance of smart factory construction companies, and the "Smart Meister Project," which supports resolving difficulties faced in smart factory construction and operation, will be unified under regional TPs. Additionally, overlapping support between the smart factory support project and the robot distribution project will be allowed, enabling companies to proceed with both projects simultaneously according to their needs.