'MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridayFridayFriday' Year-Round... The Factory That Works 24/7 Without Criticism [The Future of Work]

The Relationship Between Smart Labs, Factories Without Humans, and Employment
AI and Robots Working 24/7, Every Day of the Week
Samsung Electronics Sees Workforce Growth Despite Unmanned Factories
LG Electronics Expands Smart Factory Export

The era has arrived in which machines, instead of humans, are responsible for research and development, followed by production. AI handles research and development, designing new products. Robots act as the hands and feet of AI, conducting tests and even creating prototypes. Since humans are not working, Article 50 of the Labor Standards Act becomes meaningless. In simple terms, there is no need to adhere to the statutory working hours of eight hours a day and forty hours a week. Research and laboratories operate 24 hours a day, all year round. This is what is known as a Smart Lab.

Afterward, robots and AI also take charge of mass production. These are also unmanned factories operating 24 hours a day. The term "Dark Factory," which has been gaining traction recently, refers to unmanned factories where robots and AI work instead of humans. The commonality between Smart Labs and Dark Factories is that AI and robots do the work. In other words, there are no people inside these facilities.

Inside the Dark Factory featured in Xiaomi's YouTube video

Smart Labs and Dark Factories are words that symbolize cutting-edge technology and the future. It is a dreamlike scenario where products are continuously produced without human labor. However, some people see a bleak and despairing future in these terms. Not only production but also research and development are entirely handled by robots. Ultimately, it is still humans who must buy the products that are created this way.

People need to work to earn money, and money is required to purchase goods. However, most jobs are now being performed by AI and robots instead of humans. As a result, no matter how good the products are, the number of people who can afford to buy them will drastically decrease. How advanced are Smart Labs and Dark Factories today? How has the employment structure changed at companies that have largely automated their production lines? In an era where AI and robots handle both development and production, is there any place left for humans?

Let’s take a closer look at Smart Labs first. Currently, the industries most actively adopting Smart Labs are pharmaceuticals and biotech. This is because Smart Labs are best suited for these fields. Researchers and graduate students in chemistry, biotech, and pharmaceuticals often refer to their own work as "manual labor" in a self-deprecating way. This is because they must repeat the same experiment hundreds of times, and even when results are obtained, they must change the conditions and repeat the process hundreds more times to ensure reliable outcomes. Even after hundreds of experiments, results often vary slightly. It is common for outcomes to change drastically due to temperature or dust during experiments. Even a slight change in material content can lead to completely different results. To draw conclusions, researchers must endlessly repeat preparation, organization, and record-keeping.

There are a few words that symbolize the hard-working Korean society. A prime example is "MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridayFridayFriday," which means working seven days a week, all year round, without holidays. This term was popularized by Dr. Hwang Woo-suk, who was once hailed as a national hero in the biotech field for his outstanding research achievements. However, he later became infamous for research ethics violations and data fabrication, falling from grace due to a complex past.

During his time as a national hero, Dr. Hwang said, "We conduct research according to a 'special calendar' of 'MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridayFridayFriday, MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridayFridayFriday.'" Since then, this phrase has become synonymous with hardworking office workers. It is no coincidence that those in the biotech field use this term. The daily life of researchers who come up with ideas, form hypotheses, and then fall into the hell of endless experiments is the very definition of "MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridayFridayFriday."

Viewed positively, Smart Labs are tools that can rescue researchers from this experimental hell. Repetitive experiments-essentially manual labor-are performed by automated systems instead of researchers. Even the design of experimental conditions can be entrusted to AI. The only tasks left for humans in the research process are generating ideas and forming hypotheses. Everything else is handled by AI and robots.

Biotech companies are competitively introducing equipment to build Smart Labs. U.S. healthcare company Abbott has released the "Alinity" series of automation platforms, which can process up to 1,550 tests per hour. These systems can perform a variety of tests needed in hospitals, such as immunochemistry, hematology, and molecular diagnostics. Siemens Healthineers has launched the "Atellica" platform, which can simultaneously conduct 20 to 30 tests with a single sample. Its built-in AI algorithms handle everything from test categorization to quality control and even perform maintenance tasks autonomously.

Instead of humans, Smart Labs work 24 hours a day, "MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridayFridayFriday," all year round, without rest. The AI-based medical device market is growing rapidly. According to data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there were 235 AI-based medical devices approved last year, a fortyfold increase from 2015 (6 devices). In Korea, 108 AI medical devices were approved in 2024.

The number of Smart Labs being established in Korea is also increasing. A research team at the LIB Materials Research Center of KAIST and POSCO Holdings Future Technology Research Institute recently unveiled an "Autonomous Exploration Laboratory for Secondary Battery Cathode Materials" utilizing AI and automation technology. This platform allows robots to independently design, conduct, and analyze experiments without researchers, using AI to find the optimal materials. Developing secondary battery cathode materials requires creating prototypes and conducting repeated experiments, considering various variables such as fast charging speed and high energy density.

Until now, researchers had to perform all these tasks manually. The research team developed an automated system to have robots take over this work. KAIST stated, "By operating the automated laboratory 24 hours a day, we can obtain twelve times more experimental data than before in the same period." POSCO Holdings plans to apply the autonomous exploration laboratory from next year to accelerate the development of next-generation secondary battery materials.

The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) also unveiled its AI-based "KIMS Autonomous Lab" last June. In the Autonomous Lab, researchers input the target properties of materials, AI determines the most efficient experimental conditions, and robots automatically conduct the experiments. After analyzing the test results, AI independently initiates the next experiment. KIMS stated, "There is no need to touch laboratory equipment," and added, "You only need to enter simple commands at the computer and monitor the entire experimental process." The Smart Lab-related market is rapidly expanding. According to market research firm Global Information, the laboratory automation market, valued at 7.24 trillion KRW in 2024, is expected to grow to 12.25 trillion KRW by 2030.

Let’s take a look inside the Dark Factory, a name that somehow evokes a sense of gloom. The Dark Factory is where robots and AI take the work done in Smart Labs and turn it into actual products. A prime example of a Dark Factory is Xiaomi's Changping plant in China. The Changping Dark Factory produces flagship smartphones at a rate of one per second, 24 hours a day, all year round. The factory is called a Dark Factory because, literally, there is no lighting inside, making it dark.

Unlike humans, the robots working inside do not need lighting to operate. In the factory tour video released by Xiaomi, only the monitors emit light in the otherwise dark interior. Drones transport the parts. Since the drones use radar and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging, a technology that uses lasers to read the surrounding environment in three dimensions), there is no need for light.

The Changping plant, which operates year-round, occupies an area of 81,000 square meters (about 24,500 pyeong), and the construction cost is said to be $330 million (about 445.5 billion KRW). All production facilities in the factory are equipped with a certain level of AI and Internet of Things (IoT) functionality, which contributed to the high construction costs. Production facilities where AI and robots work 24 hours a day are expected to become even more common in the future. In addition to Xiaomi, manufacturers such as Foxconn and Siemens have already built production facilities they call Dark Factories.

There is no need to envy foreign companies. In fact, fully automated production lines that operate 24 hours a day without humans are nothing new. In Korea, a manufacturing powerhouse, such lines have been running for decades. These facilities are what elevated Korea to the ranks of global manufacturing leaders. The most prominent example is Samsung Electronics' semiconductor production line.

At Samsung Electronics' Giheung Campus, there is a viewing area known as the "observation window tour space." As the name suggests, it is a space with large windows where visitors can observe the semiconductor production lines. The area visible inside is as large as several soccer fields. What surprises most visitors on the observation tour is that there are no people in such a vast space.

If a problem occurs, warning lights appear on the production equipment, and staff go to the relevant equipment to resolve the issue. There are no employees working inside the factory on a regular basis. The same applies to the latest facilities built at the Pyeongtaek Campus. Since the 2000s, there have been no employees working regularly on Samsung Electronics' semiconductor production lines. The lines are monitored from a control center, and staff only enter to resolve issues when problems arise.

Robot OHT responsible for logistics transport in Samsung Electronics semiconductor production line

The work is done by robots. For example, when wafers, the raw material for semiconductors, are brought to the factory and loaded onto the OHT (Overhead Hoist Transport) transport robots, the OHTs take full responsibility for transporting the products until shipment. There are more than 1,000 OHTs at Samsung Electronics, each capable of moving at up to 5 meters per second. The total distance traveled by all OHTs in a day is said to be enough to circle the Earth several times. Operating 24 hours a day, all year round, without people, Samsung Electronics' Giheung and Pyeongtaek campuses are Black Factories in this sense. However, since the interiors are filled with white lighting for monitoring from the control tower, they are also White Factories.

In fact, many of Korea's world-leading industries operate factories 24 hours a day, all year round. Not only semiconductors but also steel and oil refining facilities, due to their nature, operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without annual breaks. Semiconductors, steel, and petroleum facilities have characteristics such that, if they stop even briefly, it can take several months to return to normal operation. Even a short halt in the production line can be disastrous. Naturally, the entire production process is essentially automated.

Korea is a global leader in unmanned, 24-hour, year-round production systems. There are even companies that have begun to design and manufacture such automation systems and are generating significant revenue. One example is LG Electronics. Last year, LG Electronics began offering a business that enables factories to operate based on AI and robots, generating 300 billion KRW in sales. Song Siyong, Executive Director in charge of LG Electronics' Smart Factory business, said, "Demand from customers in North America and Southeast Asia is rapidly increasing, so our sales target for this year is 400 billion KRW." LG Electronics established a factory automation research institute in the 1980s and began assembling home appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines using robots.

Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) developed by LG Electronics Production Technology Research Institute

Has automation reduced hiring? Not necessarily. For example, the number of employees in Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division increased by about 70%, from 46,298 when the DS division was first established in 2009 to 78,669 last year. While positions involving simple tasks have disappeared, the number of staff in research and development, human resources, marketing, and other support roles has increased. Companies that have launched Smart Lab and Smart Factory businesses have not reduced employment. In fact, it is the companies unable to create Smart Labs and Smart Factories that are at a disadvantage. If they lose in fierce global competition, they cannot maintain employment.