Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises said on the 11th that it held an on-site visit to a large-small partnership smart factory and a policy roundtable for a manufacturing artificial intelligence (AI) transition at the Prinpia Digital Center in Paju, Gyeonggi, together with the National Assembly's "Reform Action Forum."
The visit was arranged to share the results of the "large-small partnership smart factory construction project" promoted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, KBIZ, and Samsung Electronics, and to discuss ways to advance smart factories in small and mid-size manufacturing and to expand the adoption of manufacturing AI.
Prinpia, a model case among corporations, is equipped with the country's largest flatbed printing and digital printing facilities and has pursued process advancement by introducing a smart factory since 2023.
Through mentoring from Samsung Electronics, Prinpia built a companywide integrated system based on MES (manufacturing execution system) and digitized the entire process from online orders to editing, review, production, and shipment. It also established automatic data collection and analysis and a real-time management system across all processes.
In addition, by establishing a data-driven decision-making system, it improved the work environment by speeding up responses to process issues and reducing human error in file management and editing. It also advanced its quality management system to track and analyze defect factors by process, increasing hourly output by 263%, while the process defect rate improved by about 33%, from 5.5% to 3.7%.
At the on-site roundtable the same day, policy tasks were also presented to advance smart factories in small and mid-size manufacturing and to expand the transition to manufacturing AI, including: ▲ easing the self-burden for adopting corporations ▲ expanding the introduction of common AI solutions by industry ▲ continuing the spread of basic-level smart factories.
Chairperson Kim Nam-geun of the Reform Action Forum said, "In the global competition for technological supremacy, advancing smart factories and introducing manufacturing AI are essential tasks for the survival of our small and mid-size companies," adding, "The National Assembly's Reform Action Forum will actively support expanding the smart factory budget and establishing practical legislation."
Kim Dong-a, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, said, "Many small and mid-size companies on the ground recognize the need to adopt technology, yet they face major difficulties due to initial investment expense and a shortage of operational staff," noting, "We will closely review National Assembly-level alternatives so that government support does not stop at simple construction but continues through system stabilization and maintenance, as well as workforce training."