Hanil Cement plans to establish an artificial intelligence (AI)-based autonomous factory at its Bucheon ready-mixed concrete plant as early as this year.
An autonomous factory is one that minimizes human intervention and operates based on AI's own judgments. Existing automated factories require human judgment to control machines. In an autonomous factory, AI analyzes data collected by sensors to assess situations, adjust production plans, and detect problems in advance to take action.
With the introduction of such a system, production efficiency is expected to improve, while quality variations and safety risks are anticipated to decrease.
The core technology of the autonomous factory is the Digital Twin. The Digital Twin creates an identical model of a physical factory within a computer. This allows for testing and predictions in virtual space, enabling the detection of risks or finding process improvement methods.
The Bucheon ready-mixed concrete plant of Hanil Cement was recently selected as the final candidate for the 'Autonomous Factory Construction Support Project' promoted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA). Accordingly, the Bucheon ready-mixed concrete plant will receive half of its total project cost of 1.2 billion won, or 600 million won, in government funding over two years to begin the establishment of the autonomous factory.
An official from Hanil Cement noted, 'Based on this construction of the autonomous factory, we will accelerate the automation of processes and the enhancement of quality management,' and stated, 'We plan to consider expanding its application to other factories after measuring the results.'