Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) held the AI Autonomous Manufacturing Alliance launching ceremony on July 22 with the participation of 250 industry, academia, and research institutions’ representatives under the initiative of enhancing the productivity, safety, and eco-friendliness of manufacturing sectors through the introduction of AI. It is anticipated that 200 anchor projects will kick into high gear, backed by public-private investment of more than KRW 2.5 trillion.

A total of 153 companies and institutions across 12 different industry sectors are participating in the AI Autonomous Manufacturing Alliance. The aggregate sales value of the participating companies amounts to nearly 40 percent of Korea’s entire manufacturing sales combined, indicating the high degree of participation by major manufacturers. Composed of 12 working groups per sector, each working group consists of middle-market companies and SMEs that make up the supply chain’s backbone along with the sector’s representative anchor company. By number, large corporations, middle-market companies, and SMEs each take up 21 percent, 23 percent, and 56 percent of the total, respectively.

 

Specialized R&D institutions like Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) and Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) will also be closely assisting the administration of the Alliance’s overall activities.

Beginning with over 10 AI autonomous anchor projects this year, the Alliance is set to uncover and execute 200 projects by 2028. In particular, the demand survey for this year’s projects completed last month showed that 213 participants entered the competition for 10 projects, indicating a high level of interest among companies, local authorities, and research institutions despite the short length of preparation time. The demand survey confirms that manufacturers regard AI autonomous manufacturing as a future strategy for survival with respect to product upgrading, responding to the working age population decline, and enhancing production efficiency. 

Having affirmed the industrial sectors’ strong willingness for participation, MOTIE is considering the prospects of increasing the number of this year’s projects from the initial 10 to 20. Public-private investment in AI autonomous manufacturing for the 20 projects is estimated to surpass ₩2.5 trillion and this year’s project lineup will be finalized in September 2024 after experts’ evaluation process.

Moreover, the Alliance plans to develop and diffuse a standard model based on the technology and data accumulated through the anchor project. Whereas the anchor project aims for the orderly and vertical diffusion of large corporations to tier one, tier two, tier three, and tier four vendor SMEs and middle-market firms within the value chain, the standard model aims for a horizontal diffusion beyond the value chain. The plan is to establish and distribute a standard model across more than 100 business sites by 2028.

At the launching ceremony, strategies for the sectoral diffusion of AI autonomous manufacturing were presented by companies representing each sector, including Hyundai Motor, LG Electronics, DN Solutions, POSCO, EcoPro, GS Caltex, KAI, and HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering. Their common goal lies in diffusing the utilization of AI across the entire value chain and achieving groundbreaking improvements in productivity and quality. Real-time facility and process monitoring, coupled with AI-based data analysis, will enable the establishment of a production system capable of optimizing the work schedule and allocation of resources. This will help reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Moreover, AI-driven automatic detection of product defects and equipment failure prediction can substantially boost the production quality.

For anchor projects, the Government will set aside a budget of up to ₩10 billion per project. MOTIE will design a ₩300 billion large-scale R&D project by the end of this year to support the development of core technologies needed for diffusing AI autonomous manufacturing. Meanwhile, K-SURE’s five-year ₩10 trillion funding will financially support the projects of companies participating in the Alliance. Through these programs, the Government plans to raise manufacturing businesses’ AI autonomous manufacturing utilization rate to over 40 percent by 2030, thereby increasing the manufacturing productivity and gross domestic product (GDP) by more than 20 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

In his opening address at the launching ceremony, Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Dukgeun Ahn remarked that AI utilization is not a choice but an essential strategy for survival for manufacturing sectors, vowing that the Government will give full-out support through the Alliance towards creating a turning point for the innovation of Korea’s manufacturing industries.