■ 2nd South Korean factory to be selected as a “Lighthouse Factory” by the World Economic Forum after POSCO
■ Addition of ESG solution to digital-based manufacturing technology acknowledged to be the next generation in manufacturing competitiveness
■ Expanded sharing of smart factory technology for strengthening the competitiveness of South Korea’s SMEs
LS ELECTRIC has been selected in 2021 as a “World Lighthouse Factory” that could lead the future of global manufacturing industries beyond South Korea. It was the second South Korean company to be selected for this honor after POSCO in 2019.
On September 29, LS ELECTRIC’s Cheongju Smart Factory was selected as a “Lighthouse Factory” by the World Economic Forum (WEF, Davos Forum) at the 2021 WEF Lighthouse Factory Annual Meeting. Last year, the annual meeting was held as a non-face-to-face online event due to the spread of COVID-19 worldwide.
A “Lighthouse Factory” refers to a factory that creates a new model of manufacturing performance through the active use of key technologies (IoT, AI, cloud, etc.) that will drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution, just as a lighthouse illuminates the dark seas to guide ships to shores. Since 2018, the World Economic Forum has been conducting annual audits (usually lasting more than 6 months) of factories all over the world. At the end of an audit, and twice a year, WEF announces the list of lighthouse factories.
This year’s annual conference was held online and attended by Chairman Koo Ja-yeol of the LS Group. “The selection of LS ELECTRIC as a lighthouse factory is a great feat for the LS Group, which has been making a lot of effort in digital transformation. Especially for our affiliates that have yet to complete the digitalization of their manufacturing operations, we expect this recognition to yield many practical benefits,” he said.
If the 21 factories newly designated as “World Lighthouse Factory” this year are sorted according to region/country, 3 can be found in Europe, 3 are in the US, 13 are in Asia, and 2 are in the Middle East. The factories are operated by some of the world’s major companies like Johnson & Johnson, Schneider Electric, Foxconn, etc. Only 90 companies around the world, including the 21 newly selected companies, hold the title “World Lighthouse Factory.”
LS ELECTRIC was not content with simply implementing AI and IoT technology at its power equipment smart manufacturing plant in Cheongju. The level of integration is such that the plant not only responds flexibly to the requirements of many different customers but can also produce in mass volumes because it achieved drastic cost reductions through increased production efficiencies. This is what the World Economic Forum regarded highly when it was reviewing LS ELECTRIC.
Furthermore, LS ELECTRIC declared its commitment to ESG management, which is indispensable for continued corporate growth; it increased energy efficiency by developing its own energy management solution (EMS) and implementing it in an actual plant. According to the World Economic Forum, this is another reason for designating the LS ELECTRIC plant as a “World Lighthouse Factory.”
LS ELECTRIC’s Cheongju plant has adopted many technologies that form the backbone of a smart factory: ▲ IoT-based automated system for the changing equipment model that is capable of mass production of multiple product types; ▲ self-driving robots that handle inventory; ▲ AI-based real-time automatic welding system; and △ machine learning-based noise vibration test system. The plant also uses Big Data analysis service to share raw material data, production data, and quality data in real time with suppliers.
“It is very meaningful to us that our Cheongju plant, built with our own smart factory technologies, has been selected as a ‘Lighthouse Factory’ that could illuminate the future of manufacturing across the world. We will not only make the world's best products by expanding the application of smart technologies on the field but also spare no effort in building smart factories for SMEs so that South Korea's manufacturing competitiveness could be upgraded to the next level,” an LS ELECTRIC representative said.