Korea Herald reported that Posco South Korea will invest a total of 20 billion won ($ 17.3 million) over the next five years to help small and medium-sized companies build smart factories. The funds will be spent on the construction of new smart plants, as well as on consulting programs for SMEs. Each SME can receive subsidies from 20 to 100 million won to build their own smart factories. Through consulting services, Posco will also help SMEs find ways to improve production processes with the innovative Posco Quick Six Sigma production system.
Since 2013, Posco has been engaged in industrial innovation to help the development of small and medium-sized companies. Over the past five years, he has provided factories with a total of 19.7 billion Won and completed 1,660 improvement tasks for 876 SMEs.
Smart plant projects include Posco's collaboration with Seoul Engineering, a metallurgical company that supplies copper castings and industrial equipment products used in steel mills.
By creating a system for monitoring the energy consumption of electric furnaces, the smart factory was able to reduce the melting time of copper by 30 minutes, improving the efficiency of copper smelting.
Seoul Engineering CEO Lee Won-Sok said that “we also reduced electricity consumption by more than 20 percent from the past. We thank Posco for providing the necessary support to SMEs and hope that this meaningful collaboration will continue to spread throughout the industry. ”
