Boasting a 66-year historical past of producing and manufacturing, LG is now taking its belongings up a gear, advancing its smart factory services enterprise by integrating its manufacturing and manufacturing experience with artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation (DX) capabilities.
The electronics large formally entered the smart factory services market earlier in 2024, and now plans to aggressively broaden into industries with quickly rising factory demand, similar to semiconductors, prescribed drugs, biotechnology, and food and drinks. Its manufacturing engineering Research Institute (PRI), which has been enhancing manufacturing and manufacturing competitiveness for LG Group associates, will now lengthen its experience to exterior shoppers.
Though that is the inaugural yr within the sector, the smart factory enterprise is alleged to have already achieved important milestones. PRI anticipates securing orders price roughly KRW 200bn (US$144.7bn) from exterior shoppers for its smart factory services. LG’s main shoppers within the space embody secondary battery producers, automotive components producers and logistics firms. Services supplied embody manufacturing consulting, growth of kit and operation techniques, and coaching for know-how personnel.
As a part of its technique within the sector, LG stated it plans to broaden aggressively into industries with quickly rising factory demand. The objective is to develop the smart factory services enterprise into a multi-trillion KRW enterprise by 2030, excluding income generated within the LG Group, and faucet into a world smart factory market that, according to market research firm Precedence Research, is projected to develop from $155.61bn on the finish of 2024 to $268.46bn by 2030.
LG stated its new smart factory proposition is the “final fusion of AI and manufacturing capabilities”, profiting from 770 terabytes (TB) of producing and manufacturing knowledge that the corporate has amassed up to now decade. The corporate additionally sees a aggressive edge by way of its core manufacturing applied sciences that it regards as important for smart factory configuration, with PRI submitting over 1,000 patents associated to smart factory services.
The corporate goals to set its smart factory services aside by integrating its in depth manufacturing knowledge and experience with AI and DX, leveraging world-class manufacturing applied sciences. These smart factory services embody manufacturing system design, monitoring and operation by way of digital twin know-how; large knowledge and generative AI-based administration of high quality; industrial security and tools; and the availability of assorted industrial robots.
The strategic strategy that the corporate will take within the smart factory sector is not going to solely contain offering unit services for particular areas, however slightly “complete options” masking your entire journey for shoppers, from factory planning to design, building and operation. After contemplating the shopper’s setting and business traits, LG stated it should diagnose current factories and determine areas for enchancment, establishing a step-by-step roadmap from automation, “informationisation” and intelligence views to maximise funding effectiveness.
Manufacturing system design and operation services leverage real-time simulations utilizing digital twin technology. Earlier than the factory is constructed, a digital reproduction similar to the actual one is created, permitting shoppers to preview the manufacturing and logistics circulation. This, stated LG, will allow optimum effectivity in factory design.
Aiming to indicate how its personal operations have benefitted from smart factory services, within the LG Group, manufacturing services at over 60 areas in 40 areas worldwide are making use of choices from PRI. LG revealed that following the implementation of smart factory services, productiveness at its Changwon plant elevated by 17%, power effectivity improved by 30% and high quality prices because of defects had been decreased by 70%.
Commenting on the technique, Jeong Dae-hwa, head of LG PRI, stated: “We are going to provide optimum smart factory options at each stage – from planning and design to building and operation – turning into the best companion that helps our shoppers all through their whole manufacturing journey.”