South Korea has stepped up efforts to boost the popularization of smart factories. Previously, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has launched a campaign to convert some 300,000 old manufacturing facilities into smart factories by 2022. Companies that adopted a smart factory system saw an average of 28.5 percent increase in work efficiency and 15.5 percent decrease in production costs.
Under a new program, companies in six categories such as welding, casting, plastic working, heat treating, fabric, and automobile manufacturing would receive subsidies, the ministry said in a statement on July 5.
"We will nurture carbon-neutral smart factories as one of the axis of the sustainable economy by upgrading the manufacturing and management processes," a startup ministry official was quoted as saying. Along with subsidies, the ministry will provide services such as the evaluation of facilities and consulting.