The Busan Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center at Busan Technopark has become the first institution to receive the highest S grade in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' '2025 Regional Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center Performance Evaluation.'
The center's success is attributed to its establishment of a 'growth support system' that connects existing smart factory projects with manufacturing AI and autonomous factories.
According to Busan Technopark on July 30, the Busan center improved from an A grade last year to an S grade in this evaluation. The assessment was conducted through a comprehensive review of the achievement of goals in smart factory dissemination projects, project management, corporate support outcomes, and follow-up growth strategies.
The Busan center implemented a method of pre-diagnosing the level of manufacturing data accumulation, automation stages, and AI applicability for each company, linking these to subsequent government projects. This support structure checks production processes before factory implementation and analyzes system utilization and operational limitations after project completion, connecting to advanced projects.
This approach has encouraged participation in central government projects that progress from basic smart factories to general advancement, manufacturing AI, and autonomous factories.
A representative from the Digital Transformation Data Center stated, “We meticulously manage support histories for each company to assist in project planning and government proposal responses, focusing on those with high growth potential.”
The support is not limited to specific industries such as automotive parts or shipbuilding materials but is open to various manufacturing sectors. However, significant challenges remain, including a shortage of AI and data experts in the region and an incomplete integrated management system.
The Busan center is utilizing a smart factory mentoring group registered with the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology while also securing additional local AI and data experts to support company diagnostics. However, there is a critical shortage of specialized personnel compared to the metropolitan area, prompting the center to conduct its own training and meetings to enhance the data analysis and AI application capabilities of the mentoring group.
The 'integrated management system' for assessing the construction level, on-site challenges, and AI demand for each company is still in its initial stages. The center noted, “The current management system is not one that can be completed at once; it is in the early stages and requires continuous improvement.”
Busan Technopark plans to expand support for companies to address key manufacturing issues such as quality inspection, defect prediction, predictive maintenance, and process optimization using AI and data.
Won Kwang-hae, head of the Digital Transformation Division at Busan Technopark, stated, “We will continuously enhance the Busan-style Manufacturing AX (AI Transformation) support system to improve the productivity and competitiveness of local manufacturing companies by utilizing manufacturing data and AI.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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