Artificial intelligence is beginning to detect fire and worker-collision risks on factory floors before they occur, analyze warning signs in production equipment and even identify optimal process conditions. As the scope of AI use in manufacturing widens from accident prevention to productivity gains, the commercialization of AI products and services that can be deployed on actual production lines is also accelerating.
South Korean mid-sized and smaller manufacturers in sectors ranging from auto-parts forging to food and publishing are moving faster to commercialize AI solutions that prevent industrial accidents and optimize production processes using data accumulated on their factory floors, according to industry sources on the 18th. The companies plan to apply the technology to actual production lines after developing the solutions and verifying them on site.
The companies entered the market for manufacturing-specific AI solutions after being selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' rapid commercialization support program for AI application products in manufacturing, known as AX Sprint. A total of 48 projects were selected, with funding reaching 124.2 billion won.
Through the program, the government aims to commercialize AI products and services that can be used immediately on factory floors and to spread them across the manufacturing sector. Total project spending amounts to 122.9 billion won. The Korea Federation of SMEs serves as the project management body and the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA) as the implementing agency, supporting everything from technology development to on-site verification, commercialization and diffusion.
The government focused in particular on reflecting the needs of manufacturers from the earliest planning stage, to prevent the AI technologies being developed from drifting away from actual demand on the factory floor. Rather than having AI suppliers push their existing solutions onto manufacturers, the structure calls for AI suppliers and specialized institutions to select suitable technologies based on manufacturers' process data and operating experience, apply them on site and then verify their effectiveness in a real production environment.
The program is divided into four areas: manufacturing industrial safety, manufacturing processes and production, manufacturing management and operations, and consumer-tailored products and services. "We will provide active support so that this goes beyond digitizing existing processes and leads to improved competitiveness across manufacturing companies as a whole," a TIPA official said.
In the industrial safety area, forging company Hanho Industrial is developing an integrated safety management solution that combines vision AI with Internet of Things sensors to detect fires, press entrapment and forklift collisions in advance. Mirae N, an education and publishing company, is pursuing a project to automate heavy-lifting work and logistics processes at book shipping sites using autonomous mobile robots and an integrated AI control system. In the manufacturing process and production area, food company Daesang is developing technology that introduces AI agents into its allulose fermentation and sugar refining processes to optimize production conditions. Auto-parts maker Rihaon is building an autonomous production system that combines AI and digital twins on an electric-vehicle battery component production line.
"Through the manufacturing AX Sprint, we will identify leading models and success cases in each sector and work to spread them to other companies in the same industries," an official at the Korea Federation of SMEs said.