Posco supports SMEs with smart factory

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco said Monday its smart factory support program for small and medium-sized enterprises has been seeing positive outcomes, such as in their revenue growth.

Since 2013, Posco has been running its “Productivity Innovation Program” initiative to assist SMEs in building their “smart” capacity.

As of last year, the company said it had supported 1,094 companies with investments worth 22.8 billion won ($19 million).

The companies include 109 firms that are devoted to casting, molding, heat treatment, surface treatment, plastic working and welding to turn raw materials into processed materials that can be used as industrial components in other industries,

According to Posco, 14 small businesses specializing in molding established a monitoring and data simulation system under its program and saw their productivity grow by 34.1 percent on average while cuting manufacturing costs by 24.2 percent.

With its methodology Quick Six Sigma, Posco aids the SMEs in implementing a smart factory system with technology such as big data and the internet of things for product design and production plant improvement, the company said.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)