Yoon visits Hyundai Motor's AI-powered factory in Singapore

SINGAPORE -- President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday visited the highly automated Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore, a car manufacturing facility powered by artificial intelligence and robots, on the sidelines of his state visit to the city-state.

Yoon inspected the automated car manufacturing line that uses the "cell production" system in which a small team of human employees and robots is responsible for a specific assembly process. The factory operates 27 such cells.

According to Yoon's office, the system has enabled "multitype small-quantity production," catering to diversifying demand for futuristic mobility solutions.

Moreover, the automation rate at Hyundai Motor's Singapore facility has reached 46 percent, about three times higher than the level achieved by conventional conveyor belt assembly lines.

Yoon said Hyundai Motor is trailblazing the evolution of car manufacturing innovation with AI and robots, as the US company Ford did a century ago by initiating the conveyor belt boom and revolutionizing mass production, and as Japan's Toyota did with the "just-in-time" principle 50 years ago, Park Chun-sup, senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, said in a briefing.

Located in Singapore's Jurong Innovation District, the state-of-the-art facility, whose construction was completed in November, is capable of producing some 30,000 vehicles, mainly electric sedans such as the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6.

The facility created some 270 local jobs in Singapore, as South Korean employees account for only 10 percent of the 300-strong staff.