[On Site] Solgent Soars in Export of Domestic Diagnostic Kits After 'Samsung Private Tutoring'

An employee of Solgent is demonstrating the barcode system to distinguish materials and products at the headquarters in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon on the 10th. Photo by Moon Hyewon, Asia Economy

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] "We will fully spread the wings given by Samsung and become a global molecular diagnostics company that elevates the status of K-bio."

Seok Dosu, co-CEO of Solgent, expressed his thoughts and aspirations at the report meeting on the on-site innovation of the large, medium, and small win-win smart factory held on the 10th at Solgent headquarters in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. Solgent is a small and medium-sized enterprise with 59 employees and 20 years of experience. Recently, it seized an opportunity by obtaining Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its COVID-19 diagnostic kit, 'DiaPlexQ.' Although orders for the diagnostic kits flooded in from various countries overseas, the export faced limitations because most of the product processes were manual and operated under a small-scale production system. To make matters worse, a German company that supplied plastic tube containers for the diagnostic kits suddenly stopped exports, citing domestic demand fulfillment, causing material supply issues and putting exports at risk. At this critical moment, the 'Smart Factory Construction Project' supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Samsung Electronics appeared as a savior.

This project supports up to 60% of the construction costs when small and medium-sized enterprises introduce smart factories. Additionally, Samsung Electronics dispatches professional mentors to provide consulting to build smart factories optimized for the site.

Solgent received six weeks of intensive tutoring from Samsung Electronics and succeeded in increasing productivity by 73%, from 11,900 kits per week to 20,571 kits. The issues of limited space and inefficiency were resolved by establishing an integrated cold storage room (equipped with refrigerators, etc.), expanding inventory capacity from a previous maximum of 4,000 units to 10,000 units. Labeling work, which had to be done manually using Excel programs, was automated, allowing for simpler and faster processing.

The troublesome German-made tube containers were fully localized through Samsung Electronics' 'reverse engineering' (a process of tracing back an already made product to obtain design techniques, etc.).

The rubber ring that prevented liquid leakage from the tube cap had a defect rate of 40% due to the rubber material's tendency to attract foreign substances. Utilizing Samsung Electronics' advanced mold technology, they succeeded in designing an integrated tube that prevents liquid leakage without a rubber ring. This reduced the product defect rate to nearly 0%. Solgent plans to construct a three-story 'new production center' over four months from this month until October. Currently, long-term export contracts for diagnostic kits are underway with 40 countries besides the United States.

Daejeon = Reporter Moon Hyewon

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.