"Sales Halved Due to COVID-19" ... Collaborative Robot Support for 'Jongno Jewelry Industry'

Seoul Digital Foundation Promotes Innovation in Manufacturing Processes and Secures Product Competitiveness

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Digital Foundation announced on the 27th that it has signed a business agreement with collaborative robot developer Neuromeka and the Korea Jewelry Industry Promotion Foundation to "revitalize the Jongno jewelry industry using collaborative robots."

This project was prepared to introduce collaborative robots into Seoul's traditional manufacturing industry, which is in decline, to promote digital transformation of manufacturing processes and to foster a smart city service model where workers and robots can coexist.

The Jongno jewelry industry has been facing difficulties such as reduced working hours and wage cuts for workers due to decreased orders following the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in 2018, only 16.1% (529 out of 3,271) of precious metal businesses in Jongno and Jung-gu, and 24.2% (1,849 out of 7,635) of workers were enrolled in employment insurance, leaving small precious metal business owners unable to receive employment retention support benefits during business closures.

Based on this agreement, each organization will promote the digital transformation of the jewelry industry using collaborative robots by ▲ discovering standard jewelry manufacturing processes ▲ developing a collaborative robot installation and process support system ▲ providing technical support and training for field workers.

The Digital Foundation and the Jewelry Foundation identified processes that protect workers from harmful substances or dangerous tasks and reduce fatigue caused by simple repetitive processes for the development of collaborative robots to be introduced in jewelry manufacturing. Based on this, they will begin designing systems for jewelry manufacturing, developing grippers and tools applicable to the processes, and producing peripheral equipment.

The Digital Foundation also selected two jewelry manufacturing companies located in Jongno to support collaborative robots and plans to additionally support manufacturing using robots at the Seoul Jewelry Support Center's shared workspace to foster prospective entrepreneurs and one-person businesses. In the future, they plan to devise ways to overcome COVID-19 using collaborative robots and to pursue digital transformation of traditional industries.

Lee Won-mok, Acting Chairman of the Seoul Digital Foundation, emphasized, "This will be a representative case of the Seoul-type Digital New Deal that innovates manufacturing and secures competitiveness based on digital new technologies," adding, "Such digital transformation is the direction manufacturing must take in the post-COVID era."

Diagram of the cleaning process using a collaborative robot in the jewelry production process.

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