Smart Factory at the Level of Large Corporations... Final Level Within Reach

No.1 Domestic Cosmetic Container Manufacturer 'Yeonwoo'
Only Level 3 Advancement Stage Remaining
30 Billion Investment in SCADA System Completion Within 3 Years
Half of the World's Top 100 Cosmetic Companies Are Clients
Cosmetic Recovery... Sales Expected to Return to Pre-COVID Levels

Employees only place the items and press the button, and the machines take care of the rest.
[Photo by Yeonwoo]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] Yeonwoo Co., Ltd.'s smart logistics center located on Gajwa-ro, Seo-gu, Incheon, has a total floor area of 24,000㎡, a height of 14.5m, and 12 floors, capable of storing 72,000 boxes simultaneously. Yeonwoo, a manufacturer of cosmetic containers, is the leading company in the related industry with a 40% domestic market share.

Yeonwoo's clients include well-known companies such as domestic firms Amorepacific and LG Household & Health Care, as well as global giants like L'Or?al, P&G, Est?e Lauder, LVMH, Chanel, Johnson & Johnson, and Shiseido. All of the world's top 20 cosmetic companies use Yeonwoo's products, and half of the world's top 100 cosmetic companies are its clients.

Since its establishment in 1994, Yeonwoo has strived to increase productivity and reduce labor intensity, and began full-scale smart factory construction in 2014. Robots were introduced to perform simple tasks previously done by humans or tasks that are difficult and dangerous for humans. From 2016 to 2018, Yeonwoo also received over 600 million KRW in research and development (R&D) funding from the Small and Medium Business Technology Information Promotion Agency.

Smart lines were introduced across all processes, from injection molding to production information and logistics access. A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) was installed to manage manpower, equipment, materials, and work methods in real time, and a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system was implemented on the production line to automate equipment. Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) were established at the headquarters and two large logistics centers, including one in Osan, Gyeonggi Province. This series of processes is automatically reported to the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, enabling real-time monitoring of all situations.

Simple repetitive tasks previously done by humans, as well as tasks that are difficult or dangerous for humans, are now performed by robots.
[Photo by Yeonwoo]

Among the smart factory levels ranging from 0 to 4, Yeonwoo's current smart factory level is 3. Level 0 represents the stage before smart factory application, Level 1 is basic, Level 2 is intermediate 1, Level 3 is intermediate 2, and Level 4 is the final 'advanced' stage.

Yeonwoo is currently at the end of the intermediate 2 stage. Once the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system, which integrates communication functions to allow comprehensive monitoring at a glance, is installed, Yeonwoo will reach the final stage of the smart factory. Yeonwoo plans to invest over 3 billion KRW within three years to complete the SCADA system, putting it on par with top domestic companies like Samsung Electronics and LG Chem that have Level 4 smart factories.

Yeonwoo has continuously invested annually to raise its smart factory level. As the smart factory level increased, production volume rose and sales grew. As of 2019, production volume increased by about 12%, on-time delivery rate improved by 12%, and factory utilization rate was raised to 90%, surpassing the industry average of 70%.

Sales, which were 235 billion KRW in 2016 during the peak smart factory adoption period, increased by about 20% to 294.6 billion KRW in 2019. Although sales dropped to the 250 billion KRW range last year due to the impact of COVID-19, this year Yeonwoo aims to recover to the pre-COVID-19 level of 300 billion KRW.

A Yeonwoo official said, "Since November last year, the recovery in the Chinese market has been remarkable, with Yeonwoo China turning profitable, and the domestic market has shown a clear recovery since early this year with a flood of orders. The US and European markets have been slower to respond, but orders have started coming in from this month."

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