"Why Not Leaving Work?"... N2B Has 'Al Gwa-jang' Whose Hobby Is Overtime Work [Unmanned Era⑥]

Robot-Based Work Automation Technology
Introduced in 2019... Now Expanded to 5 Systems
Performing Over 20 Tasks Including Tax Invoice Issuance
Reducing Annual Work Hours by Approximately 11,000 Hours

NTOB's 'Al Gwa-jang' character

At N2B, POSCO Group's specialized company for corporate consumables (MRO), there is an employee whose hobby is working overtime, specialty is repetitive PC tasks, and motto is being available year-round.

This employee's name is Manager Al (R). Manager Al is a representative case of a company adopting robot-based process automation (RPA, Robotic Process Automation) technology. Tasks that were previously manually repeated by humans on PCs have been automated through robots. The technology provider is UiPath, an RPA specialist company founded by a Romanian entrepreneur.

He joined as Assistant Manager Al in August 2019 and was promoted to Manager within three years due to his work performance. N2B has gradually increased the number of robot employees by investigating tasks suitable for RPA through internal contests. Now, alongside Manager Al, there are four more colleagues: Assistant Manager Al, Junior Staff Al, Staff Al, and Inventory Notifier Al.

RPA Room Operated by N2B

On the 12th, we visited N2B headquarters in Samseong-dong, Seoul, where Manager Al works. In the RPA room, which is restricted to outsiders, there are five PC monitors. Looking at the screens, the mouse cursor was constantly moving, processing tasks or creating data documents. Invisible robot employees were working hard. There were no quadruped robots or robot arms moving in unison. However, they reduced work processing time by about 11,000 hours annually, performing the work equivalent to more than five people. Their tasks include issuing client tax invoices, managing bids and orders, and notifying about goods inspection, among about 20 types of work.

When robot employees were first introduced, there was some resistance from staff. Since robots replaced human tasks, some were wary, fearing "Will this threaten my job?" The company aimed to enhance employees' capabilities focusing on high value-added tasks rather than reducing labor costs and communicated this to the staff. Manager Al was assigned to simple and repetitive tasks that require no decision-making but take a lot of time.

The company increased familiarity by personifying the robot employees as if they were people. They conducted an internal survey to name the robot employees. By creating friendly characters like "Pengsoo," they reduced resistance.

Lee Gyodong, leader of N2B's Information Strategy Section, said, "When Manager Al joined, he sent an email to employees announcing his arrival with the message 'I will assist senior colleagues with their tasks.' Since then, he increased interaction by sending necessary work messages through the internal messenger." After promoting Manager Al through the company newsletter, inquiries for benchmarking poured in from other POSCO affiliates and large corporations. In December last year, the RPA adoption achievements were recognized, and Manager Al received the Minister of Science and ICT Award in the Distribution Platform category at the Korea Digital Management Innovation Awards.

RPA technology has often been introduced briefly and then faded away in domestic companies. Regarding this, Lee said, "Employee participation and positive perception, along with continuous interest from management, are necessary. The success factor was conducting robot employee recruitment at the company-wide level rather than in some business units and steadily managing changes in work systems." N2B plans to hire about two more robot employees this year.

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