Korea Federation of SMEs, Recruiting Participating Companies for 'Large-Small Win-Win Samsung Smart Factory'

Support for Manufacturing Innovation of 190 Small and Medium Enterprises by Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Samsung Electronics

The Korea Federation of SMEs and Samsung Electronics announced on the 3rd that they are accepting applications for the 2024 "Large-Small Win-Win (Samsung) Smart Factory Construction Support Project," organized by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

Since 2018, the Korea Federation of SMEs, together with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Samsung Electronics, has supported the construction of smart factories for 2,188 companies with a budget of approximately 120 billion KRW over six years, establishing a voluntary private-sector smart factory expansion system.

This year's project will proceed with a focus on government-led advanced support and strengthening private and regional cooperative networks, including ▲advanced smart factories ▲basic smart factory support linked with local governments, with a total budget of 19 billion KRW to support the construction and advancement of about 190 smart factories.

First, regarding "Smart Factory Advancement," support will be provided for building advanced-level smart factories capable of real-time collection, analysis, and control of production information, with up to 150 million KRW per participating company, supporting a total of about 110 companies.

Additionally, responding to the ongoing demand from SMEs for support at the ‘basic’ level of smart factories, from this year, a "Local Government-Linked Basic Smart Factory" project will be promoted in collaboration with local governments to support the construction of basic smart factories in the region. Together with Chungcheongbuk-do, Jeollanam-do, Gwangju Metropolitan City, and Gyeongsangnam-do, about 80 companies will be supported, with participating companies receiving up to 60 million KRW (80 million KRW for Gwangju) in project funds.

This project is also open to small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies that do not have business relations with Samsung, and participating companies will receive follow-up support such as ▲mentoring on manufacturing site innovation activities by current Samsung Electronics experts ▲participation in the Smart Biz Expo for market development ▲education programs utilizing Samsung’s educational infrastructure ▲and post-maintenance through the Smart365 Center.

The Large-Small Win-Win Smart Factory Support Project is also recognized as a representative exemplary support case with high satisfaction and performance among participating companies. The satisfaction rate of participating companies has increased for five consecutive years, reaching 92.3%, and satisfaction with innovation activity mentoring by manufacturing site experts was also as high as 86.6%. Furthermore, companies that introduced Samsung smart factories showed outstanding management performance, with operating profit 37.6 percentage points higher, added value 23.4 percentage points higher, and sales 11.4 percentage points higher than companies that did not adopt them.

Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, “Through the Large-Small Win-Win Samsung Smart Factory Support Project, innovation results such as digitalization and productivity improvement in the manufacturing sites of SMEs have become visible,” and “The Federation of SMEs will continue to strive to establish a foundation for the sustainable growth of SMEs and minimize blind spots in smart factories through existing projects and collaboration with local governments.”

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