Gwangyang Steelworks Initiates Development of Automation Program for Simple Repetitive Tasks

Work Productivity and Efficiency Both 'UP'

From Repair Status Monitoring to Production News Writing

POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks (Director Lee Dong-ryeol) has expanded the development of programs to automate various manual tasks within the company, resulting in improved productivity and work efficiency for employees.

Robotic Process Automation, known as RPA, is a technology that automates simple and repetitive office tasks previously performed by humans by combining various functions such as artificial intelligence.

Steel mill employees are utilizing an automation model built with RPA to monitor product production.
Photo by Gwangyang Steelworks

Gwangyang Steelworks, in collaboration with POSCO's Digital Innovation Office, continuously receives requests from employees for support in developing RPA for simple and repetitive manual tasks within the company, and develops programs that can automate these tasks in an average of one month, helping employees perform their work smoothly.

The Slab Finishing Plant at Gwangyang Steelworks developed an automated monitoring model for factory repair status through this ongoing RPA development support, reducing work hours and simultaneously strengthening safety management within the plant.

Repair work at the Slab Finishing Plant is carried out at various locations such as the factory roof and cranes, with an average of 20 cases per day and more than 100 personnel involved daily.

To track daily repair status, the Slab Finishing Plant managed work locations like a map using a mapping system, but this required field workers to manually check it every day, which was challenging.

Accordingly, the Slab Finishing Plant developed an automated monitoring model with RPA development support and applied the system on-site in April, enabling automatic monitoring of the factory's repair status.

As a result, the Slab Finishing Plant experienced reduced work hours due to automation and was able to smoothly identify high-risk work areas before starting tasks, thereby enhancing safety inspection activities.

POSCO expects that this automated monitoring model for repair status at the Slab Finishing Plant will increase the efficiency of manual tasks, strengthen practical safety management, and contribute to improving work efficiency within the steelworks by applying the model to other plants in the future.

The Production Technology Department at Pohang Steelworks also automated the production bulletin creation task, which shows the production status within the steelworks, through ongoing RPA development support, thereby increasing work efficiency.

Previously, generating the production bulletin involved about 40 steps, with a large volume of data and stages requiring manual input, making it difficult to perform the task manually.

Therefore, the Production Technology Department developed a model to automate the production bulletin through ongoing RPA development support and applied it to actual work, improving task performance efficiency.

In addition, POSCO is helping employees achieve smarter work innovation through various RPA development supports, such as automating product warehouse status data collection and updates, and automating cargo entry and exit fee payment tasks.

A representative from POSCO's Digital Innovation Office, which supports ongoing RPA development, said, "Since 2021, we have developed about 180 projects by discovering RPA tasks at the department level and supporting ongoing task development, resulting in an annual reduction of 27,000 work hours. We will further activate RPA by not only supporting tasks but also opening RPA training courses where employees directly participate in the entire process from idea proposal to development, enabling field personnel to improve work efficiency on their own."

Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik hss79@asiae.co.kr

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