Abstract
After the Industry 4.0 discussion in Germany in 2011, much attention has been paid to smart factory in Korea. Since 2014, smart factories have been established and expanded in Korea. However, about 80% of them were established at a low level. In this paper, we analyze smart factory statuses in detail through an empirical research on 113 manufacturing companies that have established smart factories in Korea. We build a framework based on the resource-based view (RBV) and IT value creation process and analyze the results of five constructs—manufacturing strategy, organization, system, process, and performance—using basic statistical methodologies to derive the current statuses of manufacturing companies that have established smart factories. Our results show that implementing advanced technologies such as AI technology that can implement semi-finished and finished product quality inspection, manufacturing process optimization and product demand forecast is a challenge, particularly for SMEs. We also find that securing and managing facility data is a difficult problem. In addition, while output and material management ranked high, the utilization of integration systems, which is important when building a smart factory, was found to be extremely low. Lastly, the performance indicator results showed that yield management and defect rate were most important, while job creation through the introduction of smart factories was low. Based on the results of this study, the government may be able to determine effective smart factory policies and provide manufacturing companies with a guide on establishing a smart factory.
Highlights
The environment surrounding the manufacturing industry is changing rapidly, and the pace of change is accelerating due to market changes, the manufacturing environment, and technology. Due to such changes and the technological advancements brought on by Industry 4.0, the manufacturing sector began to move towards more advanced methods of production, which today has culminated in the concept of a smart factory
A smart factory in Korea is defined as a factory that produces customized products with minimal cost and time by integrating the entire process of planning, design, production, distribution, and sales into Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data [5]
We found that SMEs that want to the low level10, of automation at the shop floor (24)
Summary
A smart factory is defined as a high-tech intelligent factory centered on integrating all the production processes—from product planning to purchase—through ICT (information communication technology) to time- and cost-effectively produce customized products. Industrial Revolution, began based on the objective of having the ability to create products that reflect the diverse needs of customers through efficient manufacturing systems; we can call this concept “flexible global value chain integration”. Through empirical studies on various technologies related to Industry 4.0 and smart factories, eight core technologies have been presented as being part of this revolution, as shown in Table 1 [4]. Of these eight, four have been identified as the major technologies: CPS (cyber-physical system), IoT, Smart Factory, and Internet of Service (IoS). Due to such changes and the technological advancements brought on by Industry 4.0, the manufacturing sector began to move towards more advanced methods of production, which today has culminated in the concept of a smart factory
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