South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco vowed to increase investment in smart manufacturing technologies and digitalization, jumping on the so-called fourth industrial revolution bandwagon sweeping across the globe.

The company embarked on the campaign to transform itself into “smart Posco” and the nation’s manufacturing industry into “smart industry,” Posco Chairman Kwon Oh-joon said after a business trip from February 26 to March 4 to Germany’s Siemens AG and the United States’ General Electric Co. (GE). “During the trip, I found that Siemens and GE had made the same choice of digitalization as a way to shape the future.”

As soon as Kwon was approved to retain his position as chief executive officer of Posco for another three years, he set off on the trip to meet leaders of the two global industrial giants including Klaus Helmrich and Roland Busch, who are both members of the managing board of Siemens, and Bill Ruh, CEO of GE Digital, with Posco ICT President Choi Doo-hwan. On March 3, he visited GE headquarters in Silicon Valley and had dinner with Jackie Yang, co-founder of the venture capital firm TransLink Capital, and Nahm Tae-hea, managing director of the venture capital firm Storm Ventures, according to the company.

“We have saved about 10 trillion won ($8.7 billion) for the last three years by streamlining the organization and are now ready to invest in technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to take steps ahead to the smart industry,” Kwon said, adding that the company should explore more innovative ideas in the fast-changing industrial landscape.

According to Kwon, the nation’s steel-making giant is set to speed up manufacturing automation under the slogan of ‘Smart Posco’ to significantly enhance efficiency and added-value of the steel industry by combining its long-established manufacturing expertise with Internet of Things (IoT), big data and AI technologies. It also aims to lead the move to transform the nation’s manufacturing industry into so-called “smart industry,” which is also dubbed as Industry 4.0.

Posco plans to establish a new manufacturing automation platform for smart factories, smart buildings and cities, and smart energy, in collaboration with its key affiliates Posco Engineering & Construction (E&C), Posco Energy and Posco ICT. It said it will overhaul its entire business structure by aggressively developing smart solutions.

Kwon plans to meet with GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt who has been showing a great interest in Posco’s new direction when he visits Korea in the middle of this month to discuss ways to forge a partnership, according to Posco.

By Son Jae-gwon

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