LSIS offers glimpse into smart factory

LSIS’ defect inspection machine detects minor defects of each product manufactured at the company’s G production line in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. The device is equipped with smart vibration sensors that digitize all the inspection processes, the company said. / Courtesy of LSIS

By Lee Min-hyung

CHEONGJU, North Chungcheong Province ― LSIS, the nation’s top electric equipment maker, aims to apply integrated automation systems into all of its manufacturing facilities as a core strategy to slash operating costs and dominate the nation’s energy efficiency market.

The so-called “smart factory” initiative comes amid growing popularity for efficient management systems in the age of the Internet of Things (IoT). Global equipment manufacturers are jumping on the “smart” bandwagon for management efficiency, but only a few companies here have achieved significant feats on the area.

LSIS’s manufacturing facility, however, offers a glimpse of what automated factory is all about, ranging from assembling parts to packaging.

In particular, the company’s G production line is equipped with fully-automated production system operated by its programmable logic controller (PLC).

The PLC is interconnected with the manufacturing execution system (MES), serving as a network hub to manage every level of manufacturing processes within the factory.

“The PLC is at the center of our smart factory system, serving as a brain to manage the whole processes like central processing unit (CPU),” an LSIS official said.

On the floor of the factory is seen a yellow-taped line, the moving path for the automated guided vehicle (AGV).

Programmed instructions allow AGVs to convey machine parts to the next production line. When physical impacts are detected, the vehicles stop its movement and make an alarm call to prevent further setbacks.

The AGVs’ final destination is a packaging line where a bunch of robots measure weight and size of each product, placing them in a designated box. They also put name plates on each box through enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

The second floor of the facility is an assembly line for electromagnetic switches. The facility can produce more than 12 million products each year, backed by the smart manufacturing systems.

Workers can check incoming data from the PLC in real-time. The data is then used to improve productivity for all manufacturing processes.

“Each production line accumulates more than 500,000 datasets every day,” said the company official. “All the manufacturing facilities gather datasets to use as big data used for improving production efficiency.”

Many still believe computerized systems cannot replace human beings in the products inspection processes. However, LSIS dispelled such worries with its smart vibration sensor that can detect minor defects of each product. The sensors digitize all of its inspection processes, helping humans to double-check potential errors that machines might have made.

One more notable feature of the Cheongju factory is its advanced planning system (APS) that makes humanlike predictions. The APS is involved in all the manufacturing processes, including taking orders, setting production plans and even ordering materials.

Next moves for smart factory leadership

LSIS is planning to continue its winning streak in smart factories this year by continuously making investment to adopt IoT-embedded production systems such as the cyber physical system (CPS).

“The CPS shows simulation analysis of what the manufacturing process will be like, even before the production takes place,” the official said. “We can predict different sets of scenarios by using the smart prediction systems.”

The company has so far invested more than 20 billion won ($17.21 million) to realize the smart factory project since 2011.

Despite the nation’s relatively low profile in smart factory business, LSIS’ years-long achievements are seen as the first step to raise the importance of energy-saving systems in the manufacturing side.

“The automation technology, converged with the information and communication technology (ICT), has allowed us to meet small quantity batch production,” said the official. “In particular, smart factory projects exceeded our expectations.”

The company said it has improved productivity by more than 60 percent after adopting the smart solutions.

Production lines ― dealing with low-tension equipment ― recorded more than a 20,000 unit output daily capacity from the previous 7,500, on the back of the smart project, according to the company.

LSIS has also reduced energy consumption by more than 60 percent each day due to the ICT automation system.

With all those achievements, the company could sharply reduce the defect rate to 27 parts per million (PPM), almost equivalent to the level of global smart factories, LSIS added.

Above all, the official said the smart project helped the company boost management efficiency and global competitiveness.

The company aims to reinvest the reduced operating costs into finding its next profit boosters and strengthen its foothold in such areas as smart grids and energy management system (EMS).

Smart grids, particularly, refer to the ICT-converged electricity supply network. LSIS has identified the area as its growth engine, as a smart power grid system allows more intelligent energy management, reducing massive amount of operating costs for companies across the world.

The company is also seeking to diversify its revenue channels in the energy-saving businesses by expanding such solutions as building energy management system and home energy management system.