POSCO Chairman leads smart drive

By Nam Hyun-woo

POSCO CEO Kwon Oh-joon

POSCO CEO Kwon Oh-joon strives to sharpen the steelmaker’s competitiveness through introducing information and communication technology to conventional procedures of iron production.

According to POSCO, Kwon went on a business trip Sunday to Germany and the United States where he would visit the head offices of Siemens and GE, respectively. He would also meet leaders of the two global powerhouses to talk about digitalization and sophisticated ways of operating a factory.

At Siemens, Kwon will meet Klaus Helmrich and Roland Busch, who are members of Siemens AG Managing Board. Then, he will have a meeting with Bill Ruh, CEO of GE Digital. The main agendas would be about the mix of traditional operations and high tech solutions.

Along the same lines, POSCO established a smart solution council last year in order to improve competitiveness and reduce costs via blending the group’s core businesses of steelmaking, construction and energy with cutting-edge technology.

The group is already proactive in transforming its facilities into “smart” factories. At a steel plate plant in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, it is setting up data infrastructure which covers the whole process of manufacturing and an analysis system designed to preemptively sense or anticipate malfunctions.

At its hot rolled steel factory in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, POSCO is establishing facilities based on artificial intelligence (AI).

“Kwon’s initiative is not only building smart factories but also embracing the concept of smart industry in which POSCO’s manufacturing expertise and info-tech converge,” a POSCO official said. “The meetings will be great opportunities for pursuing such a plan.”

Specifically, POSCO’s core affiliates of POSCO E&C, POSCO Energy and POSCO ICT will chip in their efforts to create a smart technology-based business platform wholly encompassing the group’s business domains. During the process, the group’s business structure will be reorganized.

To do this, the group and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) jointly opened a curriculum for nurturing AI experts.

Siemens has earned its reputation for embracing smart technology in its business. Its factory in Amberg, Germany, is a prime example of product automation where its IT systems control and optimize all processes to ensure the lowest possible rate of defects.

GE is also looking for a transformation into a software company by bringing together its traditional manufacturing technology and information and communication technology. Recently, it hired a slew of software experts and launched a digitization department to build digital ecosystems in its factories.