SMART FACTORY DIGITAL library

Located in Michuhol-gu, Incheon, Seoul Engineering offers products to 30 of the world’s major steelwork using its independently developed technology. In particular, it has maintained a cooperative relationship with POSCO for a long time. It has been selected as an excellent supplier of POSCO for 12 consecutive years, reflecting their solid relationship. The anchor product of Seoul Engineering is components for blast furnaces to melt iron and has ranked 1st in the industry by manufacturing “tuyere” that blows hot air into a blast furnace. It is also recognized for the quality of its cooling plates, lances and staves and exports them worldwide. Construction of the smart factory system of Seoul Engineering started in 2014. At the time, CEO Lee Hae-yang and all employees picked the digitalization of the production as the most urgent need. Tuyere, their anchor product, is made of copper, so production costs were high and defects could only be checked in the final processing stage. That’s why any defect resulted in a serious loss.

To reduce defects, Seoul Engineering received government support and introduced the Manufacturing Execution System(MES) MES(Manufacturing Exwcution System) A production management system that supports all the activities across the production such as work schedule, work instruction, quality management, and boosting performance in its basic stage in 2014 and advanced quality management function of the system in 2016.

In 2018, it received support for constructing the smart factory system from POSCO since Seoul Engineering was selected as one of its excellent suppliers. Seoul Engineering signed up for the “Techno Partnership” with POSCO and began solving the most urgent and important challenges. As a representative case, it constructed and managed a helium gas monitoring system.

CEO Lee Hae-yang of Seoul Engineering was greatly satisfied with the smart factory system because he could now better manage expensive helium gas that was difficult to move. Seoul Engineering faced changes in many areas after the implementation of the smart factory system. Among others, CEO Lee Hae-yang pointed to the reduced defect rate and helium supply method through cooperation with POSCO as the biggest changes. When a defect occurred in products, we could not grasp exactly in what process the defect had occurred. For this reason, when a defect occurred, we could not avoid suffering enormous damage and improvements were difficult. However, we could check in what process a defect occurred through the bar code after the implementation of the smart factory system. Since the production site can be seen from the office, we could better schedule operations by knowing the production status data, operation time, and when production is finished. Planned production and management became possible and defects could be prevented as well. Copper melting process was important, but defects occurred because it was difficult to manage temperature and humidity consistently with 24/7 operations. Also, when the temperature of the melting furnace changed slightly, electricity consumption increased. However, the smart factory system enabled us to manage electricity usage for the copper melting furnace, which improved our energy efficiency. Along with a 13% reduction in electricity consumption, the total process defect rate was reduced by 10% or more. As we continued to use the system, which is not operated randomly by workers, management became very easy. Helium is a very expensive gas. If waste occurs in the process, production falls due to the lack of helium. In the past, there was a slight difference in the amount of helium used among workers, so there was a lot of waste. However, we constructed a helium reduction device with the support of POSCO and now can supply helium gas consistently. Through this, use time increased by more than 30% for the same helium gas, which eased management concerns and provided a true cost saving effect.

Seoul Engineering will continue reducing defects and maintain efficiency based on the smart factory system we implemented. Seoul Engineering achieved noticeable results in four major areas. Helium use cost was reduced by 32% and electricity use by 10% after the implementation of the smart factory system. Total process defects were reduced by 10% and productivity per person was increased by 5% after implementation of the smart factory system.