[Editor's Note] Since Industry 4.0, digital transformation in industrial sites has been confirmed as an essential requirement for strengthening corporate competitiveness. While large companies are applying the latest technologies such as AI, big data, IoT, and cloud beyond factory automation, many small and medium-sized companies are having difficulty introducing them in practice. Based on its know-how in industrial sites, I2 Co., Ltd. has stepped forward to provide momentum to small and medium-sized companies that are directly hit by difficulties such as rising prices and labor shortages. Our magazine met with I2 Co., Ltd. CEO Lee Soon-yeol to hear about the strategies and cases supporting the digital transformation of small and medium-sized companies.  

■ Please introduce Aitu

ITOO Co., Ltd. is a specialized company that advocates industrial intelligence and was established in August 2021.

The first of our key core businesses is to provide education and consulting to help with digital transformation in order to apply new digital technologies to industrial sites. Next, there is the industrial robot system business that improves the working environment of poor industrial sites based on robots.

We aim to contribute to Korea's further upgrade to a manufacturing-advanced country, focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises.

■ The outline of the government's major industrial digital transformation policies

Most small and medium-sized businesses have little experience with digital transformation, so they often don't know where to start or how to start.

To this end, the government is supporting the pre-education support necessary for small and medium-sized enterprises to make digital transformation. A consulting system is being created to support the establishment of strategies and implementation plans in advance so that various companies can systematically make customized digital transformations according to their situations and industries.

Companies are expected to see significant benefits from utilizing such government support systems, as the Digital Transformation Promotion Act, which came into effect last year, allows for budget-efficient measures.

In particular, while the manufacturing industry focused on supporting smart factories until last year, it is expected that from next year, it will present an advanced business model that increases added value by applying digital technology to all corporate activities, including sales and marketing areas, purchasing and logistics, and financial accounting, including manufacturing sites. The budget for this field is also increasing significantly.

■ Ways for small and medium-sized businesses to transform digitally

Key digital technologies for future enterprises include big data, cloud, AI, edge computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Small and medium-sized businesses recognize the benefits of digital technology, but they are short on money and manpower. That's why we need to seek help from outside experts when we need it, starting with finding ways to digitally transform.

For example, unlike large corporations that can employ in-house experts, small and medium-sized companies adopt outsourcing because they cannot employ highly skilled workers in-house.

As for computing resources, since it costs a lot of budget and maintenance costs to build them internally, they are changing to a subscription form (Software-as-a-Service, SaaS). It is expected to be effective for small and medium-sized businesses as they can borrow good functions and technologies.

In this process, Aitu plays a role in providing education, consulting, and cost-effective solutions to companies in the industry by providing expertise in intelligence across industries.

■ I heard that Aitu provides robot solutions. What kind of business is it?

The difficulty in manufacturing these days is finding manpower. Now, skilled workers are reaching retirement age, but it is difficult to attract young talents to the manufacturing industry to learn from the experienced workers. The environment of the manufacturing site is dangerous and harsh enough to be called a 3D environment.

Ultimately, in order to reduce human dependence in the manufacturing industry, it is necessary to shift difficult and dangerous parts to robots whenever possible.

Large companies are starting to introduce a lot of robots, and they have already achieved automation with their own robots for parts that are easy to automate. However, parts that are difficult for large companies to introduce robots are outsourced to small and medium-sized companies. In small and medium-sized companies, there are many things that are difficult to automate, so the dependence on people increases as you go down to the first, second, and third-tier vendors.

Aitu provides customized robots to small and medium-sized businesses based on its employees' experience in robotic automation solutions. If the average scale of introducing one robot is around 100 million won, Aitu's business targeting small and medium-sized businesses is competitive in that a small number of people help introduce robots in a customized manner for customers, even though the scale is small.

Since it is difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to determine which parts can be converted to robots, experts will look around the site to find out which parts can be handled by robots and which parts are difficult, and provide support in stages starting from what can be done at a reasonable cost.

We do preliminary concept design to come up with ideas for areas where quick returns on investment can be achieved at low cost. Next, we provide engineering consulting to diagnose and pre-verify the effects that robots can have when introduced. This can reduce the risk of failure in advance when introducing actual robots.

Based on this, we are also providing assistance at the business plan stage to secure government support budget. In the past 2-3 years since establishment, when applying for government robot construction support projects, 70-80% of cases have now received government support, and there are cases where the investment recovery period is approximately 6 months.

■ If there are any major cases of robot introduction

One of the many cases is a second-tier supplier manufacturing automobile parts. There is a process of placing objects on a tool 'jig' for welding automobile parts, aligning them, and welding them. The process of moving heavy assembly parts when transporting parts for assembly is an undesirable task that causes accidents.

At this time, robots were introduced into the hazardous process to replace the parts where accidents could occur.

The working environment of the basic industries such as food and automobiles is mostly poor. Robotic automation can improve the working environment and help overcome the labor shortage. Additionally, productivity can be improved by having robots work 24 hours a day to take over when vacancies or additional night work occur.

■ What do you think about the collaborative robot market, which is a hot topic these days?

Collaborative robots are also a type of industrial robot. The biggest features of collaborative robots are that they are easy to install and have safety features. So people and robots can work together in the same space, but they are not as fast as industrial robots.

Collaborative robots can achieve productivity in areas where people and robots can appropriately share roles. Depending on how collaborative robots are utilized, they can increase productivity, reduce work risks, and efficiently utilize workspaces. If such an environment is found, it seems that many appropriate application cases can be created.

■ Aitu’s future goals are

The industrial environment is changing rapidly. As technology advances day by day, how to utilize technology in various industrial fields is another issue.

Based on its understanding and experience in industrial sites and digital technology, Aitu will continue to provide education and consulting to customers to provide customized robots, AI, etc. In addition, it will provide assistance during the construction phase so that robots can be appropriately utilized in various environments.

In particular, we plan to provide intelligent robots that combine AI and robots in the future. For example, we will combine machine vision and robots. We plan to present ways to utilize fusion technologies that enable robots to judge and perceive like humans, as well as perform simple repetitive movements, in various environments.

I believe that if we focus on merging digital technology with manufacturing application technology and continue to develop know-how for digital transformation, our country will have the opportunity to grow to another level in manufacturing and make a leap forward.