“There’s a huge ‘Grey Rhino’ rushing towards Korean manufacturing right now. I think we have about 1..

“There’s a huge ‘Grey Rhino’ rushing towards Korean manufacturing right now. I think we have about 10 years left until the head-on collision.”

Lee Sang-mok, head of the Korea Institute of Production and Technology, met on the Seoul workplace of the Korea Institute of Production and Technology (National Clean Production Support Center) in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and there was a deep sense of disaster in his voice. He was involved by evaluating the fact dealing with the Korean manufacturing business to the “gray rhino rush.” It is an financial time period that refers to a threat that folks wrestle to disregard, though it comes with fixed hazard alerts. The actuality of the grey rhino is ‘the collapse of the inhabitants cliff and manufacturing ecosystem on account of low fertility’.

Director Lee warned, “The disappearance of the population and the disconnection of skilled workers are a foreseen disaster,” including, “If we miss this golden time now, Korean manufacturing could enter a path of decline like Germany and Japan.” In an interview with Maekyung, he proposed possible options equivalent to “Friend-Shoring” and “Eco-Cycling,” a manpower circulation mannequin.

Director Lee mentioned, “The number of children born by the baby boomer generation, who used to study with 80 people a class full like bean sprouts, is now in the 0.7 range. This is the result and tragedy of ‘collective intelligence’ to survive in a fiercely competitive society, he said. “We will endure from a extreme ‘lack of expertise’ for about 30 years till youngsters born now turn into dad and mom.”

He said, “Local universities are on the verge of extinction as a result of they do not have college students, and native small and medium-sized enterprises shut as a result of they can not discover folks. In the meantime, the phenomenon of focus within the metropolitan space is intensifying, he mentioned. “We need to abandon the closed view of trying to find a solution only within ourselves.”

The card he took out to unravel this drawback is a “talent eco-cycling” mannequin that transfuses younger blood from Southeast Asia equivalent to Vietnam and Indonesia. It is not only an inflow of international staff, however a technique by which the 2 nations collectively choose core applied sciences for the business and award levels for the event of these applied sciences.

Director Lee mentioned, “I recently visited Vietnam and Indonesia to meet with government officials and presidents of major universities. For example, if the two countries agree to grow the biodiesel industry using Indonesia’s abundant palm trees together, students who have completed related curriculum will be selected from local universities to take master’s and doctoral courses at UST-KITECH SCHOOL and the University of Science and Technology.”

“Those who have grown this way become researchers or engineers who solve the manpower shortage in Korea, or experts in ‘派 of knowledge’ who return to their home countries to cooperate with Korean companies,” Director Lee mentioned. “If retired scientists in Korea send them to the local area to teach and mentor them, a virtuous cycle of manpower will be completed.”

We want a ‘two-track’ technique to help corporations working in allies such because the United States and firms returning to Korea on the identical time

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As a response technique for world provide chain reorganization, “Friend Shoring” was proposed. It is a “two-track” technique that helps each off-shoring corporations that enter allies such because the U.S. and on-shoring corporations that return to Korea on the identical time.

Lee coolly recognized the fact of corporations coming into the U.S. “The U.S. only has deep technology left, but the manufacturing ecosystem has already declined since 20 years ago,” he mentioned. “When I meet the heads of our corporate corporations in the country, they say it is difficult because they do not have skilled manpower and poor infrastructure.”

“It is perfect for large companies such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor to be attacked individually,” he mentioned. “As if destroyers and submarines move together around an aircraft carrier, large companies and cooperative small and medium-sized companies must form a ‘technology fleet’ and advance to survive.” Shin Ki-won will play a position in supporting a “data space platform” inside this fleet that enables corporations to share and cooperate with information.

As for On-shoring corporations that need to return to Korea, he defined, “There are many companies that followed large companies to China and Vietnam in the past and were blocked by rising labor costs and tariff barriers. When they return to the local industrial complex in Korea, matching AI-based automation facilities with manpower and settling them is the core of On-shoring support.”

Director Lee additionally identified the difficulty of polarization hidden behind high-tech expertise. He identified, “The term ‘K-economy’ is good to hear, but in reality, it means extreme polarization in which only large companies and the metropolitan area are doing well.” “Only 0.25% of Korea’s 600,000 manufacturing companies have more than 200 employees,” he mentioned. “Even if the top 0.25% introduce cutting-edge AI to increase productivity 10 times, the productivity of the country as a whole will not increase if the remaining 99.75% of SMEs are alienated.”

What Director Lee emphasizes just isn’t a huge language mannequin (LLM) equivalent to ChatGPT, however ‘discriminatory AI’ and ‘bodily AI’ that resolve particular issues in manufacturing websites. “We need to increase their productivity by distributing cost-effective manufacturing AI that small and medium-sized root companies can use,” he mentioned. “That will narrow the gap between large companies and SMEs and enable true economic growth.”

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