LG CNS 'Virtual Factory' Fully Operational: "Factories in the US Can Be Controlled from Korea"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] LG CNS is accelerating digital transformation (DX) in the manufacturing sector by actively promoting its 'Virtual Factory' and 'Virtual Lab' businesses. Virtual Factory and Virtual Lab represent the highest evolutionary stages of smart factories, encompassing physical automation of equipment, informatization through manufacturing systems, and intelligence based on artificial intelligence (AI) and data.

LG CNS announced on the 9th that it recently completed a successful Proof of Concept (PoC) for virtual factory replacement technology using the 'Virtual Factory' applied to a dedicated research factory developing new materials.

Currently, the virtual factory is under construction, and it plans to contribute to customers' ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management by preventing safety accidents, reducing energy consumption, and decreasing environmental pollutant emissions.

The Virtual Factory virtually implements factories and equipment, analyzes all data generated in the factory, and applies the optimal factory operation plan in a virtual environment. The entire factory can be operated in a virtual environment exactly as it is in reality. It goes beyond technology that monitors the virtually implemented factory to enable control of the entire production process.

For example, by accessing the Virtual Factory, an engineer in Korea can remotely operate factory equipment located in the United States. Multiple experts can gather in real-time within the virtual factory without physical location constraints to inspect virtual equipment and discuss issues. By analyzing hundreds of millions of data points generated from virtual equipment, it is possible to predict equipment failures, automatically optimize process sequences, and remotely produce products.

The Virtual Lab refers to a virtual digital laboratory where various research activities such as ▲product design ▲quality testing through virtual products ▲remote real product testing ▲new material development are conducted in a virtual environment. Research that was difficult to attempt in reality due to safety or cost issues can be freely performed in the Virtual Lab.

In new material development, various chemical reactions according to material mixing and temperature control can be safely tested in the Virtual Lab. Drop tests to assess the quality of expensive home appliances by dropping them from various heights can be repeatedly conducted under thousands of different conditions without damaging the actual products.

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Securing data is key to Virtual Factory and Virtual Lab. LG CNS is acquiring data generated in all areas of production, including equipment, robots, design, testing, operators, processes, logistics, and safety, by utilizing big data technology.

To build Virtual Factory and Virtual Lab, LG CNS combined ▲Digital Twin ▲AI ▲Edge Computing technologies. Digital Twin is a technology that visually replicates physical objects in the real world into a digital environment. AI enables autonomous factory operation based on virtual environments by analyzing production data to predict equipment failure timing or automatically determine product defects. Edge Computing technology is embedded in production and measurement equipment to quickly perform data analysis and execution commands without passing through a central server.

LG CNS also operates an 'Innovation Studio' where customers can directly experience DX. Visitors to the Innovation Studio can directly experience the latest DX technologies such as metaverse, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR), which form the basis of Virtual Factory and Virtual Lab, and concretize their business ideas.

Cho Hyungchul, Executive Vice President and Head of LG CNS Smart F&C Division, stated in the keynote speech at the 'Smart Digital Forum' hosted by the National Academy of Engineering of Korea the previous day, "Based on data and IT expertise accumulated over decades of building smart factories in various industries such as electronics, chemicals, and logistics, we will accelerate the DX customer experience for manufacturing clients."

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