Posco CEO to visit GE, Siemens smart factories, meet leaders

Posco CEO Kwon Oh-joon left for Germany and the United States on Sunday in search of inspiration to turn the country’s No. 1 steelmaker into a smarter company.

Kwon will visit digitized manufacturing plants - what’s known as a smart factory - belonging to Siemens in Germany and General Electric in the United States to consult on ways to transform Posco’s factory into a more digitized one. He is scheduled to meet with Klaus Helmrich and Roland Busch, both of whom are members of the Siemens AG Management Board. In the U.S., Kwon is planning to meet with Bill Ruh, the CEO of GE Digital.

Posco’s smart factory initiative started last year when it established the “Smart Solution Council” dedicated to implementing ICT technology into its manufacturing plant to increase efficiency and promote cost reduction. Its objective is to merge its nearly 50 years of experience in running traditional production plants with IoT, big data and artificial intelligence.