The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Minister Kim Jung-kwan) held the ‘M.AX CEO Hackathon’ on September 21 at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Sejong, bringing together about 100 participants, including CEOs of manufacturers based in regional industrial complexes and specialist AI firms. The event was designed as a forum where chief executives themselves identify the problem they most want to tackle first with AI at their own plants and turn it into an AX (AI transformation) project that can be applied on the ground.
 [코리안투데이] 우리 공장 무엇부터 AI로 바꿀까 CEO가 먼저 이끄는 제조 현장 M AX © 장형임 기자 |
The gathering brought together some 50 CEOs from regional industrial complexes, along with specialist AI companies, members of the MINI Alliance, the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology. It ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day in the Grand Ballroom on the second floor of the Sejong Marriott.
For manufacturers, AX is not simply a matter of bringing in an AI solution. It begins with deciding which of the many problems facing the shop floor, such as equipment breakdowns and a shortage of skilled workers, to address first, and which processes to concentrate manpower and investment on. The ministry said it planned the event around the recognition that a CEO’s resolve and leadership are central to driving such decisions and organizational change.
 [코리안투데이] 우리 공장 무엇부터 AI로 바꿀까 CEO가 먼저 이끄는 제조 현장 M AX © 장형임 기자 |
Ahead of the hackathon proper, Minister Kim Jung-kwan delivered a keynote address on the theme of ‘the CEO’s role in the age of AI.’ He stressed that AX goes beyond mere technology adoption and is a management challenge of redesigning the very way a company works, explaining that reconciling data and interests scattered across departments to set company-wide priorities ultimately falls to the CEO. He then offered ‘3A’ as guiding principles of conduct for CEOs in the AI era, namely Adapt, Adept and Adopt, saying that CEOs must take the lead in exercising leadership through the process of reading the currents of change, understanding AI and then putting it into actual practice.
 [코리안투데이] 우리 공장 무엇부터 AI로 바꿀까 CEO가 먼저 이끄는 제조 현장 M AX © 장형임 기자 |
Following the keynote, front-runner companies that have pushed ahead with AX on the factory floor shared their experiences. HD Hyundai Samho presented cases of AX adoption in shipbuilding manufacturing, offering the attending CEOs clues for applying it to their own processes, while Oseong Steel described how it converted equipment-operation know-how that had been held by individual skilled workers into data that AI could learn from, and used AI simulation to shorten the training period for new hires.
Participants were divided into 10 teams to share the difficulties their companies face on the ground and the AX tasks they hope to pursue, then refined solutions through consulting provided by specialist AI firms and experts. The discussions went beyond floating ideas: they examined the AI technologies to be applied, the target processes, the scale of investment and the expected effects, as well as the potential to link up with follow-up support such as government programs. The main tasks centered on areas directly tied to productivity, including manufacturing tacit-knowledge AX that turns skilled workers’ know-how into data for AI to learn, quality inspection that replaces visual checks with AI vision inspection, predictive maintenance that detects equipment anomalies in advance, and physical AI and autonomous manufacturing that reflect the characteristics of industries such as shipbuilding.
 [코리안투데이] 우리 공장 무엇부터 AI로 바꿀까 CEO가 먼저 이끄는 제조 현장 M AX © 장형임 기자 |
The ministry said it will support follow-up demonstrations by linking the outstanding AX tasks identified that day with government support programs so that they lead to actual on-site application, and that it plans to spread AX models whose results are confirmed to similar processes and other industrial complexes. It also plans to continue expanding field-centered manufacturing AX support based on the company-specific difficulties and needs drawn out at the hackathon. As an attempt to bring the manufacturing AI transformation, which has been discussed mainly around large corporations, down to the small and mid-sized firms of regional industrial complexes, the event is expected to give participating companies an opportunity to find concrete transformation paths suited to their own processes.
지역 홍보대사 신청 기자양성과정 신청 코리안투데이 지부장 신청 코리안투데이 인천강화코리안브랜드대상 신청 최고경영인대상 신청 소비자만족도대상 신청
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