The car makers, which have operated as sister companies since Hyundai purchased 51 percent of Kia’s shares in 1998, made an announcement yesterday acknowledging the development of ‘smart tag’ technology, a wireless production control system, after a year and a half of research. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 16 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean automobile manufacturers Hyundai and Kia have revealed a new automatic control technology which will be used to look over manufacturing processes at their factories around the world in real time.
The car makers, which have operated as sister companies since Hyundai purchased 51 percent of Kia’s shares in 1998, made an announcement yesterday acknowledging the development of ‘smart tag’ technology, a wireless production control system, after a year and a half of research.
The new technology has already been piloted since last month at a number of the group’s manufacturing plants in South Korea, with plans to adopt the wireless control system at 34 factories around the world.
The smart tag system, when taking effect, will be adopted in every stage of the production process, recording various information including the model number and the target market country, as well as the timeline of production from production facilities.
At the heart of this newly developed technology is a wireless chip that can exchange car production information from memory systems with production facilities through a range of frequencies used exclusively in Hyundai and Kia factories.
When a smart tag system sends information required for automobile production to a ‘smart connector’, the connector then sends the information it received to production facilities.
South Korean automobile manufacturers Hyundai and Kia have revealed a new automatic control technology which will be used to look over manufacturing processes at their factories around the world in real time. (Image: Kobiz Media)
Facilities on the production line will then manufacture cars in accordance with the information sent via a smart connector, then gather the data produced during the process, which will be saved in the smart tag.
As the smart tag will allow manufacturing equipment to perform some of the tasks previously completed by workers, including sorting vehicles by type, the carmakers expect their new development could see their production lines go fully smart while cutting expenses on manufacturing equipment and lowering defect rates on multi-model production lines.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
