![[INDUSTRY NEWS] Jeong-ha Kim, CEO of THiRA-UTECH, “We will go overseas with our experience of smart factory solution for large companies”](https://thirautech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/sub09.jpg)
Link Source: http://www.industrynews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=29661
[INDUSTRY NEWS] Jeong-ha Kim, CEO of THiRA-UTECH, “We will go overseas with our experience of smart factory solution for large companies”
Founded in 2006, THiRA-UTECH, a smart factory specialized solution provider, is the only software company in Korea that provides integrated solutions for the entire process of manufacturing production from manufacturing operation to product transportation, including SCM, MES, facility automation and logistics optimization solutions.
Developed and supplied cloud-based SME-type manufacturing operation solution
The era of smart factories where various physical and logical objects such as facilities, materials, processes, and warehouses within a factory are connected through digitization of the entire production value chain is opening. Based on this integrated process, the production process is automated through the inter-object communication, and the productivity and efficiency of the entire manufacturing company is increased through the intelligent analysis of the integrated information.
Founded in 2006, THiRA-UTECH, a smart factory specialized solution provider, was created by merging UTECH Solution, a MES company, and THiRA S & C, an SCM company. THiRA-UTECH is the only software company in Korea that provides an integrated solution for the whole process of manufacturing production from manufacturing operation to product transportation such as SCM, MES, facility automation and logistics optimization solution. It has secured Korea’s top companies in various industries such as semiconductors, displays, Secondary Batteries, precision materials, and machine parts as customers, and is also expanding its AGV business by developing cloud-based solutions and fusion of control software and hardware.
Jeong-ha Kim, CEO of THiRA-UTECH [Photo = Industrial News]
What are the achievements through THiRA-UTECH Management and the value you are aiming for?
Sales growth slowed for the first time in six years since running UTECH Solutions. We believe that the reason is a limited business area based on some limited customers such as Samsung and only on MES. In order to overcome this, in 2016, the company secured an SCM solution through the merger with THiRA S & C, Korea’s No. 1 SCM company. Based on these smart factory total solutions, the company has secured domestic top-class companies in various industries as customers, and is looking at sales of 30 billion won this year, which has more than doubled since the merger. In addition, in terms of job creation, the company has average job growth of more than 20% and strives to ensure that the company’s growth coincides with the growth of its employees.
What is THiRA-UTECH’s special and unique corporate culture?
The most important thing I personally consider rather than a special corporate culture is trust. In addition to trusting customers, trust between managers and employees, and between employees is considered to be the most important. The highest priority is to trust and rely on each other to achieve common goals through close communication.
What is the goal of THiRA-UTECH and what strategies do you have to achieve it?
Since its inception, THiRA-UTECH has been firmly committed to developing its own products based on the manufacturing experience of THiRA-UTECH. In particular, with the aim of localizing foreign-made products specialized for each industry group, the company first sold them to representative companies in the industry to secure references and expand them to other companies. To this end, we are cooperating with domestic large SI companies and pursuing business in the form of supplying products to the large corporations.
THiRA-UTECH is the only software company in Korea that provides integrated solutions for the whole process of manufacturing production from manufacturing operation to product transportation such as SCM, MES, facility automation and logistics optimization solution.
[Photo = Industry News]
What are the recent issues in smart factory solutions and what is the role of THiRA-UTECH?
Recent issues in the smart factory sector we think are the downturn in the manufacturing economy and the government’s support of smart factories. In particular, the government is investing enormous budgets aiming to build 20,000 smart factories by 2022. Cooperation with large global companies with global competitiveness is essential to see the investment effect. In this regard, THiRA-UTECH aims to contribute to increasing the manufacturing competitiveness of SMEs based on the know-how and solutions accumulated by large enterprises. In particular, THiRA-UTECH develops and supplies cloud-based SME-type manufacturing operation solutions for SMEs with poor IT infrastructure
What is the most memorable application of the solution developed by THiRA-UTECH?
As mentioned earlier, THiRA-UTECH has been determined to become a solution specialist since its inception. Fortunately, SK Energy selected a Secondary Battery as an alternative to the petrochemical industry and started its business at SK Daedeok R & D Center. Based on the existing experience of THiRA-UTECH, MES products have been developed and applied, and with the activation of the Secondary Battery business, the company is expanding the application not only to Korea but also to China, Hungary and the United States.
What do you think of a good CEO?
Even if we don’t say the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the future will change rapidly. Likewise, the manufacturing company will quickly become intelligent with the convergence of software technologies such as cloud and AI and hardware technologies such as robots and sensors. Therefore, I think it’s time for a CEO with the leadership to anticipate future change and move the organization quickly to respond.
What are the future plans and goals of THiRA-UTECH?
THiRA-UTECH plans to actively adopt new technologies such as AI, big data, cloud, and robots to continuously develop and expand the solutions that customers need. In particular, the company is investing heavily in hardware convergence based on software power. To this end, the company is preparing for an IPO this year and aims to achieve sales of 100 billion won in 2025 by targeting the overseas market, led by the United States, to further recognize the value of our solutions. THiRA-UTECH aims to become the global No.1 company in APS / MES field like SAP of Germany, which is the leader of ERP industry, and is going to become ‘the world’s best’ company from the best domestic smart factory solution provider.
