R&D activities in Korea on virtual manufacturing

Abstract

The most prominent trends in manufacturing are in terms of setting up globally distributed manufacturing facilities, a move towards mass customization, and initiatives focused on enabling reduction in time to market. Manufacturing industry responds to these trends by adopting new concepts such as Virtual Manufacturing (VM), Digital Manufacturing and an Extended Enterprise. VM, especially, plays a key role in realizing the next generation manufacturing system for the 21st century. Korean industry has introduced commercial VM solutions for constructing application examples and optimizing some parts of the business process. To review the current status of VM R&D and application activities and to make a human network for VM activity in Korea, the 1st VM Workshop was held on May 30, 2003, in Seoul. This paper introduces the major outcomes from the Workshop and discusses the future prospect of the VM activity.