LS Electric plant named by WEF 'Lighthouse Factory' to lead global manufacturing

LS Electric Cheongju plant [Photo provided by LS Electric]

South Korea’s LS Electric said on Wednesday its Cheongju plant has been chosen by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as the “Lighthouse Factory” that will lead the future of the world's manufacturing industry.

The WEF gave the title to the Korean electric equipment provider along with 20 other factories in the world this year in recognition for their application of innovative technologies to increase productivity and energy efficiency.

LS Electric is the second Korean company to be named since Posco was given the title in 2019.

The WEF releases its Lighthouse Factory list twice a year after a review of candidate factories around the world for more than six months. So far 90 factories have received the title since 2018.

The selection is a great achievement made in LS Group’s journey to digital transformation since 2015, said LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-yeol who joined the WEF’s online annual meeting on Wednesday.

According to the WEF, LS Electric is equipped with a mass production method that dramatically reduces costs by increasing production efficiency and flexibility to respond to various customer needs beyond the simple application of AI and IoT-based automation.

LS Electric saw its production costs fall by 20 percent and productivity rise by 27 percent after the application of such innovative technologies at its Cheongju plant. Customer complaints about product quality also decreased by 87 percent.

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