SAMSUNG SDI held ‘Shared Growth Day’ to share achievements and innovation best practices with domestic partners on November 13. KOREA INNOTECH made a presentation on its best practices among ten selected Best Partners. 

[Hyuk Heo, President of KOREA INNOTECH (6th from left), who was selected as an outstanding innovation best practice at ‘2024 Shared Growth Day’ and Pro Min-lyeol Lee, SAMSUNG SDI’s innovation consultant (7th from left)]

Turning Crises into an opportunity

KOREA INNOTECH is a small but strong battery component company with 43 years of history. Its main products are tab, insulation film and washer that go into lithium-ion batteries. Its main customers are battery manufacturers, mainly SAMSUNG SDI.

KOREA INNOTECH was first launched with the printing business in a very confined warehouse in 1982. Then, the company made its first partnership with SAMSUNG SDI by developing insulation washer for lithium-ion batteries in 1998. Both KOREA INNOTECH and SAMSUNG SDI were in a bad shape at the time. KOREA INNOTECH was hit hard by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, whereas SAMSUNG SDI was faced with big challenges to source battery components from domestic firms because majority of components were from Japan. Coincidentally, KOREA INNOTECH was successful in developing insulation washer with domestic technology that will be placed between battery cells and can, which initiated today’s 25 years long-standing partnership with SAMSUNG SDI.

Win-win innovation activities of KOREA INNOTECH and SAMSUNG SDI stretch back to 2013, where the number of orders increased due to a rapid surge in demand for cylindrical batteries. This led to a sharp increase in defect rates of KOREA INNOTECH, so innovation activities with SAMSUNG SDI was needed. KOREAN INNOTECH has participated in SAMSUNG SDI's win-win innovation activities four times, for six months each and has improved its systems and processes.

[Hyuk Heo, president of KOREA INNOTECH]

‘Innovation isn’t truly innovative if it can be achieved by anyone’

For 2024 win-win innovation activities, four major tasks were selected to promote innovation: improving defect rates, enhancing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), upgrading quality operation process, improving manufacturing process layout. 

KOREA INNOTECH also set high goals for each task. President Hyuk Heo announced his big visions and goals in the pre-meeting with Pro Min- lyeol Lee, an innovation consultant at SAMSUNG SDI. 

 [Hyuk Heo, president of KOREA INNOTECH, made promise to ‘aim for the best if possible’]

First, innovation required a change in the layout of the manufacturing process. In the slitting process, which started with a single machine and was subsequently expanded with each new machine, walls were erected to separate the space. By changing the layout to create a more open structure, workers were then able to ‘eye-supervise’ any potential problems from the outset.

KOREA INNOTECH removed the walls and relocated the HVAC system. It also relocated the shipping and packaging doors. This created a structure that allows for an ‘eye-supervising’ environment. As a result, worker fatigue was reduced by streamlining the flow of workers and increasing process efficiency. 

[KOREA INNOTECH removed walls and relocated the HVAC system to create more open work space]

In addition, KOREA INNOTECH has reduced its defect rate by 80% in six months. This was followed by a defect rate of 1.0%, achieved entirely through KOREA INNOTECH’s own efforts. Its OEE also increased by 45%. And the quality operation process has been improved through the refinement and standardization of product and defect codes.

[Pro Min-lyeol Lee (left) and President Hyuk Heo (right) are discussing how to improve tab equipment]

On-site recognition and acknowledgement led to faster changes

However, these successes were not achieved overnight. Because the company had been managing the same products for 20 years, employees were reluctant to change. But, the innovation actually improved the efficiency of the work, and the workers also felt the change, which accelerated the pace of innovation.

As on-site recognition and acknowledgement became the driving force for another innovation activities, KOREA INNOTECH made achievements for innovative activities in 2024. An employee who has been on the production line for many years shared his thought after the layout improvement, saying, “It feels so refreshing now that everything is open and visible, making it easier to manage.” After the Tab equipment improvement, another line worker remarked, “This is the best improvement since I joined the company because it has made the work much easier than before.”

Team leader Kwang-mook Park at KOREA INNOTECH, who played a crucial role in win-win innovation activities with SAMSUNG SDI also expressed enthusiasm. 

Combination of the will for quality innovation and 30 years of expertise

Such innovation was made possible by a combination of technological improvements from KOREA INNOTECH and the experience and knowledge of SAMSUNG SDI’s innovation consultant, Pro Min-lyeol Lee. 

Pro Min-lyeol Lee has been in charge of manufacturing innovation for more than 30 years until 2023. Since 1988, when SAMSUNG SDI was in CRT business, he introduced and used equipment, manufacturing systems, tools, and innovative techniques for PDPs, small batteries, and medium and large batteries.

Based on his expertise and knowledge at SAMSUNG SDI, Pro Min-lyeol Lee set a total of four tasks including the two tasks suggested by KOREA INNOTECH. The partner company initially set two tasks, ‘improving defect rates’ and ‘upgrading quality operation process’, but Pro Min-lyeol Lee proposed additional tasks such as ‘upgrading the OEE’ and ‘improving manufacturing process layout’ by identifying the current status of equipment losses and the flow of workers in the workplace.

In particular, a program was developed to collect real-time information at the end of each day’s work at sites where MES* was not introduced, which played a major role in improving work efficiency at KOREA INNOTECH.

* Manufacturing Execution System (MES): a comprehensive manufacturing management system that controls the entire cycle of the production. It collect real-time data to calculate, analyze, monitor and control.

After delivering Tab spools, KOREA INNOTECH receives empty spools back, and in the process, the spools are sometimes broken or have unknown spots in them. For several years, SAMSUNG SDI's spool return packaging method at each SAMSUNG SDI subsidiary needed process improvement, and with the support of SAMSUNG SDI's innovation consultants, the problem was solved in three days.

Pro Min-lyeol Lee also expressed his happiness that KOREA INNOTECH was selected as the outstanding innovation best practice, and expressed his hope that his experience and knowledge will help the partner company grow in the future.

[President Hyuk Heo (left) and Pro Min-lyeol Lee (right) joined their hands for win-win innovation activities]

KOREA INNOTECH’s future innovation direction is also clear. President Hyuk Heo and Team leader Kwang-mook Park have unanimously selected 'zero defect rate' and 'improving equipment efficiency' as their goals, and they plan to introduce MES in the remaining time of 2024.

Although the equipment loss rate has improved a lot, President Heo said that innovation is still needed, and he will continue to improve even 1% every month. At KOREA INNOTECH, all employees are working together to make today better than yesterday. 

[(From left) SAMSUNG SDI’s Pro Min-Iyeol Lee, KOREA INNOTECH’s president Hyuk Heo and Team leader Kwang-mook Park]