Minister Sung Yun-mo of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy delivers a commemorative speech at the 44th National Quality Management Convention at COEX on Nov. 28. (Photo: MOTIE)

Administrator Lee Seung-woo of the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards. (Photo: KATS)

“The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) will strive to help Korean companies tap global markets by timely standardization of convergence technologies such as IoT and smart gadgets, expanding standards of the service industry, and securing related international standards in advance of others in an era of the 4th Industrial Revolution.” KATS Administrator Lee Seung-woo said.

“As industries, technologies and services are interconnected in an era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, it must be essential to establish a flexible standardization management regime to comply with the compatibility of each touchpoint, standards combining products and services and rapidly changing industry environment.” he said.
In order to build a standardization regime to quickly meet corporate demands, he said KATS strives to establish a new fast track for standardization.

The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and KATS Administrator Lee in which he spoke of KATS’s standardization policies.

Question: Would you give an outline of the 44th National Quality Management Convention?

Answer: The 44th National Quality Management Convention, hosted by Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) under the umbrella of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and organized by Korea Standards Association (KSA), took place at COEX Auditorium on Nov. 28 with about 2,000 people in attendance, including KATS Administrator Lee Seung-woo, prize winners and quality management officials.

During the event, 404 awards, including 36 government prizes, were presented to people and organization which contributed to quality innovation and quality management initiatives.

Q: What’s the purpose of the National Quality Management Convention?

A: The National Quality Management Convention is an annual event, designed to award persons and bodies which have contributed to improving quality, reducing unit prices, and enhancing productivity through quality management initiatives and encourage field workers with excellent achievements.

The event is the sole national quality management rally in which multiple field workers from the manufacturing and service industries participate, and it is an event in which managers and employees from large- and small-sized companies and mid-size enterprises come together to pledge their determination to ramp up national competitiveness and show shared growth.

Q: What’re differences between the 44th National Quality Management Convention and previous events?

A: This year, the Service Quality Award for Public Safety has been created through inter-ministry consultations to explore persons and organizations recognized for providing excellent quality safety services to secure public safety. One person and one body have been presented with the minister of interior is award.

Q: Would you introduce the major prize winners?

A: The Order of Industrial Merit Service, Gold Tower, the most coveted award to individuals of merit, went to AR Chairman Han Seung-il. Han, the founder of a constant temperature and humidity chamber SME.

Sunil Remicon President Chung Woo-sup was honored with the Order of Industrial Merit Service, Silver Tower while Vice President Kang Young-soo of SK Hynix was awarded with the Order of Industrial Merit Service, Steel Tower.

Q: Would you introduce major prize-winning organizations?

A: Nine organizations, including Ulsan Port Authority, the winner of National Quality Management Grand Prize, received the presidential award in the category of organizations of merit. Ulsan Port Authority has been praised for ramping up safety management activities that have led to a 48.7 percent in plunge in off-shore safety accidents at Ulsan Port for the past three years and seeing cargo volumes top 200 million tons for the first time of the opening of the port.

Q: Would you elaborate on national standards policies to brace for the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution?

A: KATS will strive to help Korean companies create global markets by timely standardizing convergence technologies such as IoT and smart gadgets at an era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, expanding standards of the service industry, and securing related international standards in advance of others.

Korea plans to expand its influence in setting international standards by prosing standards on future new growth engine industry sectors such as new convergence segments, forming new TC/SC/WG bodies and expanding proposals and accepting appointments of major positions of international standardization institutions.

As industries, technologies and services are interconnected in an era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, it must be essential to establish flexible a standardization management regime to comply with the compatibility of each touchpoint, standards combining products and services and rapidly changing industry environment.

In order to build a standardization regime to quickly meet corporate demands, KATS strives to establish a new fast track for standardization in which a period of gathering public opinions to change civilian standards into national ones will be reduced from current 60 days to 20 days on top of the skipping a specialization committee.

Efforts to make homegrown technologies international standards need to be strengthened to lead global markets and help Korean technologies and products secure market concentration.

To this end, there must be greater efforts to connect state-financed R&D activities and standardization to establish policies to develop standards in a systematic fashion in connection with the implementation of state-financed tasks such as future growth engine industry segments.

 
We’re seeking to standardize social issues for sustainable and rich lives such as new/renewable energies, environment and safety to satisfy social demands in connection with the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

KATS plans to propose about 300 international standards in strategic areas such as self-driving in the next five years and provide support to corporate innovations through standardization steps for creating future markets such as the fostering of 300 next-generation global technology standardization professional.

Q: Would you explain the current status of Korea’s securing international standards related to advanced products?

A: Korea’s cumulative cases of making proposals for international standards, a most active measurement of activities related to international standardization, totaled 835 as of the end of 2017.

KATS provides support to Korean companies’ efforts to secure international standards related to the 4th Industrial Revolution in diverse areas.

We’re trying to help Korean companies, including Hyundai Motor and Green Power, shore up their position in a competition toward international standards on wireless charging technologies among Qualcomm and non-Qualcomm groups.

A standard model has been suggested to build an ecosystem of diverting 110/220V AC to DC and producing DC-oriented home appliance products.

We offer support to LSIS and other Korean companies’ participation in an international standardization collaboration network on the Industry 4.0, led by Germany and related standardization.

Korea has secured a head start in setting international standards on smart city architecture and big date, IoT, AI and other elementary technologies.

A performance measurement method on household cleaning robots, proposed by Korea through research tasks on the establishment intelligent robot convergence technology standardization foundation and verification regimes, was selected as the international standard IEC 62929 in 2015, thus giving Korean companies a leg-up in expanding a global market share.

The IEC General Meeting, held in 2017, approved the inauguration of a new technical committee on wearable smart gadgets, proposed by Korea, and Korea was a full member status of the technical committee on wearable devices and technologies to secure a heat start in international standardization.

Korea submitted 23 international standard proposals, including wearable smart gadget, display, printed electronics and semiconductors during the 2018 IEC General Meeting held in Busan in October.

Q: Would you touch on the outcomes of the 82nd IEC General Meeting held in Busan from Oct. 22 to 26?

A: The 82nd IEC General Meeting, which brought together 3,300 participants from 92 countries, was the largest-ever one. Prof. Lee Byung-gook of Sungkyunkwan University was reelected as a member of the Conformity Assessment Board. Prof. Kim Chun-woo of Inha University became a convenor on ‘common measurement method’, and Prof. Hong Hyung-gi of Seoul National University of Science and Technology was selected as a co-convenor on eye wearable.

Korea played a leading role in the international standardization of definition performance environment testing, reflecting CCTV’s use environment conditions, thus enabling Korean firms with excellent technologies to command global markets. The 82nd IEC General Meeting served as an opportunity to confirm Korea as an electric/electronic powerhouse by proposing 23 standards, including smart gadgets, display, printed electronics, and semiconductor.

KATS held bilateral meetings to promote cooperation with standardization institutions of major powers, including the United States and Germany on the sidelines of the general meeting. During the meetings, Korea agreed to share experiences on standardization education with the countries, discussed on the establishment of strategies to elect IEC’s policy members, and cemented solidarity by forming a consensus on Korea’s election to the IEC’s council board.

The 82nd IEC General Meeting, which coincided with IEC City exhibitions, Smart City technology seminars and cultural events on top of official sessions, was razed as a convergence event connecting standardization, technology and culture by foreign experts.