Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin looks at a coding examiner as he toured a smart factory of Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co. on June 3. (Photos: Lotte Group)

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin toured a production line at Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co., which celebrated its 70th anniversary last month.

Chairman Shin’s inspection tour may be construed as his bid to stress sustainable management to ensure the long-term success and prosperity of the group’s representative, long-standing companies.

Chairman Shin visited Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s “smart factory” in Anseong, Gyeonggi-do, on June 3 and received briefings on the operation of the plant and the building of smart factories.

He was accompanied by President Lee Young-goo of Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Lotte Data Communication executives. Anseong smart factories of Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Lotte Data Communication executives have become an exemplary practice based on the digital transformation Lotte Group is pursuing.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s Anseong plant, established in 2000, is the biggest among the company’s six plants in Korea.

The plant produces Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s representative products such as Chilsung Cider, other carbonated drinks, and coffee products. Lotte has been implementing a project to make Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s Anseong plant a smart factory at a cost of 122 billion won since 2018.

Smart factory refers to an “intelligent” plant employing new digital technologies in all stages ranging from demand to production, inventory and dlogistics to enhance its productivity and quality.

Chairman Shin said, “Digital transformation is expected to be accelerated in the wake of the impact of COVID-19, and the scope of application will be expanded.” Now that major systems of the smart factory have been built this year, the Anseong plant will become the group’s representative example, he added.

Chairman Shin said the safety of something to eat will likely be a major topic in a post-COVID-19 world. As a smart factory can ensure the traceability of production from raw materials to production of items, food safety regimes will contribute to ensuring public safety, he said.

Lotte will have newly expanded lines of the Anseong plant outfitted with digital transformation technologies.

Emergency situations will be minimized by employing prediction models based on big data and production environment will be made flexible to improve productivity and quality.

In a long-term perspective, storage, packing and loading will be automated at the Anseong plant. Smart factory will be expanded to other plant of Lotte Chilsung Beverage.

Chairman Shin overhauled COVID-19 working conditions. Lotte Group was the first Korean conglomerate to regularize remote work once weekly on May 22.

President Kim Yong-ho of Lotte Chemical President Indonesia and Dir.-Gen. Prasinta Dewi of the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), and BNPB General Manager Ibnu Asur attend a ceremony in which Lotte Group delivered 30,000 homegrown COVID-19 diagnosis kits worth about 288 million won to BNPB.

Lotte Donates 30,000 COVID-19 Diagnosis Kits to Indonesia

Lotte Group delivered 30,000 homegrown COVID-19 diagnosis kits worth about 288 million won to the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) to help Indonesia overcome the hardships caused by COVID-19.

Some 10 Lotte Group subsidiaries, including Lotte Chemical, which have entered the Indonesian market, joined in the donation campaign.