[[B1]] JLT, a smart-factory automation company, said on the 21st that it has been selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 2026 Global TIPS investment-linked technology development program. The total project budget is about 6.7 billion won ($4.9 million). The project will be carried out jointly with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH).
[[B2]] The program aims to advance SYNEX+, an AI-based operating system for factory control. Manufacturing systems from companies such as Mitsubishi and Siemens are widely used on existing factory floors, but each vendor has its own closed code structure. That is why engineers must manually rewrite the code from scratch every time equipment is changed or a production line is added.
[[B3]] JLT and KITECH are developing technology that maps the control structures of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) from different manufacturers onto a common state model. The goal is to allow control logic written once to be reused as-is on other equipment. The technology is being developed by first running control logic in digital twins such as Nvidia's Isaac Sim and Unity, then comparing and calibrating it against real-world field data. After a proof of concept (PoC) at a domestic company this year, the company plans to conduct a PoC at U.S. manufacturing sites as well.
[[B4]] The company has already secured partners to help commercialize the technology in the North American market. It has formed a partnership with Millennium New Horizon (MNH), a deep-tech investment firm, and is pursuing technology exchanges with MNH portfolio companies such as Mistral AI. With the University of Georgia (UGA), it is preparing a program to train engineers who can work with SYNEX+. These engineers are set to be deployed to PoCs at local plants such as Hyundai Motor's Georgia factory and LG Magna.
[[B5]] "We have already adopted SYNEX+ in our own projects, cutting the average development period by 58% and reducing the engineering man-hours involved by 60%," JLT said. "Our goal going forward is to shorten development time by more than 60% and raise the integrated control success rate to over 90%."
