SK Inc. C&C and BriteLab sign partnership agreement to collaborate on joint development of US global manufacturing high-tech business

SK Inc. C&C, a part of SK Group in South Korea, and BriteLab in Silicon Valley have announced the signing of a partnership agreement, to collaborate in joint development for the global manufacturing business in the U.S. market.

BriteLab, Inc., located in San Jose, CA, is the renowned semiconductor AMHS company in the United States of America.

Highlights of the joint effort include:

• Collaboration between BriteLab's AMHS (Automated Material Handling System) and SK Inc. C&C's Smart Manufacturing platform and solutions.
• Development of new digital business, such as AI-based component quality inspection, with high demand from BriteLab's current customers.
• Cooperation to apply manufacturing specialised Vertical Solutions of SK Inc. C&C, such as ‘iFactory Smart Vision’.
• Co-development of manufacturing high-tech business for the U.S. based CM/CE customers.

SK Inc. C&C – BriteLab partnership

Seong Ha Park, CEO of SK Inc. C&C announced that the company has signed a partnership agreement with BriteLab

Seong Ha Park, CEO of SK Inc. C&C announced that the company has signed a partnership agreement with BriteLab, which has specialty in the Automated Material Handling Systems in the U.S. for global manufacturing hi-tech joint development.

Current customers for BriteLab's AMHS install bases include Texas Instruments (TI), NXP Semiconductors, ON Semiconductor, Global Foundry, STMicroelectronics, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), SSMC, and UMC. BriteLab currently has 24 global 200mm and 300mm foundry customers.

Smart manufacturing platforms and solutions

The agreement between SK Inc. C&C and BriteLab is to promote the expansion of manufacturing high-tech business, based on Britelab's AMHS platform. By combining SK Inc. C&C's multiple manufacturing software solutions, the joint partnership is set to offer best-of-breed smart manufacturing platforms and solutions, which will be successfully implemented in the manufacturing industry.

BriteLab's AMHS offers Overhead Hoist Transport (OHT) system, utilising the robotic systems in the high-tech factory that use sophisticated robots from the ceiling and the floor of production lines. The robots are autonomous vehicles managed and controlled by software, to support fast and accurate automation in the production of high-tech materials, in the factories.

Joint Working Group (JWG)

Under this agreement, the two companies have established a Joint Working Group (JWG) that utilises BriteLab's AMHS commercialisation of manufacturing high-tech solutions that meet the customer demands.

SK Inc. C&C's ‘iFactory Smart’, which has proven excellence in the South Korean precision manufacturing industry, will now be offered to customers in the U.S. through Britelab. “We are excited to be working with SK Inc. C&C especially its AI-based quality management solution using 'vision' systems,” said Steven Kwak, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BriteLab.

SmartVision, AI package solution

SmartVision is an artificial Intelligence package solution, developed by SK Inc. C&C

SmartVision is an artificial Intelligence package solution, developed by SK Inc. C&C and has the ability to read the smallest unit pixel of the screen and quickly train the A.I. modules to read the information in real time.

It is highly utilised in the ESG (Environment·Social·Governance) field, such as quality control (QA) work that removes defects in parts and finished products throughout the production process, as well as application in the water quality management.

Camera feed and data analysis

By collecting images created through cameras or CCTV and analysing the data, SmartVision can quickly perform a highly accurate inspection tasks that previously required operators to use expensive, separate quality equipment, which can lead to poor inspection, product identification, and dimension measurements.

The two companies are also exploring manufacturing high-tech businesses for BriteLab's current customer install base, outside of the semiconductor business, as BriteLab provides Contract Manufacturing (CM) and Contract Engineering (CE) service in the U.S.

Robotics and production automation platforms

BriteLab provides robotics and production automation platforms in autonomous vehicles and robots, factory automation robots, data centre monitoring robots, smart machines, and autonomous drones.

With BriteLab's CM and CE business and in conjunction with SK Inc. C&C solutions, the companies plan to offer a digital platform-based manufacturing high-tech digital service, in connection with its customers with the signing of the partnership agreement.

Creating manufacturing high-tech business

“By combining BritetLab's AMHS-based manufacturing logistics capabilities and SK Inc. C&C's manufacturing automation capabilities, we look forward to creating a manufacturing high-tech business that will lead customers' digital innovation. As a result, we will actively engage in marketing to our global customers as well as here in the U.S.,” said BriteLab’s CEO, Steven Kwak.

“With our partnership with BriteLab, we look forward to expanding the global business together for the manufacturing vertical solutions business and will introduce customer-friendly digital services to meet the needs of BriteLab's manufacturing customers in the U.S.,” said Young Dae Kim, Director of Digital New Business Development at SK Inc. C&C.