Please tell us about yourself.

My name is Kang Myoung-gu, and I lead Amorepacific SCM’s Production Technology Division. I’ve worked across production, quality control, and technology departments across Amorepacific SCM during my career and led the Beauty Production Division here before this position. At the Production Technology Division, we are currently undertaking the automated, intelligent factory project as well as innovating Amorepacific’s manufacturing technologies.

Tell us about Amore Beauty Park, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

In 2012, we integrated our production sites and logistics centers spread across Korea into a single SCM campus. Located in Osan, Korea, the Amore Beauty Park serves as the mother factory of all Amorepacific SCM and the center of global supply for our luxury and prestige beauty brands.

Over the past ten years, Amorepacific has grown rapidly, introducing innovative products like the Cushion foundation worldwide. The Amore Beauty Park has matched the pace of expansion, including the new Quality Analysis Center in 2018, Automated Package Storage in 2019, and the Global Logistics Center in 2021. The park has also evolved from a QCD (Quality, Cost, and Delivery) perspective. Automation and digital transformation brought about technological innovation and improved our production and logistics capabilities while reducing deficiencies. So, in addition to physical expansions, we have also strived to enhance our quality control system and global supply network.

To us, the Amore Beauty Park means something more, though. I like the internal slogan that we have: 'from a mother's kitchen to the world's kitchen.' Amorepacific began with a mother who, from her kitchen, made camellia hair oil for the market – today, more than 75 years later, the Amore Beauty Park is continuing the legacy. For us, the park is a kitchen of wisdom behind Asian beauty formulas, a kitchen of human interactions, a kitchen of inspiration. Amore Beauty Park, just like a mother's kitchen full of love and genuine effort, has one sole purpose: serving our dearest customers with the finest products.

Over the past ten years at the park, many things happened here, but the experiences of pulling together with my teams through the downs are personally the most memorable. I remember working with a former NASA researcher for new manufacturing facilities. It was highly challenging, and we had to go through countless blueprints, but that's why it is all the more memorable. The automated package storage project is another great memory. During the project, we almost had to halt production, but in the end, we managed to build one of the most extensive automated package storages in Korea successfully.

What's special about Amorepacific's SCM?

Visitors are twice amazed when they visit the park. First, they are surprised by the architecture and the works of art on display, making it almost look like an art museum. Then they are stunned for the second time by the state-of-the-art technologies – a completely different vibe from its art museum-like exterior. I think there are five aspects of our SCM that creates this unique combination:

The first is the automated, digital, and ever-evolving production infrastructure. Some parts of our site look like semiconductor plants. The entire manufacturing and production collect over 600 million pieces of data every day using the digital technology we developed.
The second is the creation of new manufacturing technology itself. We have a particular function within SCM dedicated to advancing cosmetics manufacturing technology through open innovation. They work on projects like implementing new technologies from other industries to improve and create new manufacturing and production processes for beauty. Some of their achievements include facilities developed with fluid-dynamics technology or systems that analyze the emotional quality of a product.
The third is the quality assurance process. Customers and product quality are our top priority, and we make sure that the safety and the quality of our products –from raw materials to end products – are checked thoroughly. This is our promise, a pledge we make to our customers.
Fourth, we have smart, optimized logistics infrastructure. With the digital picking and automated packaging systems we developed, our logistics system is optimized for numerous channels, including B2B, B2C, and overseas shipping. Furthermore, our logistics is optimized for our latest eco-friendly packaging designs and personalized services, too.
Last but not least, the members of Amorepacific SCM make this a truly unique and wonderful place. Every member is a creative artisan in SCM, working with open minds and focused on our customers. Each is different, like the pieces of a puzzle, but they come together as a team to make innovation happen. They are the most important, the most remarkable element of Amorepacific SCM. Our recent CES Innovation Award winner 'Bathbot' and Korea's first personalized foundation robotics system, Base Picker, are the masterpieces of our SCM artisans.

It is known that Beauty Park is putting a lot of effort into eco-friendly manufacturing. Please, tell us about any recent achievements or future goals.

Amorepacific declared total corporate responsibility for service, product quality, and environment in 1993, long before Amore Beauty Park was built. We have worked to reduce the amount of pollutants from our business activities and protect the ecosystem around us, and the park is no exception.

This environmental effort has been incorporated starting from the design for Amore Beauty Park – the solar panels and the rainwater tank systems. Our goal is to achieve the RE100 target by the year 2024, and the solar panels alone already provide more than 10% of total energy that we use. We also use midnight electric power for air conditioning during the summer season.

There are also rainwater tanks capable of storing up to 3,000 tons, and we save nearly 40,000 tons of water each year by reusing our water resources. Our systems enable us to reuse and improve the recycling rate, minimizing waste and reducing pollutants. In recognition, Amorepacific became the first Korean cosmetics company to receive the Integrated Environmental Permit from the Korean Ministry of Environment in 2020. This year, Amorepacific aims to achieve Zero Waste to Landfill Certification.

The development of low-energy manufacturing technology is also underway. We are working on developing eco-friendly production technology to radically reduce the consumption of electricity, LNG, and water as part of its sustainable management efforts.

What's your 10-year vision for the Production Technology Division?

The advancement of digital technology is driving changes in the market, and with hyper-personalization trends, customers increasingly demand something more unique, more exclusive, and new. Differentiated production technology or digital competence must keep up with the fast-changing and increasingly diverse market. I believe that the future of a successful factory will be shaped by its differentiation points, digital competence, and capability of hyper-customization.

And in that context, the Production Technology Division has set up two strategies: developing competitive production technology that creates innovative and inimitable products. We will develop new manufacturing processes and technology to deliver products that best meet the individual customer's needs through technological convergence across industries and open innovation.

The second is an autonomously controlled production system to quickly respond to market changes. Our future intelligent factory will have machines carry out tasks that humans can do, digitalize work that only humans can do, and finally have AI and big data work on things that even humans cannot do. According to the German Acatech’s industry 4.0 maturity index, there are six stages to measure transformation progress. Our Beauty Park is on the third stage, visibility, as all production facilities are equipped with a digital neural network. Our future intelligent factory will be where humans and machines collaborate closely.

So every day, Amorepacific SCM is giving full play to our imagination - with customers at the center of our minds.