3D CAD in Korea, Japan, Taiwan

Disclaimer: This document was created in 2000 and has not been revised since.

viii. Manufacturing B2B Exchanges

South Korea's domestic manufacturing assemblers typically consume 70% of the output of Korea's (generally SME) component manufacturers. The resulting dominance of domestic long-term customer-supplier relationships presently creates less demand for the kind of export-oriented B2B exchange that characterizes Taiwan's B2B Internet sector.

Of the few manufacturing B2B exchanges identified, the SMBA sponsored KoreaTradeNews site is the largest with 7,500 manufacturing related SMEs (total of 10,000 member companies). 3C Cyber Commerce Corp.'s CyberCC site claims 300k page hits per month whilst the much smaller International Cyber Trade "CyTra" site has about 15k page hits each month.

KOAMI also has a B2B used machine tool exchange at their site.

ix. The "Chaebol" SuperConglomerates

There are four superconglomerates that dominate the South Korean economy and particularly the manufacturing industry, LG, Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo. Each of these has multiple group companies which specialize in specific industry sectors.

x. E-Aware Manufacturers

Most South Korean manufacturers with a Web presence have self-hosted sites, generally of surprisingly high quality.

The most impressive site is Jaewoo Mold which initially looks closer to a Web design company's site than that of a mold & die maker. Jaewoo Mold's site is in Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese; typical of many South Korean manufacturing sites. The site is primarily an online marketing brochure and lays strong emphasis on Jaewoo's "curved surface" CAD CAM capability with a lot of detail. JYSolutec's site claims 157,000 visitors and has detail on the company's $20m investment in FMS and CIMS technology. Dae Hwa Mold's site is another Web designer's vision, complete with Java applets, Firstec's site includes a complete list of its equipment, including CAD CAM, and Bak Sa Mold's site even has an actively used Web forum.

Not really a manufacturer but rather a design/engineering consulting house with very strong CAD CAM (especially Catia) skill is Kar Tech, a company which may be a useful partner to ASP-CAD.

xi. Manufacturing & CAD CAM-CAE Related Online News

South Korea has several CAD CAM related magazines, the most sophisticated Web sites are those of CADZone which has some very extensive and in-depth coverage but seems to be 12 months out of date (maybe amalgamated with CADGraphics) and CADGraphics which is a similar magazine to NikkeiCG and has a very sleek and up to date site.

xii. Portals

In keeping with the explosive growth in Internet users there are many MSN-type portals on the South Korean Internet, some of which are tailored to broadband access and others to wireless (WAPI) access.

The major ISPs, BoraNet, HiTel, UniTel, and ThruNet all have extensive portals. Kornet's portal even has the separate MegaPass site at to cater specifically for broadband fanatics. Other major portals are Daum, Netian, Shinbiro, the Freechal portal, and the Dacom Chollian portal. Yahoo! And Lycos also have major South Korean subsidiaries.

Recently nine of the major portals collaborated to launch a new wireless portal PersNet to address the rapid increase in wireless Internet access.

xiii. Academic & Research Institutes

South Korea has a huge number of universities and academic research institutes directly involved with manufacturing/industrial technology, virtual manufacturing and CAD CAM. The effect of government policies during the past decade shows in the sheer number of CAD CAM laboratories and the quality and number of papers published by South Korean researchers at international conferences.

Of the major CAD CAM related laboratories there are four that could be of use to ASP-CAD. The Internet Computing & CAD CAM Laboratory "iCAD" at the Pohang University of Science & Technology "POSTECH" is working on Voxel-based digital mock-up, various CAD CAM and e-manufacturing. The CADAL laboratory at Seoul National University "SNU" (part of the National Research Laboratory "NRL") is working on rapid-prototyping and inject-mold CAD, the Virtual Manufacturing Systems "VMS" laboratory at the Korea Advanced Institute of Technology "KAIST" is also working on precision mold and die CAD and reverse-engineering software and the CAD CAM Research Center at the Korea Institute of Technology "KIST" is working on reverse-engineering and virtual automotive assembly software. Also of interest are the Industrial Engineering CAD CAM and KOALA laboratories at Kyunghee University working on various automotive projects and the CAD CAM laboratory at the University of Inchon.

xiv. Trade Shows and Conferences

South Korea has a large number of trade shows intended as introductory exchanges primarily for domestic suppliers and domestic./foreign customers, although the growth in the Internet and relaxation of mold & die and machine tool import restrictions is also beginning to encourage foreign suppliers to exhibit.

COEX in Seoul is South Korea's premier exhibition center. KODIC and KOTIC sponsor the alternating bi-annual Seoul International Machine Tool Show "SIMTOS" (65,000 domestic visitors at SIMTOS-98) and Korea Internation Robot & Automation Show "KIRAS" (45,000 domestic visitors at KIRAS-99). The next will be 2001 at COEX. Chom Dan (publishing group) and COEX sponsor the annual Korea Factory Automation Show, the next show will be in May 2001. KOFA KOAMI sponsors the alternating bi-annual Korea Factory Automation System "KOFAS" and Korea Machinery Fair "KOMAF" (next show 2001).

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