Diffusion of advanced manufacturing technologies in Korean SMEs

Because of the rapid increase in labour costs since the middle of the 1980s, Korean SMEs have recognised relatively well the importance of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) in enhancing their competitiveness. They should target the attainment of diverse competitiveness factors by actively implementing AMTs. However, Korean SMEs have utilised low-level, individual AMTs, especially for cost-down and quality improvement, so that they have not fully realised the benefits of AMTs, especially time and diversity-related benefits. This comes partly from the shortage of implementation capabilities of Korean SMEs and partly from the fact that they have not sufficiently adopted higher level AMT systems. Therefore, in addition to the active implementation efforts of SMEs themselves, some policy measures are needed to diffuse more advanced AMT systems in Korean SMEs and to enhance implementation capabilities. Firstly, more supporting organisations for SMEs' AMT implementation should be established and extended. Secondly, some AMTs which are relevant for enhancing SMEs' competitiveness should be selected and effectively developed in terms of close interaction between innovation actors. Finally, respective diffusion programs for core AMT systems should be initiated to distribute widely these higher level AMTs in Korean SMEs.