LG Electronics has reorganized its robot business so that the business is separated into commercial robots and industrial robots.
Its plan is to obtain profitable result from its robot business early through organizational restructuring that will transfe. As the global robot market is growing at a rapid rate due to COVID-19, the company plans to promote its robot business as a new growth engine.
According to the industry on Wednesday, LG Electronics recently divided its robot business into a commercial robot group and an industrial robot group during an end-of-the-year organizational restructuring.
The company’s robot business has been managed by the robot business center that was established at the end of 2018 and is under direct control of the company’s CEO. The center has been working on development and commercialization of both industrial robots and commercial robots.
However, BS (Business Solutions) division that is responsible for B2B (business to business) business will be managing the company’s commercial robots moving forward.
LG Production Engineering Research Institute will be responsible for development of industrial robots. The institute is responsible for development and commercialization of equipment, materials, parts and components, and production technology for LG Group. Industrial robot indicates a robot that performs repetitive and dangerous job at a production site for people.
LG Electronics has decided to divide its robot business into two groups in order to maximize efficiency of each business and convert each of them into a profitable business.

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<Delivery robot that LG Electronics has developed along with GS Retail>

Since the establishment of the robot business center, LG Electronics has been focusing on development and investment in robots and development of advanced technologies. It commercialized LG CLOi ServeBot and ChefBot this year and supplied the robots to restaurants or medical institutions. It also introduced delivery robot and barista robot and has been pushing to diversify its robot business. Although it has not been easy for the company to make direct profits from its commercial robot business, it believes that the global market for commercial robots has started to open as COVID-19 has forced companies and people to emphasize contact-free measures.
It is expected that LG Electronics will speed up in making profits from its robot business through the recent organizational restructuring. It is also expected that supply of robots will also accelerate in the global robot market due to the spread of a contact-free culture.
According to International Federation of Robotics, the global market for service robots is estimated to grow 42.2% on average until 2022. Speed of the market’s growth can become much faster depending on a progress of COVID-19.
As the market grows, LG Electronics plans to focus on commercializing its products and securing customers. With BS division that has infrastructures and capabilities for global B2B business at the center, it will actively look to secure global customers.
“We plan to provide different competitive edge and customer values related to our robot business that focuses on every day life.” said CEO Kwon Bong-seok of LG Electronics at CES 2020 that was held in Las Vegas early this year.
Meanwhile, LG Production Engineering Research Institute will carry on development of industrial robots. The goal is to create synergy with the institute’s manufacturing automation technology. It is expected that LG Electronics will focus on development of technologies first rather than commercialization regarding its industrial robot business.
One LG Electronics official said that the company will look to become a leader in the global robot market by continuing to introduce different products and services.
Staff Reporter Park, Sora | srpark@etnews.com