Manufacturing AI company OnePredict said on Tuesday it will join the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s AI Factory project as a co-research institution and push to develop and demonstrate autonomous food and beverage manufacturing and integrated predictive maintenance technology at CJ CheilJedang’s Jincheon plant in North Chungcheong Province.

The project is titled "Development of F&B autonomous manufacturing and integrated predictive maintenance technology applying PINN models and Physical AI technologies". IVEX is the lead institution and CJ CheilJedang is the demand company. OnePredict and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology will participate as co-research institutions. Total funding is 5.24 billion won, and the project runs through December 2028.

OnePredict will be responsible for optimizing process operating conditions, equipment predictive maintenance, workplace safety monitoring, and building a platform for manufacturing data collection and analysis. It plans to advance predictive technology based on manufacturing process data and expand the scope of AI use across production, quality and safety.

OnePredict plans to apply an AI model that reflects physical laws to process sensor data such as temperature to predict process changes such as the condition of frying oil and derive optimal operating conditions to keep quality uniform.

In predictive maintenance and safety, it will also develop technology that analyzes vibration and current data from process equipment to detect signs of failure in advance, and uses CCTV footage to identify in real time hazardous situations such as entry into restricted areas or failure to wear protective gear. The manufacturing data collection and analysis platform is planned to be linked with the plant manufacturing execution system (MES).

The consortium plans to proceed in stages with laboratory work in 2026, a pilot in 2027 and factory demonstration in 2028 to reduce variation in production quality.

Yoon Byung-dong (윤병동), CEO of OnePredict, said, "This project is meaningful in transforming manufacturing process operations that have relied on field experience into data-based prediction and decision-making." He said, "We will verify the feasibility of applying AI technologies in actual production sites, including process operations and equipment maintenance, and expand this to manufacturing processes across various industries."