LG Energy Solution has appointed an industry expert on machine learning and AI as CDO, or chief digital officer as DX, or digital transformation is rapidly emerging as one of key decisive factors in determining who will win or lose in the race for global leadership in the highly competitive EV battery market.

The world’s largest EV battery maker by capacity said that it had recruited Dr. Byun Kyung Seok, the former chief engineer of GPU maker Nvidia, as a leader to spearhead its digital transformation drive to rebuild its EV battery manufacturing facilities around its own indigenous smart factory platform.

The appointment came 2 months after the EV battery maker had signed a MOU with Siemens of Germany to cooperate in the digital twin sector to share the German smart factory solution provider’s expertise and knowhow.

Under the terms of the MOU, Siemens agreed to help LG recalibrate its manufacturing facilities around a smart factory platform, enabling the Korean company to intelligently operate its manufacturing system using AI, Big Data Analytics, and IoT system. Both of the two companies will work together in the first place to digitalize the operation of Ultium Cells EV battery manufacturing facility in Tennessee, which is a JV between LG and GM.  

Dr. Byun is a well-known guru on machine learning, or ML algorithm, working as one of Nvidia’ 4 chief data scientists to develop a series of AI for autonomous driving, industrial operation, and cloud computing. He will serve as a chief digital officer that will take a full responsibility for transforming LG’s EV manufacturing operation.

True enough, LG is now betting hugely on a smart manufacturing solution not only to improve and stabilize production yield, but also soup up product quality and save energy and costs. The rapid shift to intelligent manufacturing system is a key to stabilizing volatility in production yield and improving energy efficiency.

LG’s catch-up drive to beat out EV battery market leader CATL of China is another push for hurrying LG to embrace a smart manufacturing system. CATL of China has already embraced a smart factory solution to improve product quality and production yield, seeing only one defect   in every 10 billion units of production.