Hyundai Heavy Industries Group has unveiled plans to invest $3.1bn in research and development (R&D) by 2021.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group has unveiled plans to invest $3.1bn in research and development (R&D) by 2021.

source gopoint.co.kr

edited by kcontents

The announcement, which was made on 3 March, 2017, marked the first day of the group's four independent companies: Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems (HEES), Hyundai Construction Equipment (HCE), and Hyundai Robotics (HR).

Under the terms of the plan, HHI will invest $1.8bn in the development of eco-friendly and smart ships, in a bid to enhance the group's offshore engineering capacity and establish smart shipyards. In addition, HEES, HCE, and HR will make investments of $640m, $620m, and $90m, respectively.

Kwon Oh-gap, vice chairman and CEO of

 Hyundai Heavy Industries. 

In the longer term, the group plans to spend 6% to 7% of its annual sales on R&D, according to a company statement.

In addition to the investment announcement, the group released details of its technology- and quality-centred management strategy.

For the quality enhancement of its products and services, HHI will set up lessons-learned database by accumulating engineering failure cases, while HEES, HCE, and HR will further accelerate technology development to secure a competitive product line-up.

Moreover, the four companies will appoint chief technology officers to take charge of product development, draft technology strategies, nurture human resources, and expand researcher numbers from the current 4,000 to 10,000.

HHI Group also plans to introduce new human resource management system that simplifies the current five-tier ranking system to three-tier one to build up a horizontal and creative organisation atmosphere.

The companies will introduce a performance-based pay system, marking a departure from ther current seniority-based approach..

Vice chairman and chief executive officer of HHI, Kwon Oh-gap, said, “As today marks new chapter in our history, the three newly established companies will make utmost efforts to rank the global top five in their respective fields by making quality and technology top priorities.”

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