Posco Deploys Facility and Service Robots at Seoul Headquarters
Posco has introduced robots for exterior and indoor cleaning, beverage delivery and coffee service at its Seoul headquarters, aiming to reduce hazardous and repetitive work while improving facility efficiency.
South Korean steelmaker Posco has deployed a range of maintenance and service robots at its Seoul headquarters, expanding automation beyond manufacturing and into day-to-day building operations. The company says the systems are intended to improve worker safety, reduce repetitive labor and make services more efficient.
Posco established the smart facility management system at Posco Center in southern Seoul with Posco Wide, its facility management affiliate. The equipment includes robots for cleaning the building’s glass exterior, lobby floors and underground parking areas, as well as machines that deliver beverages and collect used cups.
The most notable addition is an exterior-cleaning robot that began operating on Sept. 5 after tests on lower sections of the building. Posco described it as Korea’s first deployment of a robot for cleaning curtain-wall glass. By assigning high-altitude exterior work to a machine, the company expects to reduce workers’ exposure to one of the most hazardous building-maintenance tasks while making cleaning more consistent.
The rollout followed trials that began in March. Posco tested cleaning robots for two months across the building exterior, lobby and underground parking facilities. Company officials also visited an international cleaning-industry exhibition in Shanghai in April to assess available technologies before choosing systems suited to Posco Center.
The indoor machines are designed for different operating environments. The lobby-cleaning robot can run for approximately three to four hours on one charge and clean about 990 square meters. A parking-lot model can operate for as long as eight hours and cover roughly 1,980 square meters. Posco said the systems should ease the physical burden on cleaning staff, reduce repetitive nighttime duties and improve overall cleanliness and operating efficiency.
Automation is also being used in customer-facing areas. Posco has placed three robots in the headquarters’ business lounge: two deliver beverages and one collects empty cups. The group handles about 100 orders on an average day, reducing the need for visitors to move between meeting rooms and the cafe. A robotic barista has also been installed in a rest area at the Steel Gallery on the first floor of the center’s west wing.
Posco plans to broaden the use of robotics in facility management, particularly where work is dangerous or highly repetitive. The headquarters deployment shows how a major industrial company is applying automation not only to production lines but also to the offices and shared spaces that support its business.