Mission Porto & Mar visits technology giants in Korea

Robots increasingly prepared to meet people's daily needs, both inside and outside homes. This and other benefits of technology were observed by brazilian businessmen and port sector authorities today during visits to the headquarters of the multinational companies Samsung and LG in South Korea, as part of another day of activities of the International Mission Porto & Mar Brazil – South Korea 2024, promoted by Grupo Tribuna . The objective was to present to the sector the paths that companies have taken to reach their current level and how these good examples can be used for innovation in the port area.

The first visit was to Samsung, a company based in 15 countries, including Brazil. In South Korea, the multinational occupies a city block with several buildings. One of them houses the Samsung Innovation Museum. The place navigates between the past, present and future.

The company has two programs that encourage innovation. Mosaic was launched exactly 10 years ago, on June 11st, 2014. It was inspired by a masterpiece that has stood the test of time. It's a platform to harness the capabilities and collective intelligence of employees. As a global company, people from different countries share their ideas on the platform. Significant advancements have already emerged from these suggestions, the company reports.

The company also has another program to promote entrepreneurship and accelerate startups. C-Lab is an internal incubator that fosters a creative corporate culture and supports innovative ideas from employees.

Both projects encourage participation from employees across different sectors of the company. "During this visit, we realized how technology transcends borders and breaks barriers. And this can be adapted to various sectors, including our own", said Ricardo Miranda, chief of technology of Santos Brasil.

The mission continued in the afternoon with a visit to the headquarters of LG, another Korean company. The group visited the Center for Strategy and Innovation. Their offerings range from car panels and energy efficient motors to televisions with stunning images and even robots – at least five were demonstrated.

Today, members of the Porto & Mar delegation will travel by train to Busan, where they will visit the local port.

(Rodrigo Nardelli/TV Tribuna)

The CEO of Brasil Terminal Portuário (BTP), Ricardo Arten, believes that both companies have completely changed their way of thinking. "And we have to do the same in our port. How much technology can we bring to our world?", Arten questions.

He cited the example of seeking a solution when dealing with refrigerated container operations. "When these containers are involved, we have to go there and disconnect them from the power source. Isn't there another technology that we can use within our terminals?", he asks, commenting that the goal would be to improve the speed and safety of operations.

Ricardo Miranda, chief of technology of Santos Brasil, says that learning from both companies reinforces the importance of integration. "We already do something similar. But what we've seen reinforces how technologies from other sectors can be applied in the logistics and port segment".

The administrative director-superintendent of Portonave, Osmari de Castilho Ribas, states that ports need to be part of this productive chain. "We need to move much more than just containers. This innovation process needs to happen every day", he commented. "We've had an example now, every six months there's a reassessment of processes, upgrading processes of companies focused on technology and bringing solutions", he emphasizes.

The business director of Grupo Cesari, Giulio Borlenghi, highlights the continuous innovation process. "We see companies that are ahead of us and, at the same time, reinvent themselves every six months. So this way of always looking forward and developing is something we need to emulate". Borlenghi also commented that integration is a challenge faced by all areas. "More and more, cell phones, computers and even household TVs are integrated. And when we look at port operations, it's the same. We have various systems and the challenge is to make these systems communicate to improve efficiency".

According to Ricardo Pupo Larguesa, director of T2S, a technology solutions company, "multinationals (LG and Samsung) are cutting-edge and have a very important indirect relationship, because many of the technologies they develop are used in the port sector".

(Rodrigo Nardelli/TV Tribuna)