NSTDA President Dr. Narong Sirilertworakul revealed the decision of the Cabinet on 25 August 2020 approving the establishment of Sustainable Manufacturing Center (SMC). The new center will be a key infrastructure of ARIPOLIS, a platform for Automation, Robotics & Intelligent System, at the Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi) in Wangchan District, Rayong Province.
A 5 billion THB budget was approved for SMC from 2021 to 2025 to make SMC a state-of-the-art research and demonstration center of automation, robotics and intelligent system to navigate Thai manufacturers to enter Industry 4.0 era which is driven by semi-automation and full-automation production process. SMC will serve as a platform bringing together manufacturers, system integrators, innovators, researchers and students to collaborate through available tools and facilities such as Industry 4.0 Assessment Tools, Learning Station/Line and testbed/sandbox. The center is expected to enhance the competitiveness of Thai manufacturers, ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, across the whole value chain and support the new S-curve industries.