[Interview] Lee Seung-beom, the Safety and Health Commander at the NH Eumseong Livestock Products Auction Market

Every morning, the slaughter floor wages a battle amid massive carcasses and the noise of powder-fired guns. There is a key figure who transformed this aging and highly dangerous workplace into the world’s first ‘AI robot slaughterhouse’. He is Lee Seung-beom, the head manager in charge of safety·health at the Eumseong Livestock Products Auction Market under NH Agribusiness Group. We met him to hear about the dramatic process of introducing robots and his field-centered vision after he sensed the future of the livestock industry from a single line in a government notice posted in an internal group chat for team leaders, and personally won what had seemed like an impossible large-scale national project worth 2.8 billion won.

"He had a hunch from a group-chat news summary… He made it happen by pounding the pavement himself and breaking through regulatory barriers"
Lee Seung-beom’s decision to introduce automated cattle-slaughter robots was both accidental and inevitable. One day, material titled 'Summary of livestock-related news headlines' was shared in an internal information-sharing group chat for team leaders and above. It said the government would invest 40 billion won in AI commercialization to support applied products in the agri-food sector.

He “recalled, “The moment I saw the material, I thought, ‘This is it.’ The key to solving both the urgent need to prevent safety accidents at our auction market and the labor shortage was right there”.

But the process was not smooth. The relevant program, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ ‘Support Project for Early Commercialization of AI Applied Products in the Agri-Food Sector’, limited eligibility to either ‘small and medium-sized enterprises acting alone’ or a ‘consortium’, and NH Agribusiness Group falls into the category of a mid-sized company, making independent participation impossible from the outset.

This is where Lee’s drive shone through. Without giving up, he communicated closely with the ministry and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to find a breakthrough. He then identified the ag-tech startup ‘(Robos Co., Ltd.)’, which had unrivaled slaughter-robot technology but needed on-site demonstration infrastructure, and succeeded in forming a win-win consortium with the structure of lead company(Robos)-participating company(Eumseong Auction Market) .

With the symbolic stature of the NH Eumseong Livestock Products Auction Market, which boasts the largest volume of cattle slaughter in Korea, combined with Lee’s proactive planning ability, the project was finally selected under exceptional terms, with 70%(1.9 billion won) in government support.

"Employees constantly on edge over the fear of chains snapping… Robots are not just machines but a 'safety net'"
Underlying Lee’s strong push for robot adoption is a deep bond with frontline employees and a sense of responsibility as the person in charge of health and safety.

He “said, “As the person with overall responsibility for slaughterhouse safety and health, I always felt heavy-hearted whenever I looked at the employees. Every time they fired the powder-actuated slaughter gun, the impact transmitted through their bodies left them living with chronic musculoskeletal disorders, and when cattle weighing hundreds of kilograms resisted violently, your palms would sweat because you never knew when someone might get hurt. There are even quite a few employees who constantly worry that the chain suspending a cow might snap and the carcass could fall from above”.

He recently replaced all on-site chains with high-strength chains for marine cranes capable of withstanding 24 tons, and in cooperation with the Eumseong County Public Health Center, invited 6 counselors to create a space for treating employees’ psychological trauma.

Lee said, “Replacing the processes people find most difficult and frightening with robots is true respect for labor”, adding, “The hydraulic striking robot and carcass-splitting robot being introduced this time will generate significant budget savings of 279 million won annually, but above all, they have incomparable value in that they fundamentally block workers from fatal danger”.

"Quality over speed… I will personally stay on the ground until the technology takes root"
As this is the commercialization of cattle-slaughter robots, Lee plans to thoroughly maintain a field-centered approach for a soft landing.

He said, “Just because robots are introduced, we will not make the mistake of immediately pulling all people out and running only machines”, adding, “If we focus only on speed and the knife tip is off by even 1mm, marketability drops and wholesalers turn away. The reason our auction market commands the highest prices in the country is the workers’ precise craftsmanship at their fingertips”.

Lee Seung-beom said that when the robots are fully installed in 2027, the initial phase will involve thoroughly operating machines in parallel with manual work by skilled workers. That means there will 반드시 be a stage in which people monitor the robots from the side to ensure they do not produce errors and make fine adjustments.

He "said, “Even if introducing machines can delay on-site working time by just 30 minutes, employees will have enough room to work carefully and precisely, so carcass quality will actually improve. My calling as the person responsible for health is to complete perfect verification at the Eumseong Auction Market and establish a standard safety management model for more than 60 slaughterhouses across the country”.