Sumitomo Chemical to Introduce "SAP S/4 HANA^®": Greater Productivity by Restructuring the Company's Information Infrastructure and Enhancing Work Efficiency

Oct. 17, 2018

Sumitomo Chemical ("the Company") has decided to introduce the next-generation core business system "SAP S/4 HANA^®" provided by a German company SAP SE, which is scheduled to start operation in fiscal 2021. Concurrent with the introduction of the system, the Company will review its day-to-day work processes, such as those for production management, logistics, sales, and accounting, to improve their efficiency, while restructuring the information infrastructure that supports the Company's corporate management. Through this project, Sumitomo Chemical aims to establish ways of working with much higher productivity.

Sumitomo Chemical's current Three-Year Corporate Business Plan emphasizes “Business and Work Process Innovation Through IoT” as one of its strategic themes to pursue. Among the major initiatives that are underway to this end are "Digitization of work processes and information related to plant operations", "Real-time information visualization and upgrading of information systems for global supply chain management", and "Utilization of crowdsourcing, artificial intelligence, and sensor technologies." The Company is actively implementing these initiatives and a number of other projects globally.

Some of the Sumitomo Chemical Group companies outside Japan has the "SAP S/4HANA^®" system already in operation. Going forward, this business system will be introduced at Sumitomo Chemical in Japan and other Group companies in order to further visualize corporate management information and improve its accuracy and also to promote production and sales activities more effectively by strengthening supply chain management even further through real-time sharing of inventory and shipping information with customers and suppliers. In addition, the Company will fundamentally enhance the efficiency of office work by making full use of the state-of-the art information technologies, such as robotic process automation and AI,.

Sumitomo Chemical will make continued efforts to realize sustainable growth and increase corporate value by achieving "Business and Work Process Innovation Through IoT."

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