Samsung Electro-Mechanics upgrades ERP software to boost AI push

Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ plant in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Samsung Electro-Mechanics

SAP Korea announced Wednesday that Samsung Electro-Mechanics has successfully completed the implementation of its next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP S/4HANA, enabling an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven transformation framework built on an enterprise-wide integrated platform.

With the software, Samsung Electro-Mechanics has integrated key data previously dispersed across ERP for finance and logistics, manufacturing execution systems (MES) and supply chain management (SCM) systems, into a single business warehouse database.

“This SAP S/4HANA transition at Samsung Electro-Mechanics goes beyond a simple system upgrade, representing a next-generation digital transformation case built on data and AI,” said Won Young-sun, SAP Korea’s vice president and head of enterprise.

“SAP will continue to actively support customers in accelerating business innovation and securing sustainable competitiveness.”

The move enables real-time analytics and data consistency across all departments, while also significantly improving the company’s ability to make fast and accurate business decisions based on reliable information.

The project implemented S/4HANA Cloud under the SAP premium supplier option. This allows the company to meet its high security requirements while combining SAP’s global quality standards with Samsung SDS’s locally operated data centers and resources, including long-distance disaster recovery options, to enhance overall system stability.

“By fully integrating ERP, MES and SCM data into a single platform centered on SAP S/4HANA, we were able to secure data consistency and reliability,” a Samsung Electro-Mechanics official said.

“By leveraging the powerful AI capabilities that SAP S/4HANA provides, we can support data-driven decision-making and establish a foundation for AI-enabled automation, significantly strengthening our competitiveness.”

The implementation used SAP’s downtime-optimized conversion approach, which minimizes system downtime by performing data conversion and migration processes while the system remains operational.

This allowed Samsung Electro-Mechanics to reduce planned system downtime by more than 75 percent, ensuring a seamless transition without disrupting business operations, including manufacturing line activities.

The implementation strategy also broke from conventional full-scale rebuilding methods. Instead of starting from scratch, the team standardized and integrated key processes in finance, procurement, production and logistics ahead of the main rollout.

This approach reduced conversion development scale compared to traditional ERP implementations, minimized risks and accelerated adoption across global sites, while cutting cost and project timeframes.

With S/4HANA serving as the backbone, Samsung Electro-Mechanics has now established a foundation for AI-driven business innovation.

Leveraging SAP’s built-in AI features, the company can automate routine workflows and enhance data-driven decision-making. During the rollout, it also piloted SAP’s generative AI assistant Joule, which helped optimize issue resolution and contributed to a stable post-launch environment with no major incidents.