In a changing world, LEOCH sets enterprise automation standard

With more than 1,000 patented offerings, LEOCH International Technology Ltd. has developed a reputation for battery products that cater to different specifications, configurations, and technologies, effectively meeting the diverse needs of various users.

But in a time of accelerated innovation and overseas expansion, the Singapore-based company had to evaluate lifestyle limitations, charging inefficiencies, high costs, safety issues, and environmental impacts before releasing each product.

For example, with regulations changing around the world, LEOCH was forced to consider new ways to dispose of battery waste.

While constant innovation was moving the industry forward, it also posed challenges, as new technologies and processes rendered everything that came before obsolete. This required employees to change skill sets, and LEOCH to make costly investments in research and development.

Material requirements planning (MRP), the system that calculates the components required to make an effective product, often lacked reliability, requiring planners to communicate offline and use manual scheduling methods.

Additionally, manual tasks were needed to adapt to international accounting approaches and generate income statements and operational analysis reports. 

Even the software used to alleviate these issues had become antiquated. While enterprise resource planning (ERP) had existed for three decades, its architecture and implementations were designed in a different era, before the globalization of the economy and supply chains, and the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing.

In LEOCH’S case, its ERP system, SAP ERP Central Component (ECC), had been deployed in 2014.  Nearly a decade later, the software was outdated and did not align with the business functionality of the company’s other tools.

If the company expected to progress, more than a simple upgrade would be essential.

LEOCH would have to develop an enterprise automation, comprehensive, AI-powered solution to uncover efficiencies, integrate applications, and automate processes using software from different vendors.

Rising into the cloud

Previously, businesses making the move to the cloud could only do so by having multiple contracts with several vendors.

The situation prompted SAP, the world’s leading ERP software company, to create RISE with SAP, an all-inclusive solution bundling the various offerings into a single package containing embedded intelligence, advanced technologies, and real-time insights.

By the time LEOCH was ready to develop its new platform, the company had been working with SAP for nine years. LEOCH and SAP leveraged that long-standing relationship to secure a smooth migration of its online ERP to the cloud.

The transition would be seamless, moving from SAP S/4HANA, the ERP software for large enterprises, to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, a solution tailored toward each organization’s unique transformation. This change would optimize material master data and evaluate processes based on societal impacts like hazardous waste disposal, enhancing production planning and improving cost allocations.

AI-powered SAP Service and Support would provide crucial assistance, while SAP Build Process Automation, incorporating Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and embedded AI, would expedite changes and help LEOCH set a modern standard for operational efficiency. 

Optimal flow

After implementing the solution in March 2023, LEOCH’s operations were standardized, resulting in improved flow of business and financial processes, and enhanced environmental compliance, which laid a solid foundation for future growth.

“We have granular data” – information that has been broken down into its most detailed parts – “for in-depth analysis, gaining insights into the optimal flow of processes,” noted Dr. Tao 
Chen, LEOCH’s chief process and information officer, and a member of the executive management team and managing director for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

The implementation also led to a noteworthy 30% reduction in manual workload, while project implementation time decreased from 120 hours per month to less than 18, representing a ten-fold increase in efficiency. 

Additionally, the company’s MRP became 60% faster, resulting in a doubling of warehouse stocking efficiency.

Suppliers have noted that their interactions with the home office are now smoother, as authorizations for transactions are fast-tracked due to a six-time increase in the validation of payment information. 

Additionally, in terms of international accounting, the period required for exchange rate maintenance has been drastically reduced from 48 hours to less than ten minutes, representing an impressive pace that is 288 times faster than before.

For its powerful enterprise automation journey, LEOCH International Technology Ltd. was distinguished as a winner at the 2024 SAP Innovation Awards, a global program designed to honor and celebrate organizations pushing the boundaries of innovation. To learn how they accomplished this feat, you can read their pitch deck here.