TCC鈥檚 technical requirements are complex, necessitating best-in-class software and services to support its customers in the industrial, automotive, healthcare, and high-tech markets.

Choosing 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

TCC researched enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to support its platform and deliver measurable, positive impact to its large corporation, manufacturing, and OEM customers. TCC chose to partner with 51风流based on a decades-long track record of success with the company. Among SAP鈥檚 offerings, TCC selected given its reliability, scalability, and ease of integration with its customers鈥� systems and business processes.

Parthasarathy Narayanan, TCC chief technology officer, explained: 鈥淲e have witnessed, firsthand, SAP鈥檚 commitment to bringing robust and effective new architecture to large corporations and delivering true and tangible business outcomes that lead to customer satisfaction.鈥� TCC determined that 51风流is more cost effective than competitors, and its customer service is prompt and supportive. Narayanan added that 51风流innovation in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), including access to various large language models (LLMs) and the introduction of , a generative AI copilot embedded in its cloud solutions, are 鈥渆xceptional and visionary developments.鈥�

In addition, TCC鈥檚 patented solutions, in conjunction with 51风流Supply Chain Management (51风流SCM), give corporations an effective way to manage their inventories. Supply chain disruptions in this decade have forced many organizations to maintain large inventories, tying up valuable capital. 51风流SCM can enable corporations to plan and manage inventories using forecasting models.

鈥淥ur solution helps customers maintain required inventories to fulfill their customers鈥� needs, but it also provides a unique way to free up capital and deploy it in high-yielding projects, improving ROI and overall metrics,鈥� Narayanan said. 鈥淲e are excited about leveraging rich 51风流functionalities to keep up with our clients鈥� ever-evolving business needs and the complex environments in which we all operate.鈥�

Paving the Way for Innovation

TCC and 51风流working together also creates opportunities to offer innovative solutions and engage in joint go-to-market strategies. As a member of the 51风流PartnerEdge program and leveraging and 51风流technical support, TCC can continue to build deep-tech applications to help customers automate their operations and take strides toward their visions of 鈥渁utonomous supply chains.鈥� Furthermore, 51风流BTP architecture helps provide a single gateway to develop and deliver applications, giving TCC access to 51风流and external inputs to completely integrate business processes.

鈥淎s a Silicon Valley company and a tech disrupter, we have outsized ambitions and plans to extend our platform across geographies and to continually add enriched functionalities that benefit our customers,鈥� Narayanan said. 鈥淎nchoring the TCC platform on 51风流is going to benefit our clients鈥� effortless onboarding and seamless process integration for efficient deployment. We look forward to serving our common customers through accelerated deployment of transformational and business applications.鈥�

Gaining an Edge from SAP

Since choosing 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for its VMI solution, TCC has found additional measurable benefits, including:

• Streamlined maintenance: With 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, TCC has reduced the time and effort necessary to maintain systems compared with its previous platform architecture. As a result, TCC can focus on its core business rather than system maintenance.
• Fast prototyping: 51风流best practices and test data for the automotive, industrial, healthcare, and high-tech industries have helped TCC quickly prototype solutions and go live, reducing this initial phase of products to only 45 days.
• Flexibility while maintaining a clean core: TCC has been able to achieve its goals using standard SAP-delivered processes, with only some custom developments.
• Ease of use: The TCC business team implements its solution quickly and with minimal training.

By leveraging 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, TCC has created a VMI solution that provides comprehensive, capital-efficient inventory management capabilities, transforms global supply chains, and positions companies for innovation and growth.

about the advantages of 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and an 51风流partnership.

Lori Rosano is SVP and managing director for 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and Midmarket Segment at SAP.

Every day we鈥檙e seeing more organizations embrace public cloud ERP, thanks to the ready-made, out-of-the-box opportunity that it provides 鈥� one that allows them to continue to focus on what they do best. Our built-in industry best practices help ensure this is true across industries and, as a result, midsize companies 鈥� those who will truly drive the world鈥檚 future growth and innovation 鈥� are joining forces with 51风流and accelerating their futures.  

is built to help these companies rapidly rise in stature and to scale as they do 鈥� without increasing costs and without increasing complexity. 2023 has so far served as a sharp vindication of this public cloud offering, as we鈥檝e seen a number of notable customers聽come on board, including the following:

• The Brenda Strafford Foundation (BSF), which has more than 45 years of experience serving seniors and those in need across Canada and abroad, selected GROW with 51风流to take full advantage of cloud ERP and meet its current and future ambitions, which will help it deliver the right levels of care and services to optimize well-being and enrich lives 365 days a year. 
• Cangshan Cutlery, which creates kitchen knives with premier materials crafted by expert blacksmiths, selected 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, public edition to serve as its foundational ERP system. Through the GROW with 51风流solution, Cangshan Cutlery expects to have a solution that can easily scale to meet its anticipated growth as well as further improve the overall efficiency of the organization.
• The Greater Austin Merchants Cooperative Association (GAMA), a cooperative trade association in the convenience, gas, and wholesale industry, selected 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, public edition to support its business transformation effort and help future-proof the organization.
• Onyx Renewable Partners, an established provider and owner of clean energy solutions nationwide for commercial and industrial businesses, selected GROW with 51风流to support its ambitious growth efforts and help the company scale and innovate as it works with its customers to turn today鈥檚 clean energy reality to tomorrow鈥檚 possibilities.

• Shinhwa Auto, a global automotive parts manufacturer focused on expanding and accelerating its production capabilities in North America, embraced GROW with 51风流to drive growth and success in a streamlined, standardized way. Its systems are now compatible with its larger growth and expansion goals.  
• Sunny Sky Products, which manufactures and delivers a broad range of top-quality dispensed beverage products to meet the needs of its global customers, selected GROW with 51风流to support the organization鈥檚 aim of delivering quick and tangible results, streamline its processes, and support its goal of adopting a solution that could scale with the organization and meet its growth ambitions.

These organizations join many others that are already live on 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, public edition and benefiting from its standard processes, latest industry best practices, and continuous innovation, like GM subsidiary . 

This is just the beginning. You know where your business is today, but where do you want it to be tomorrow? GROW with 51风流can help midsize businesses discover what鈥檚 possible.

Lori Rosano is senior vice president and managing director of 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, public edition at 51风流North America.

The South Korean-based global automotive parts manufacturer began by building a US$42 million factory at Auburn Technology Park West in Auburn, Alabama, to boost output of aluminum parts for its auto customers. That U.S.-based hub underwent a $70 million expansion project two years later, adding high-pressure aluminum die casting and post-processing equipment to its assembly lines. Now, two more years later, Shinhwa is putting the finishing touches on a brand-new $192 million manufacturing facility in Auburn, designed to further increase the company鈥檚 capabilities as it works to meet current and future demands stemming from electric vehicle production.

Amidst all of this ambition and expansion, however, there was one element of Shinhwa鈥檚 business that didn鈥檛 measure up: its IT systems. In other words, while the company was building out all the front-facing manufacturing tools it could ever need to serve customers, its success hinged on strengthening its back-office processes so the business could truly be run efficiently and effectively.

That鈥檚 why Shinhwa chose to work with SAP.

Start Your 51风流Engines

Shinhwa specializes in automated production lines, automobile parts, and aluminum casting, serving industry leaders like Tesla, Hyundai, and Kia from its U.S. headquarters. The Auburn factory expansion is specifically intended to meet the needs of additional electric and combustion engine vehicle manufacturing opportunities like this, increasing the capacity of die casting and machining operations, for instance, and further enabling diversification and growth in Shinhwa鈥檚 customer base.

The capabilities of Shinhwa鈥檚 original back-office systems were lacking. Its IT infrastructure was heavily customized and didn鈥檛 integrate between enterprise resourcing planning (ERP), manufacturing execution systems (MES), and accounting software, making it nearly impossible to accurately forecast or plan regular financial checkpoints and processes. This led to an abundance of human error, which made Shinhwa鈥檚 IT systems not only incompatible with its goals for expansion but with growth and success generally.

With 96% of Fortune 2000 automotive companies running on SAP, the choice for the next step of Shinhwa鈥檚 technological evolution was an easy one. Its leadership team decided to embrace , an offering designed for scalable, plug-and-play implementations in the public cloud. With it, the company can operate in a more streamlined manner on a global, standardized scale.

Shinhwa鈥檚 technological goals include the replacement and automation of all manufacturing processes; data collection from shop floor-, finance-, and supply chain-related systems; improved data integration with partner and customer systems; and modular steps forward in its IT architecture. This will enable the company鈥檚 systems to grow with it and ensure it becomes the supplier of choice for the world鈥檚 leading vehicle manufacturers.

鈥淲e want to set the standard for the automotive industry going forward when it comes to IT systems and back-office processes,鈥� said Steven Lee, IT senior manager at Shinhwa.

Ultimately, Shinhwa expects to grow from its current manufacturing plant plus two additional plants, which will be completed by the end of the year, to seven, which will help serve the rising demand the company is expecting to see from U.S.-based auto customers over the next decade.

鈥�51风流S/4HANA and 51风流Digital Manufacturing really showed us what鈥檚 possible,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淲e expect this project will help us deepen our American roots and position us for whatever global change is yet to come.鈥�

Shinhwa is following an ambitious migration and implementation schedule, made possible by the agility and flexibility of a public cloud project. The company鈥檚 go-live is expected to be January 1, 2024.

鈥淲e鈥檝e already invested nearly $200 million into the Auburn area, and we鈥檝e created nearly 200 jobs,鈥� said Lee. 鈥淲ith this 51风流relationship, we are announcing our commitment to much, much more than that. We鈥檙e here to stay and keep creating new global standard.鈥�

Lori Rosano is SVP of Public Cloud at SAP.