In November, around the same month of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) held in Glasgow, SAP launched three cohorts focussed on driving sustainability. SAP Foundries North America in partnership with Accenture selected 13 tech startups to develop sustainability solutions for the retail and consumer segment as well as for the energy and natural resources sector. Meanwhile, SAP.iO Foundry Singapore’s cohort comprised of six international startups will be working on solutions to accelerate sustainability in the Asia Pacific and Japan region to tackle climate action, contribute to the circular economy, and support ethical supply chains. 

This month, SAP.iO continues on its mission to support tech startups around the world scale growth leveraging SAP technologies and extensive exposure to the SAP ecosystem with the launch of the first accelerator program in China. The new SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai has selected the pioneer cohort comprised of five Chinese startups that specialises on intelligent manufacturing. 

Explaining about the latest SAP.iO Foundry’s focus on the manufacturing industry, Dr. Chenhong Huang, Global Executive Vice President, SAP SE, said:

“Intelligent manufacturing is not only the national policy of the Chinese government but also the only way forward for China’s economic growth and the transformation of manufacturing enterprises. Engaging with partners such as startups is critical to succeed in the rapidly growing enterprise software market. SAP.iO complements intelligent manufacturing software from SAP with startup innovation.”

Shanghai’s Pioneer 5 to Focus on Intelligent Manufacturing Solutions

Here are the selected tech startups of the SAP.iO accelerator program in China:

AI-LINK Network Co. Ltd. is a leading product and service provider that offers comprehensive solutions covering the 5G+Edge Cloud spectrum. Highly focussed on the industrial verticals, AI-LINK offers end-to-end 5G connectivity and lightweight intelligent Edge Cloud platform as well as applicable IoT use cases to local manufacturing, logistics, and energy customers.

TPSON harnesses cutting-edge big data analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and fingerprint technology along with its cloud computing capabilities to provide a full range of fire protection alert systems to various sectors including construction, rail transportation, and petroleum chemical industry.

SunwayLand is a Beijing-based product and service provider of intelligent solutions and industrial Internet system architecture for the manufacturing industry. The company’s product portfolio that drives automation and supports smart factories includes HMI/SCADA automation software, industrial Internet of Things platform, and mobile smart monitoring platform. 

HiScene is one of the first companies in China that specialises in augmented reality harnessing next-generation technologies such as AI core technology, AR terminal, and the AR cloud. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company has a market presence in Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Zhaotong, and the United States.

Geekplus Technology Co. Ltd. is a technology company that specialises in smart logistics for warehouse and factory operations leveraging advanced robotics and AI. The company has a global presence spanning Europe, APJ, North America, and South America.

For 12 weeks, the Shanghai cohort will have the opportunity to learn from SAP experts through curated mentorship, have access to SAP technology and application programming interfaces (APIs) as well as collaborate with SAP customers. The 10th SAP.iO Foundry in China underscores SAP’s commitment to supporting the country’s rapidly growing digital ecosystem and demonstrates the German enterprise’s expanding network of tech startups in APJ, North America, and EMEA.

“We will be working hand in hand with these amazing startups over the next three months to help them integrate with SAP technology and deliver high value to our customers,” expressed Lalitha Bhaskara, Vice President, SAP.iO Foundries for Asia Pacific Japan & China, SAP.

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Amidst the COVID-19 situation which has forced manufacturing companies to digitally transform, leveraging partnerships to help them further move towards Industry 4.0 is crucial. With SAP systems accounting for 77{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of all global transactions, the German enterprise software giant is well-positioned to tackle the sector’s production challenges. SAP integrates every link in the customer’s supply chain to the Intelligent Enterprise by providing intelligence and automation to the whole manufacturing process.

One organisation that has invested heavily into digitalisation pre-COVID and going into the pandemic period is VECV, a leading player in the commercial vehicles (CV) industry in India. The company, which is a joint venture between Volvo Group and Eicher Motors Limited (EML), develops, manufactures, and sells CVs like trucks and buses domestically. Volvo Trucks’ exclusive distribution in India, Volvo Group’s engine manufacturing and exports, non-automotive engines, and the Eicher component business are all part of the company. In October, the firm reported a 38.2{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} increase in total sales at 5,805 units.

Driving rapid business growth and reinforcing its position as a leader in the industry today, the Gurugram-headquartered company needed to address numerous challenges within the organisation. These include a shortage of skilled personnel to maintain high productivity and quality, an inability to track and trace its operations, and a lack of systems to guide operators on assembly processes. In addition, VECV also had issues with data connectivity on the assembly line, poor machine utilisation, line efficiency, and operator productivity caused by an absence of process controls and error-proofing.

VECV Selects SAP Manufacturing Suite to Gain Real-Time Visibility into the Entire Supply Chain

To solve the aforementioned problems and to deliver shop-floor visibility to the top floor, VECV opted to deploy IIoT-based SAP solutions. Paving the way to move towards smart manufacturing, the company also transformed its operations by utilising SAP Manufacturing Execution system (SAP MES), SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII), SAP Plant Connectivity (SAP PCo), SAP Overall Equipment Effectiveness Management (SAP OEE), and SAPUI5.

Furthermore, the commercial vehicles manufacturer implemented the SAP Manufacturing Suite across all its 10 assembly lines, which include around 150 assembly stations and involve more than 200 machines to assemble around 3,000 parts. Solutions within the SAP Manufacturing Suite facilitate Industry 4.0 principles with a single source of real-time data to help organisations integrate and embed intelligence into their manufacturing processes.

According to VECV, the radio-frequency identification (RFID) integration through SAP PCo has minimised manual interventions, while SAP MES screens on assembly sites increased efficiency. Additionally, vibration sensors installed on six major equipment captured data into SAP MII through the SAP PCo software that were then analysed to help predict machine failure.

Sumit Goyal, Senior Manager IT, Digital Manufacturing at VE Commercial Vehicles Limited, shared:

“SAP Manufacturing Suite has brought many tactical and strategic benefits to VECV. It has helped improve productivity, lower operating costs, and increase quality and compliance. By gaining real-time visibility into the entire manufacturing supply chain, we are able to accelerate root-cause analysis by making fact-based decisions.”

Other key benefits of implementing the SAP Manufacturing Suite include:

• Streamlining operational processes, equipment, and tasks, resulting in operational cost reductions, accelerating productivity, and enhancing quality.
• Decreasing the troubleshooting time significantly due to 100{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} tracking and traceability of all assembly procedures.
• Displaying assembly operations’ standard operating procedures in real-time.
• Ensuring strong process controls and error-proofing by connecting assembly machines that monitor 400 essential process parameters.

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