Terumo Americas Holding (TAH), a U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s Terumo Corporation, has deployed a number of SAP offerings as part of the company’s global IT initiative.
In 2018, Tokyo-based Terumo, a global leader in medical technology with operations spanning across more than 160 countries, successfully launched its global IT initiative leveraging SAP software solutions. Two years later, its North America subsidiary Terumo America Holding, formerly known as Terumo America Inc., followed the corporation’s digital transformation initiative to support Terumo’s future growth.
TAH has successfully implemented various SAP offerings including SAP S/4HANA, the SAP Master Data Governance application, SAP Ariba solutions, the SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solution, the SAP Extended Warehouse Management application, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, and SAP Concur solutions running on SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. With this digital transformation initiative that unites operations, systems, and people, Terumo intends to fulfill its mission of contributing to society through healthcare.
SAP S/4HANA as the Cornerstone of Transformation
Hiroshi Nagumo, President and CEO of TAH, shared that SAP S/4HANA did not only serve as the foundation of the company’s digital transformation but also played an integral part in the manufacturer’s overall strategy and commitment to better serve its customers worldwide.
“Integrating vital business processes on one common platform means greater efficiencies, allowing us to continue bringing physicians and their patients the highest quality products and services as we grow,” Nagumo said.
Kalyan Balsubramanian, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at TAH highlighted that immediate results of the SAP S/4HANA implementation have been observed. The deployment enabled the Terumo subsidiary to provide the best practices its different business units require with the right balance of standardisation and configurability.
“For example, by sharing updated demand information from customers in America, Europe, and Canada with our manufacturing facilities in the United States and Japan, we can now better manage our data across our supply chain,” he added.
Now with a more efficient, scalable order-to-delivery process, TAH’s customers have better visibility into their orders–from initial acknowledgment through delivery. Deploying SAP S/4HANA has also allowed the company to virtually manage its in-hospital product inventories more effectively, resulting in on-time delivery of devices to customers.
Overcoming Hurdles and Achieving Goals
The roll out of TAH’s digital transformation came at the height of COVID-19. With the right motivation and perseverance, TAH was able to achieve a successful implementation by embracing remote working and conducting socially distanced in-person activities, including the training of over 1,500 employees.
Sung Yang, Vice President, SAP Program Executive at TAH said:
“The strategic planning for this transformation was well underway prior to the global pandemic, but we persevered — with the help and commitment of our employees — to support future growth.
We met our ambitious goals and are now live with a fully validated implementation. Our processes, software, and data are compliant with government regulations and controls.”
According to Greg Petraetis, SAP General Manager and Senior Vice President for the SAP Midmarket and Ecosystem in North America, TAH is an example of how organisations can leverage SAP technology in becoming an intelligent enterprise. He stated that organisations need to stay ahead of fast-changing markets and customer demands.
“Being able to integrate actionable data across all of business processes — from manufacturing, supply chain and inventory through procurement, finance, human resources and more — is how modern business ultimately delivers the right products at the right time to the right customers for competitive advantage,” Petraetis further said.
Rick Larrieu, Vice President of Global IT Applications and Infrastructure at TAH, commended SAP as a great partner to the company’s digital transformation journey. He said that SAP has effectively collaborated with their teams and other important partners to bring the TAH’s business into a single source of truth. Larrieu stressed that investments such as SAP’s will empower the company to serve its customers and patients better as well as increase operational efficiency.
TAH is optimistic about the next phase of transformation, eventually expanding to supporting business operations worldwide, now that SAP offerings are present across operations.
