Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd., a global manufacturer of cutting-edge precision control machinery and components, as well as various types of industrial machinery, ships, and large plants, has revamped its mission-critical system, core system using SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA (hereinafter referred to as ERP on SAP HANA) on SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud in order to establish a common platform for the group. The company has adopted the file integration middleware "HULFT" and the data processing and conversion tool "DataMagic" to connect this mission-critical system, core system with peripheral systems.
Customer Issues
Study on a common interface that will stably and reliably link ERP on SAP HANA with various accounting systems owned by branches and research laboratories nationwide
solution
- HULFT ensures reliable data integration through its data loss verification function
- DataMagic quickly processes file layout conversion, which is essential for linking different systems
Benefits of implementation
SAP HANA Enterprise
Cloud
Reliable collaboration
Standardization of I/F tools
System Audit
Load reduction
The layout transformation
In GUI settings
Short-term development
Background: Interface change required for renewal to a common group platform
Founded in 1888 as a "machinery shop" that manufactured and repaired machinery and equipment, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. is now a comprehensive machinery manufacturer that operates globally, covering everything from mechanical components such as reducers to cutting-edge precision machinery such as plastic processing machinery, as well as construction machinery, ships, and environmental and plant equipment. The company has manufacturing and sales bases all over the world, forming the huge SHI (Sumitomo Heavy Industries) Group, which has over 170 subsidiaries and affiliated companies under its umbrella.
Masanori Yoshizaki, Chief of Shinagawa Information Systems Group, Information Systems Department
The SHI Group is currently using ERP on SAP HANA, which runs on SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, a cloud platform developed by SAP, to develop a common platform for the group, and has been integrating its accounting systems, primarily domestically, since 2015. "We upgraded to SAP with an eye toward use beyond accounting at our overseas bases, not just domestically," says Masanori Yoshizaki, chief of the Shinagawa Information Systems Group, Information Systems Department, at Sumitomo Heavy Industries Business Associates Co., Ltd., which handles system development, operation and maintenance for the entire SHI Group.
One of the challenges in developing this common group infrastructure was connecting it with the various accounting systems of branch offices, research laboratories, and production bases scattered across the country. "We decided to consider a new system in order to switch all interfaces to SAP compatibility," recalls Shingo Kazama, an engineer at the group.
HULFT highly rated in implementation audits, and attention focused on DataMagic high-speed processing capabilities
That's when the company turned its attention to HULFT, a file transfer middleware that the company has been using in-house for many years. "We had already been using HULFT for peripheral systems, so it was a natural progression," says Kazama. HULFT 's built-in function for verifying whether data is missing was also highly valued from an auditing perspective. "Because missing data is unacceptable, HULFT, which we had been evaluating internally for some time, is capable of handling audits, which is a major advantage," says Yoshizaki. During the review process, there was also discussion of directly linking to the database, but this would have made it impossible to know when and where data was taken, so batch processing using HULFT also offered the advantage of ensuring data consistency between systems.
Shingo Kazama, Engineer, Shinagawa Information Systems Group, Information Systems Department
In fact, to reduce the effort required to create compatible programs on SAP for each system, the interface layout for connection was decided in advance, but UTF-8 was standardized for the character code. "At this point, we needed to convert character codes such as EBCDIC, which is used on systems like AS/400 (now IBM i). That's why we decided to look into a system that would have a high affinity with HULFT and could be built in a short period of time," says Kazama.
The company therefore chose "DataMagic," a data processing and conversion tool that allows conversion settings to be made via a GUI. "We process more than 100,000 items each month, so we needed a system that could handle large-volume processing," says Kazama. As a result, they decided to adopt "HULFT" as the system for linking their existing system with SAP, and "DataMagic" as the system for high-speed character code conversion.
Effect: Smooth inter-system linkage. Operations would not run smoothly without HULFT
At present, HULFT has almost become the standard I/F tool of the SHI Group. ERP on SAP HANA deployed on SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud has implemented HULFT in various systems for passing information to the accounting system of SAP HANA, and the number of interfaces alone exceeds 300. Many mechanisms, including the master management system, use HULFT to securely send and receive data to and from SAP, and the character code conversion is implemented by the DataMagic introduced on the SAP side. To give an example of how to use it, when you register a business partner with SAP, the information is passed to a common master management system, and then the information of the master addition is send to the system of each site. All of these systems are linked by HULFT. In addition, if a communication error occurs in actual operation, the problem can be quickly identified by the detailed error code.
"HULFT is now like a social infrastructure, like a water supply. Without it, operations would cease to function. It is also an important solution in terms of audits, so there is no doubt that stopping HULFT would cause a major uproar," says Yoshizaki, explaining its importance. "In the past, we have had to change transmission tools due to the needs of our partner systems, but this required knowing the configuration information of the other system, which was time-consuming and also presented challenges from an audit perspective. With HULFT, all you have to do is decide on a common ID name. The fact that it conceals information from the other system is very effective," says Kazama, giving it a high evaluation.
File integration with SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud
Looking ahead, in addition to accounting, the company is also working on implementing some of the logistics functions of ERP on SAP HANA, and will continue to expand the functionality of mission-critical system, core system. Furthermore, the company plans to expand its mission-critical system, core system, which is currently deployed mainly domestically, globally. "We have many AS/400 systems in operation overseas, and there are situations where code conversion using DataMagic as well as HULFT is required, so we would like to make even greater use of it," says Yoshizaki. In addition to accounting, there is also a growing need for cloud integration, including AWS, and integration with suppliers, so Kazama says he would like to utilize HULFT which allows for safe and secure data integration in these areas as well.
Furthermore, overseas, it can be difficult to ensure compliance with SAP interface specifications, as is the case in Japan, and some customization may be required on the SAP side. In this situation, they expect DataSpider, which allows for intuitive integration via a GUI, to be a way to reduce the man-hours required for SAP add-on development.
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Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Founded in 1888 as a "machinery shop" responsible for the manufacture and repair of machinery and equipment used at the Besshi Copper Mine, the company now operates globally as a comprehensive machinery manufacturer that covers everything from mechanical components such as reducers to cutting-edge precision machinery such as plastic processing machines, as well as construction machinery, ships, and environmental and plant equipment. By making full use of its reliable technology for "movement and control," the company contributes to the creation of a prosperous society.
- The content of this case study is current as of the time of the interview. The content of this case study may change without notice.