S-OIL Announces 'AI Purchasing System' Innovation to Global Experts

Introduction of AI Purchasing System Implementation Cases at the American Supply Chain Management Experts Council

Lee Ji-hye, head of the Purchasing Management Team at S-OIL, is explaining the AI purchasing system. Photo by S-OIL

S-OIL introduced its 'AI Purchasing System' as an innovative case to purchasing experts worldwide.

On the 10th, S-OIL presented the AI purchasing system implementation as an innovation case to global purchasing professionals during a webinar hosted by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) in the United States.

As part of its Digital Transformation strategy to enhance corporate competitiveness, S-OIL has been advancing its purchasing system by integrating AI technology into the previously established purchasing system. It has built price and demand forecasting models that consider internal purchasing data from the past 10 years and external market price fluctuations of raw materials to determine the optimal procurement timing and utilize this for purchasing strategy formulation. Additionally, by using the Auto PO item recommendation function and expanding long-term contracts, it is preparing for supply chain instability.

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), founded in 1963 to promote research and knowledge dissemination in supply chain management, is the world's largest association for supply chain experts. It has built a global network of approximately 9,000 experts representing government and academia across nearly all industrial sectors, providing communication among members, cutting-edge research, and professional education opportunities both online and on-site.

Jihye Lee, team leader at S-OIL who presented at the webinar, said, "S-OIL's AI purchasing system redefines the traditional purchasing paradigm of companies and has been highly evaluated for its effectiveness in opening new opportunities for cost reduction and work efficiency improvement. As a result, it is rare for a domestic company to present such an innovation case."

Jihye Lee, head of S-OIL's Purchasing Management Team, explained, "The refining energy industry is a capital-intensive process industry greatly influenced by international market factors and raw material price volatility. It requires technical complexity and high expertise in facilities and must also meet environmental and safety regulations, making it a specialized field. By utilizing the AI purchasing system, we have not only simplified purchasing procedures but also gained insights into market trends, contributing to the company's profitability and sustainable growth."

She also stated, "Attendees involved in purchasing worldwide actively asked questions during the Q&A session about the time taken to build the system, the process of collaborating with Samsung to develop it, methods for collecting external market variables, and data upload methods for analyzing past purchasing history, showing great interest in our advanced purchasing system."

S-OIL is systematically implementing an enterprise-wide digital transformation roadmap based on IT new technologies. It has successfully completed core digital transformation tasks in three areas: Digital Refinery, Digital Marketing, and Smart Work. From this year, over the next three years (2024?2026), it will pursue a second-phase digital transformation strategy by researching and analyzing the latest technology trends and advanced domestic and international cases to continuously improve efficiency through productivity enhancement and cost reduction.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.