[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Sunghye] Lotte Chilsung Beverage announced on the 13th that it has declared a "field-centered digital transformation (DT) promotion" for its business activities encompassing sales, production, and SCM, and is accelerating business process innovation by forming a dedicated organization.
In the sales field, the company has promoted the advancement of the existing smartphone-based mobile sales system called ‘SFA (Sales Forces Automation).’ The system was improved to the field-centered sales support system SFA version 2.0, enabling various tasks occurring in the sales field to be immediately handled anytime and anywhere using tablet PCs, surpassing the previous simple sales support system.
Lotte Chilsung Beverage’s sales representatives can easily record and manage sales activities for existing clients through the upgraded mobile sales system. They also receive practical assistance in sales activities by utilizing over 20 types of recommendation messages, including product sales recommendations via ‘Charlotte,’ a big data analysis-based advisor, product rotation cycles, sales composition changes, and container return status.
Sales representatives have been able to save time spent checking and analyzing data of their assigned clients. Additionally, even if their roles change later, optimized menus are automatically applied according to their duties, allowing them to easily perform their tasks and receive customized systemized work support in various areas.
Lotte Chilsung Beverage is accelerating field-centered digital transformation so that about 2,000 sales representatives can utilize practical smart work on-site to improve work efficiency and satisfaction.
In the production field, digital transformation has been promoted by establishing a ‘Production Monitoring System (SCADA)’ and a ‘Manufacturing Execution System (MES)’ for product production processes, manufacturing equipment, and work management.
Production managers can use the production monitoring system to comprehensively understand equipment operation status, product production flow, and any abnormalities in manufacturing equipment at a glance through dozens of monitors in the Integrated Control Center (ICC), effectively managing the complex and diverse equipment of the production plant. On-site workers also share the same situation in real time using tablet PCs, enabling quick recognition and immediate on-site action when problems occur.
Moreover, the manufacturing execution system applied in the production field digitally converts many tasks that were previously managed manually during the product production process, such as raw material input, semi-finished product mixing, product manufacturing, and quality inspection. This prevents incorrect raw material input, ensuring quality stability, and establishes a ‘quality history management system’ through systematic system record management of the entire production process from prototype production to final quality inspection before product shipment, striving to supply the best products to consumers.
In addition, a ‘big data analysis platform’ has been established to utilize the large volume of event information and equipment log data generated during the manufacturing process. Based on various data modeling such as equipment downtime cause detection models and predictive maintenance models, efforts to improve productivity and reduce costs are being carried out simultaneously. For the phased expansion of digital transformation in production sites, plans are being established and promoted for other plants producing beverages and alcoholic beverages besides the Anseong plant.
In SCM, the ‘S&OP (Sales and Operations Planning) system’ has been introduced and operated to streamline the business processes from ‘demand forecasting → demand planning → replenishment planning → supply planning → production planning.’
By adopting the S&OP system, machine learning techniques are utilized to predict basic product demand, and various promotional activities on-site are reflected to finalize optimized demand plans, enabling effective response to rapidly changing market environments.
Based on these demand plans, inventory replenishment plans and product supply plans for each logistics distribution center (CDC) and regional distribution center (RDC) are finalized. Then, production capacity and constraints of each factory’s manufacturing line are reflected in real time, automatically establishing production plans that are linked to the factory’s manufacturing execution system, continuing product manufacturing in a systematic manner.
Furthermore, system-based work has become possible instead of relying on individual know-how, allowing a systematic and efficient S&OP framework to be established and operated.
Logistics automation is also underway at major logistics distribution centers (CDC). Through logistics automation, products ordered from the sales field are automatically loaded onto transport pallets and moved to the loading yard for next-day sales and delivery, optimizing work time for product delivery to branches or clients nationwide. Lotte Chilsung Beverage is actively investing in logistics system efficiency to deliver the best products to consumers.
Additionally, Lotte Chilsung Beverage has been leading efforts to enhance employee work convenience by continuously expanding content for ‘Charlotte,’ an in-house work support chatbot service operating since 2019. By actively adopting office automation systems, simple repetitive tasks are converted or eliminated by systems, and smart offices are expanded so that employees can focus on creative and core tasks, actively implementing ‘ERRC activities.’
A Lotte Chilsung Beverage official said, “We will continue to actively promote digital transformation in necessary field tasks to respond swiftly to market environments and strive to lead market innovation as a digital leader in the F&B market.”
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