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Kolon Industries CEO Heo Sung. / Courtesy of Kolon Industries

Kolon Industries is accelerating its AX (AI Transformation) shifts across its entire business domains.

Kolon Industries announced on the 29th that it is building an AI-driven smart procurement platform. Taking this system construction as an opportunity, the company plans to further advance AX—which has been held as the core of management since the inauguration of CEO Heo Sung—and through this, further strengthen competitiveness across all business domains including purchasing.

The AI-driven smart procurement platform aims to resolve the complexities of purchasing workflows while simultaneously elevating purchasing competitiveness by preemptively responding to rapidly shifting management environments, such as supply chain risks, regulatory expansions, and deepening market uncertainties. The plan is to accelerate innovation by grafting AI onto the entire purchasing process, encompassing strategic purchasing, development purchasing, supplier management, and procurement purchasing.

Considering the characteristics of the chemical industry, which is highly sensitive to raw material price fluctuations, the smart procurement platform presents optimal purchasing strategies for each item based on vast internal and external data, while supporting decision-making from a supply chain perspective starting at the development phase. In addition to this, the platform secures both supply chain stability and cost competitiveness simultaneously through the intelligent automation of procurement processes utilizing "agentic AI"—which is capable of executing independent decision-making—alongside real-time analyses of supplier performance, capabilities, and risks.

Furthermore, the company strengthens its development purchasing framework, which can systematically manage costs and select optimal materials and suppliers right from the new product development phase. In the newly established smart procurement platform, when raw material alterations are required, AI can be utilized to swiftly search for alternative raw materials and calculate projected material costs through simulations, which is anticipated to enhance competitiveness in both products and pricing. The next-generation procurement platform targets the completion of its construction within the second half of this year, passing through system analyses, designs, developments, and integration tests.

An official from Kolon Industries stated, "AI is no longer establishing itself merely as a tool to support individual tasks, but as a driver that pulls forward the innovation of working methods and sustainable growth," adding, "Centering on AX, Kolon Industries will connect R&D, purchasing, SCM, production, quality, and logistics into a single data-driven value chain, thereby forging a new paradigm for manufacturing innovation."

                                                                                                         Son Kang-hoon