The Energy Market Authority (EMA) has identified four switches that form part of what it calls Singapore’s energy future: solar, regional power grids, low-carbon alternatives, and natural gas. With more than 95% of its electricity generated from natural gas, the Singapore LNG Corporation (SLNG) falls under the fourth switch of natural gas.
The SLNG mandate
SLNG helps to strengthen the country's energy security by enabling liquified natural gas (LNG) to be imported from anywhere in the world; and by ensuring undisrupted send-out of re-gasified LNG for power generation.
SLNG is also an advocate for the development of Singapore as an LNG hub, and the growth of the LNG eco-system in Singapore and internationally. It offers a wide range of LNG-related solutions such as vessel gassing-up & cool-down, storage & reload (including small-scale LNG), LNG bunkering, LNG transhipment and LNG truck loading. It is also exploring new opportunities in LNG and other sustainable energy sources.
Moving to the cloud
SLNG has chosen SAP S/4HANA Cloud (private cloud edition) to help optimise its business processes, as part of its strategy to utilise technology and innovation to meet and exceed its Energy Security mandate, facilitate the growth of Singapore as a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) hub and explore the adoption of newer and more sustainable energy sources.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud connects data at the source and is available in real-time for business planning. Using SAP intelligent ERP, users gain visibility across business functions such as finance, HR, procurement and maintenance to power data-driven decisions.
Chong Nai Min, vice president (information technology), SLNG, said, "With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we have an integrated platform that gives us a single source of truth for more effective and accurate data analysis.”
SLNG has been using SAP Finance for financial management and reporting since 2012. Previously, it stored data in separate finance, HR, procurement, and maintenance systems. Frequent disruptions in data interfaces often led to data discrepancies and the need for manual reconciliations.
“The integrated platform also enables greater productivity through enhanced automation and embedded analytics, scalability to support future business growth, as well as reliability by reducing data discrepancies across multiple systems. The real-time insights that we gain allow us to be more agile and competitive as we respond to market demands and new opportunities in LNG and beyond."
Under the hood
"Adapting to today’s digital economy in the never normal requires a strong digital core. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, the objective is for SLNG to simplify operational processes, reduce downtime with predictive technology, and transition employees to high-value work,” said Eileen Chua, managing director, SAP Singapore.
Other SAP solutions implemented include Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (iRPA) for workflow automation, SAP Intelligent Asset Management for asset reliability management, SAP Ariba to digitise procurement, SAP SuccessFactors and Concur for core HR processes and employee claims, and Qualtrics for employee experience management.
SLNG uses iRPA to automate administrative tasks and workflows, allowing employees to save time and focus on more strategic work. SLNG has built bots to automate the payment process for non-PO invoices that were previously entered manually.
Unplanned downtime can be costly and may erode customer trust. At SLNG, maintenance technicians follow a planned schedule to service equipment and respond to service requests. Using a predictive approach, SLNG aims to maximise asset availability and reduce maintenance costs by using historical data and usage patterns collected by sensors, to detect potential failures.
