Kolon Industries to build AI-powered procurement platform in push for manufacturing innovation

By Park Hye-won, The Herald Business

Kolon Industries announced Monday that it is building an AI-powered smart procurement platform to accelerate its AI transformation, known internally as AX.

The platform will integrate AI across the full procurement cycle, covering strategic procurement, development procurement, supplier management and purchasing operations.

Taking into account the chemical industry's sensitivity to raw material price fluctuations, the system will draw on internal and external data to recommend optimal procurement strategies and support supply chain decision-making from the development stage onward. It will also deploy agentic AI — capable of making decisions autonomously — to automate procurement processes, while conducting real-time assessments of supplier performance, capabilities and risk.

The platform will also strengthen development procurement by enabling the selection of optimal materials and suppliers from the earliest stages of new product development, along with systematic cost management. When raw material substitutions are needed, AI will rapidly search for alternatives and run simulations to project expected material costs. The company expects this will sharpen its competitiveness on both product quality and price.

Kolon Industries aims to complete the next-generation procurement platform within the second half of this year. The company plans to advance AX, a management priority that President Heo Seong has emphasized since taking office.

"AI is no longer just a tool that supports individual tasks — it has become the driving force behind innovation in how we work and sustainable growth," a Kolon Industries official said. "Centered on AX, Kolon Industries will connect R&D, procurement, supply chain management, production, quality and logistics into a single data-driven value chain, creating a new paradigm for manufacturing innovation."