AI-Powered Procurement Assistant for Industrial Manufacturing

How a Bio-Based Materials Manufacturer Optimized Warehouse and Batch Management with SAP Extended Warehouse Management

Client

Our client is an American industrial manufacturing company. Managing a high volume of daily procurement inquiries, the organization processes hundreds of routine vendor and purchase order requests.

Challenge

The primary obstacle to the client’s operational efficiency was a persistent bottleneck within their Procurement Operations process. Despite having a modern SAP S/4HANA landscape, handling daily inbound status requests lacked an automated, end-to-end resolution layer:

• High volume of repetitive email inquiries. Procurement teams spent hours manually answering routine email questions regarding Purchase Order (PO) statuses and supplier summaries.

• Manual execution bottleneck. Staff had to manually switch contexts, open SAP, search for data, copy details, and paste responses back into email threads, delaying turnaround times.

• Rigidity of traditional automation. Standard rule-based tools struggled with unstructured email text, typos, and varied phrasing, requiring strict templates that users rarely followed.

Solution

We engineered an intelligent procurement automation solution using n8n, Generative AI, and SAP OData APIs to act as a "smart email assistant." This approach allowed us to seamlessly interpret natural language requests and retrieve backend SAP data in real time without human intervention.

• AI-driven intent and parameter extraction

Automation analyzes inbound emails in real time, accurately extracting user intent and critical parameters (such as PO numbers or Supplier IDs), even from informal text or emails with typos using AI.

• Clean Core & API integration

The workflow connects directly to the SAP backend via standard OData APIs, fetching requested details instantly while maintaining existing business logic and security protocols.

• Automated real-time email response

The system automatically formats the retrieved SAP data into a clear summary and replies directly to the original email thread within seconds.

Technology Stack

The solution is built using n8n for workflow orchestration, OpenAI for natural language analysis, and SAP OData APIs for backend integration.

Results

The deployment of the smart email assistant transformed the procurement team’s operational capacity:

• 95% reduction in inquiry response time (from hours to under 5 seconds)

• 100+ manual hours reclaimed monthly for procurement staff

• Zero SAP GUI overhead (users access real-time SAP data on demand without needing dedicated SAP GUI licenses)