Sega Entertainment has rolled out Infor LN, an ERP solution for manufacturing, and has enabled arcade manager workloads to be reduced by approximately 20% in some outlets.
According to Infor Japan KK, the new system is also helping to minimise pandemic infection risks and drive workstyle reforms by cutting arcade work processes. This project was carried out with the support of Hitachi, an Infor partner.
With its main business of operating amusement arcades, Sega Entertainment has also launched restaurant and merchandising businesses, and introduced Sega Platon — an app integrated with electronic payment functions — in its outlets nationwide.
Sega Entertainment is currently working to streamline both its internal and outlet operations to enable its employees to better focus on new initiatives. A major impediment to this process was the fully customised mission-critical systems developed for its past amusement business.
These legacy systems lack scalability, making them an increasing encumbrance to operational improvements. Its arcade operations, in particular, was dominated by analog workflows dependent on individual skills, and arcade managers were constantly overwhelmed with paper-based bookkeeping.
Sega Entertainment deployed Infor LN as its ERP system for handling core management operations including accounting, procurement, and logistics.
The COVID-19 pandemic was declared during system construction, but thanks to Hitachi’s deep understanding of Sega Entertainment’s operations and the trust it has built with the company’s arcade managers and other personnel, the new system went into operation as originally scheduled.
The analog workflows of the company’s approximately 200 amusement arcades nationwide have also been digitised and standardised, and paper-based bookkeeping eliminated.
Moving forward, the company plans to leverage Infor LN for other purposes as well, including inventory visualisation in logistics management and system support for new businesses, which was difficult under the old system.
Sega Entertainment is building an ERP system for business transformation that enables it to support new business projects while scrapping legacy infrastructure and streamlining its business operations.
“We were endeavouring to transform our business across the company to address customer needs, but were unable to carry out real transformation owing to the limitations of our systems, which were designed for now-outdated business operations,” said Hideo Kawai, general manager of Sega Entertainment’s IT Solutions Department.
