Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas

Transforming Accounts Payable Through Intelligent Automation

Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas Inc. (HCMA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., manufactures and supports construction and mining equipment across North, Central, and South America. As part of its digital transformation strategy, HCMA set out to modernize its Accounts Payable operations — replacing labor-intensive invoice processing with a scalable, AI-driven automation platform.

Partnering with Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific, HCMA implemented Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent, an AI-powered vendor invoice automation solution, fully integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations. The solution automates invoice capture, validation, and journal creation end to end — significantly reducing manual effort while improving processing speed and accuracy.

Business Challenge

Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas processes hundreds of freights, transportation, logistics, and vendor invoices every month, arriving from multiple suppliers in a wide variety of formats. Invoice processing relied on a patchwork of manual activities, macros, Excel-based processing, and user intervention — with different vendors following different processing methods. The result:

• Significant manual effort to capture invoice data
• Multiple invoice processing channels and inconsistent workflows
• Dependency on macro-based processing and manual journal creation
• Long invoice turnaround times
• Elevated risk of data entry errors
• Difficulty scaling operations as invoice volumes increased
• Ongoing maintenance of existing OCR solutions, which required template training for every new invoice layout

The 40-page invoice problem. Some of HCMA’s freight invoices ran to 35–40 pages — each one demanding careful, line-by-line manual handling before a journal could be created. Today, Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent reads the entire document, consolidates it into a single invoice, validates it against master data, and creates the journal in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations automatically.

HCMA’s objective was clear: establish a single, intelligent invoice ingestion platform capable of handling multiple vendor formats — while improving operational efficiency and freeing the finance team for higher-value work.

The automation of our vendor invoice process has been a significant step forward for HCMA. By replacing macro-based processing and manual journal creation with the Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent, we have streamlined our Accounts Payable operations, improved efficiency, and created a scalable foundation for future growth. The rapid adoption and immediate business benefits following go-live have exceeded our expectations.

Solution

To support Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas’ digital transformation journey, Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific implemented Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent — its next-generation vendor invoice automation platform, powered by Azure OpenAI Service on Microsoft Foundry and deeply integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.

Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent uses generative AI to read and understand invoices in virtually any layout, enabling flexible invoice processing with minimal template-by-template training. The solution was designed to:

Consolidate Invoice Processing
Provide a single automated channel for vendor invoice ingestion and processing across multiple supplier types and invoice scenarios.

Automate Invoice Capture
Leverage AI-powered extraction to read and capture invoice data accurately — without extensive template-based training.

Streamline Accounts Payable Operations
Automatically create Vendor Invoice Journals, Purchase Order Invoices, and Freight Invoices directly within Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.

Improve Data Accuracy
Automatically identify and map vendor information, invoice details, device numbers, chassis numbers, financial dimensions, general ledger accounts, and cost center and department codes — reducing manual intervention and improving data quality.

Implementation Highlights

• Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent engine (Azure OpenAI Service on Microsoft Foundry) integrated with Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
• Automated processing across 17 vendor configurations
• Support for transportation, freight, PO, and non-PO invoice scenarios
• Automated invoice journal creation and validation
• Support for multiple invoice formats and document structures
• Two-way and three-way invoices matching policies for financial control
• Complex invoices of ~35–40 pages automatically consolidated into single invoices
• Automated financial dimension assignment
• Device and chassis number matching capabilities

Business Impact

Within weeks of go-live, Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas began realizing measurable business value.

Increased Automation
The solution is designed to automate HCMA’s expected volume of ~500 vendor invoices per month — with capacity for significantly higher volumes — substantially reducing manual processing effort across the Accounts Payable function.

Faster Invoice Processing
Automated invoice extraction, validation, and journal creation accelerate invoice turnaround times and improve transaction throughput.

Improved Data Accuracy
AI-powered extraction — combined with two-way and three-way matching, automated master-data validation, and automatic financial dimension assignment — reduces data entry errors and improves invoice quality.

Operational Efficiency
Finance users spend less time on repetitive administrative tasks and can focus on higher-value financial activities.

Strong Early Adoption
Within the first two weeks following go-live, approximately 370 invoices were successfully processed through Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent — demonstrating rapid user adoption and immediate value realization.

The ability to process invoices through one intelligent platform has streamlined our operations and accelerated invoice processing from receipt to journal creation.

Key Results

Why Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent

Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent is an intelligent document automation IP — proven in production at enterprise scale.

• Any vendor, any format — generative AI reads invoices with minimal template training, so new vendors are onboarded through configuration and minimal AI instructions.
• Native to Dynamics 365 F&O — invoices flow from receipt to validated journal inside the ERP, with two-way and three-way matching for financial control.
• Enterprise AI foundation — built on Azure OpenAI Service (Microsoft Foundry), Power Automate, and Azure Integration Services.
• Beyond data capture — maps financial dimensions, GL accounts, cost centers, and device/chassis numbers automatically.
• Scales with the business — handles complex multi-page documents and growing volumes without added headcount.

Customer Benefits

• Reduced manual Accounts Payable workload
• Improved invoice processing accuracy
• Faster invoice turnaround times
• Standardized invoice processing workflows
• Increased scalability for future growth
• Enhanced visibility into invoice processing activities
• Foundation established for future AI-driven finance automation initiatives

These improvements position Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas to continue its digital transformation journey while supporting operational excellence across its finance and supply chain functions.

Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas’ AI Transformation Journey

For HCMA, the Vendor Invoice Automation initiative represents more than a process improvement project—it marks an important milestone in the organization’s broader digital transformation journey. By adopting Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent powered by Azure OpenAI Service and fully integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, HCMA has demonstrated how artificial intelligence can deliver tangible business value in day-to-day finance operations.

Moving beyond traditional template-based OCR approaches, the solution leverages generative AI to intelligently interpret invoices from multiple vendors and formats, helping reduce manual effort, improve processing efficiency, and enhance scalability. The successful deployment has provided HCMA with a modern platform capable of supporting increasing transaction volumes while enabling finance teams to focus on higher-value activities.

This initiative demonstrates the practical business value of AI within finance operations. The success of the Vendor Invoice Automation project using Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent provides HCMA with a foundation to explore broader AI-driven process improvements across the organization.

The success of this initiative has established a strong foundation for future innovation at HCMA. By embedding AI into core finance processes, the organization is creating new opportunities to streamline operations, improve decision-making, and accelerate the adoption of intelligent automation across other business functions.

Partnership Success

The outstanding teamwork between HCMA and Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific was a key factor in the project’s success. Through close collaboration and a shared vision, we were able to deliver a solution that is already driving measurable business value.

Looking Ahead

The Vendor Invoice Automation initiative demonstrates how generative AI and Microsoft business applications can transform traditional finance operations. By replacing manual processes with intelligent automation, Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas has established a scalable platform capable of supporting increased business volumes, improving employee productivity, and accelerating digital transformation across the organization — with Hitachi Solutions OCR Agent as the foundation for future AI-driven finance automation.