ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION

DEMYSTIFYING ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION IN SUPPLY CHAIN

Well, let's start with the definition of Robotic Process Automation [aka RPA]

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is defined as the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.


Warming up to RPA

In optimizing their supply chains, companies across many industries — manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and more — have long relied on a range of technologies: WMS [warehouse management system], TMS [transportation management system], ERP [enterprise resource planning], CRM [customer relationship management], and RFID [radio frequency identification]. 

However, with continuing advancements in the evolution of the automation technology, the incorporation of cognitive and knowledge-based capabilities with RPA is allowing software robots to act like human employees. In fact, intelligent automation is developing as an overlap between cognitive process automation, intelligent computer vision, and intelligent OCR [optical character recognition] to automate beyond tasks based on well-defined business rules and clear instructions for processing inputs.

As a result of such cognitive augmentation, RPA is being increasingly adopted within the supply chain to mimic the actions of human employees: capturing, replicating, and processing data, communicating with customers, as well as making judgments and learning from past actions. 

 With RPA, supply chains attain enhanced cycle time and agility, increased capacity and asset efficiency, improved receivables, as well as high levels of the supplier, customer, and employee satisfaction. 


Benefits of RPA in Supply Chain

In order to understand the benefits, RPA can provide, let’s first consider where in the supply chain RPA can be implemented. 

Few of the top challenges which the supply chain function faces today includes, determining which supply chain improvements to focus on, lagging performance metrics and dealing with wide sweeping complexities between warehouse, manufacturing facilities, transporters, and customers.

In Retail Industry

As a retailer, you care first and foremost about customer interaction. You know that a positive experience, whether online or in person and whether searching, trying, buying or returning goods, is at the heart of customer loyalty and retention. Inefficient mundane processes are the enemy of customer experience. RPA will perfectly fit in with following activities:

CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT

Manage customer records across multiple systems and process changes with RPA by way of synchronizing all of your CRM information as they link systems, processes and activities on demand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

LOYALTY SCHEMES

Inspire loyalty in your customers with automated customer loyalty schemes which means you can put your shoppers at the center of your attention.

RETURNS AUTHORIZATIONS

Produce return authorization faster, whether on the high street or online, with RPA. An effective Channel-Agnostic Returns strategy not just only enhances customer experience, but also inventory management across channels.

COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT

Handle your customer complaints effectively with automated incident handling, prioritization, and resolution – or when necessary, escalation to a specialist within your business. RPA helps you to exceed expectations and turn customers back into advocates.

In e-commerce Industry

The real conundrum in e-commerce is that its growth is entirely unpredictable. Some Internet fulfillment companies are reaching their five-year goals in two years and have completely outgrown their warehouse space, forcing them to rely on leased facilities or 3PLs. 

This unpredictability is compounded by fulfillment challenges like
  • Large SKU counts
  • A small number of pieces or lines per order
  • Extreme peak season volumes
  • Under-stocking due to unpredictable changes in market demand
  • Customer expectation of fast 24 to 48-hour delivery
  • A high volume of returns from consumers.

Because unpredictability is a constant factor in e-commerce, flexibility and scalability in fulfillment operations are absolutely critical. As an e-commerce company’s needs increase or decrease, its pick, pack and ship model should be able to accommodate these fluctuations. And it can be achieve by the following:

ANSWERING WITH AUTOMATION

In most e-commerce centers, picking is the most labor-intensive function and can usually provide the most cost-savings when automated. The right automated solution should facilitate the minimization of touch points, which will result in more accurate orders, improved ergonomics, lower labor costs, reduced worker travel time and fewer returns.

EMBRACING SMART ROBOTICS

The e-commerce fulfillment centers that are striving to make their operations more streamlined and profitable, goods-to-person systems embodying smart robotics technology can provide a realistic solution to improve order throughput and order accuracy while reducing labor costs and optimizing facility space requirements.


RPA readiness in Supply Chain

But in addition to recognizing these benefits, it’s also important to acknowledge the foresight that is needed in order to leverage automation successfully at scale. During the introduction, implementation, and management of RP, the firm needs to be well prepared in the below four critical areas.

Concept Acceptance
― Achieve the confidence and support executives and convince them of the business value added

Close collaboration with IT
― Support from IT needed during technical challenges that can arise during RPA implementation

Business case prepared
― A fine-grained understanding of the actual current costs of the business process to be automated
― Quantify savings to be achieved with a robot
― Include change management plan

Competency development
― Gain necessary skills to handle possible bottlenecks that can arise when robots execute the process
― Set up RPA center of excellence.


VERDICT

The global supply chain is already becoming more and more dependent on digital platforms — and RPA is poised to have a large impact. RPA is a major contributing factor to the digitization of supply chains, and its digital capacities are crucial for the performance of a robust and profitable supply chain around the world. 

RPA allows businesses to streamline operations, build an innovative and agile supply network, and become more responsive to constantly evolving client demands and global market requirements. 

 As its adoption continues, RPA will enable businesses to more effectively manage their growing operations and distribution networks on a global scale.
Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

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