The global pandemic of 2020 and the subsequent geopolitical issues have highlighted the shortcomings of global supply chains. Manufacturers worldwide are reeling from its effect and simultaneously looking for ways to automate their processes to future-proof their workflows. Automation is not a new trend in manufacturing – but the new normal demands manufacturers to go beyond and leverage the advancements in technologies like AI, RPA, and intelligent business process management (iBPM) to provide end-to-end digital transformation and automation.
Making the move to hyper-automation
Hyper-automation enables manufacturers to expand their core capabilities and unlock the potential of their enterprise. Operational technology has evolved drastically over the years – the conventional shop floor has shifted from using steam-powered engines to leveraging physical robots and state-of-art technology. Following are some of the most significant benefits of hyper-automation in the manufacturing space and why manufacturers should invest in them in the new normal:
Higher efficiency of manufacturing processes: Disparate steps in back-office procedures or supply chains are prone to delays and errors. Automation of processes that need extensive documentation and interaction across multiple platforms can help bring down the possible bottlenecks or delays and increase efficiency.
Better inventory management:
Keeping track of a massive inventory can be challenging. Any bottleneck can negatively impact the business’s overall productivity, revenue, and reputation. Fortunately, hyper-automation can handle high volumes of repetitive processes and execute them with better accuracy. When done manually at a large scale, inventory management is prone to delays due to mislabels miscounts, among other errors. Hyper-automation at this stage frees up personnel from repetitive tasks, catches errors at earlier stages, and completes tasks with better accuracy.
Suggested read: Digital Transformation: An Imperative for the Manufacturing Industry
Integrated workforce and higher productivity:
Hyper-automation enables manufacturers to create a cohesive, integrated workforce that drives business growth. They get trained to work in parallel with robots and people working side by side on numerous tasks, including basic to complex processes that demand both automation and manual decision-making. The collaborative intelligence allows personnel to train the automation software, use AI for better decision-making, and use the insights to boost productivity while modifying their processes.
Thus, everyone from business analysts to developers can be trained in automation and be an active part of the transformation journey. Personnel will be freed up from performing monotonous, manual tasks. This elevates the quality of work and increases employee satisfaction.
Better analytics and insights related to business processes:
Manufacturers need accurate insights into process efficiencies that help them improve and optimize methods that steer the organization’s growth. Hyper-automation combines AI/ML algorithms, optimized business processes, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and analytics to tap into valuable data from diverse sources, act intelligently on it, and make intelligent decisions. The strategy allows them to unlock the actual value of data and derive insights that will enable them to analyze the current business trends and predict future outcomes.
Improved finance and accounting activities:
Hyper-automation can be leveraged in the finance and accounting department to automate financial planning, budgeting, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc. For example, the accounts payable work involves receiving invoices and releasing payments. Hyper-automation helps here by using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for document extraction, automated payment release, invoice verification, etc., while RPA helps in the process depending on the invoice’s authenticity.
Enhanced data accessibility:
Integrating software and processes is the foundation of hyper-automation. It allows for continuous communication between on-premise infrastructure and data storage. Hybrid cloud is the new trend for organizations in the digital transformation journey and seamless systems integration is a critical part of it. It enables systems to interact efficiently, thus ensuring that core systems access data from centralized storage. The construction of “digital twins” is possible because of the combination of AI and ML in hyper-automation. It has the potential to create a workforce that is well-informed, agile, and capable of making quick and precise decisions based on data and insights.
Higher ROI:
The objective of a new transformation strategy is to ensure improved current processes and better results. Hyper-automation can help manufacturers improve the ROI as all their repetitive tasks get automated, and personnel can concentrate on other tasks, improving productivity.
Stepping into the new wave of transformation and innovation journey
Hyper-automation can be used across multiple verticals and resolve a good quantity of business hurdles. The strategy can help banish the barriers that technology or tool is limited to and leverage a wide range of interoperable tools simultaneously to boost business benefits and enjoy maximum ROI. Organizations can utilize the power of automation at a much bigger scale, identify all processes that can be automated beneficially and leverage them end-to-end by using the updated technologies.
Vatsa has worked with multiple manufacturers in their quest to modernize their manufacturing lines.
To know more about how we can help you leverage hyper-automation, reach out to our experts at contact@vsplc.com.
