English
Blog
Do I Need Inventory Management Automation?
Keep Business and Products Moving
Flawless execution, seamless personalized services, on-time delivery and up-to-the-second tracking are the cornerstones of a successful supply chain. While achieving this may seem daunting, especially with lingering manual processes, it’s very much possible and can be as simple as deploying automation and digital workers to help.
Connecting Every Dot in the Supply Chain
By deploying intelligent automation (IA), you can seamlessly connect the dots throughout your supply chain, elevating collaboration to unprecedented levels of efficiency, effectiveness and agility.
How Does RPA Improve Supply Chain Management?
The modern supply chain
Supply chain RPA
All-in-one solution
The modern supply chain
The modern supply chain is characterized by several key features: digitization, globalization, sustainability, e-commerce integration, closer collaborations, resilience to external forces and customer-centricity. In addition to that, supply chains must also prioritize efficiency, success and adaptability to new changes. Lacking in any one of these aspects can hinder their ability to stay competitive. It can be tough to juggle everything.
Real-World Results
Hapag-Lloyd Uses Blue Prism’s Robotic Operating Model to Navigate Intelligent Automation
Learn how Hapag-Lloyd streamlined its digital transformation process with the SS&C | Blue Prism® Robotic Operating Model 2 (ROM™2).
Read the Story
How Can Companies Use RPA in Supply Chains?
What Are the Benefits of RPA In Supply Chain Management?
Visibility
One benefit of RPA? Gain unparalleled visibility into every facet of your supply chain. From raw material to final delivery, RPA and IA let you track and monitor operations in real-time, so you can anticipate what’s behind every corner and adjust your operations accordingly.
Error reduction
Costly errors? Wave goodbye to those as RPA and IA facilitate more efficient and error-free operations. By automating repetitive tasks like data entry, you can ensure precision and accuracy from the beginning. With human errors minimized, you can keep your supply chain running smoothly.
Cost saving
By optimizing supply chain processes through automation, you can unlock significant cost savings. RPA and IA ensure you avoid the costs associated with rectifying errors. It also helps resource optimization: labor, transportation and warehouse space are used efficiently.
Fulfillment speed
Accelerate how quickly you can move your goods through the supply chain. RPA systems help you minimize delays and achieve lightning-fast fulfillment. Digital workers can process orders faster and more accurately than a human, keeping your supply chain efficient and customers happy.
Scalability
There’s no need to be stressed about growth. Whether you’re experiencing seasonal fluctuations or a sudden increase in demand, automation is flexible and is able to adapt to changing needs with uninterrupted performance. That’s supply chain optimization like never before.
Productivity
Your team is more productive with RPA bots and IA supporting them. By automating routine tasks, you can free up their valuable time to focus on more strategic initiatives and supply chain innovations — such as strategy planning or spending more time with customers.
RPA In Supply Chains — Use Cases
Order management
RPA and digital workers help automate order management processes such as order entry, validation and fulfillment. By doing it digitally, it ensures accuracy and efficiency in managing customer orders from placement to delivery.
RPA and IA can:
- Automate order entry and validation processes to reduce manual errors.
- Streamline order fulfillment tasks such as picking, packing and shipping.
- Easily integrate your systems for seamless order tracking and customer communication.
Customer service
An RPA solution can help streamline customer service processes in your supply chain. Digital workers can be deployed to handle customer inquiries, process returns and manage customer accounts. This helps improve response times and customer satisfaction as their information is accurate, quick to find and up to date.
RPA in supply chain management customer service can:
- Automate customer inquiries routing and response generation.
- Process returns and refunds efficiently, reducing processing times.
- Automate account management tasks such as account updates and billing inquiries.
Supply and demand planning
RPA and intelligent digital workers can support supply and demand planning. They can quickly go through different sources of information to gather and analyze data at volume. This includes current weather, manufacturing speeds, customer orders, etc. Then, with this information, they can accurately forecast demand, optimize inventory levels and plan production schedules for more efficient resource allocation.
RPA use cases:
- Automate data collection and analysis for demand forecasting.
- Generate demand and supply reports.
- Adjust inventory levels and production schedules based on projections.
Warehouse management
RPA can automate warehouse operations such as inventory management, picking and packing orders based on data and automatically implementing quality checks to ensure accuracy and consistency in product handling.
RPA and IA can support:
- Automated inventory tracking and stock replenishment.
- Streamlined picking and packing processes for faster order fulfillment.
- Update inventory records in a central system for one source of truth.
Logistics management
IA and RPA can also be used to support integral supply chain areas, such as logistics management. Digital workers can automate many of the repetitive tasks burdened by this area, such as shipment tracking, carrier management and delivery routing. That makes operations more efficient, accurate and speedy.
Implementing RPA, you can:
- Automate route optimization for efficient transport planning, e.g., shipping.
- Track shipments of products in real time.
- Provide up-to-the-minute tracking for customers.
- Manage contracts and performance to find areas for improvement.
Vendor management
RPA technology can also be used to help streamline vendor management processes like vendor onboarding, performance tracking, contract management and communication. This helps reduce the administrative burden that human workers can face, allowing them to focus on more strategic and meaningful interactions with vendors.
Vendor management automation supports:
- Vendor onboarding processes like document collecting, validation and approvals.
- Automatic alerts and notifications for contract renewals, expirations and milestone deadlines.
- Tracking and evaluating processes.
- Communication with email notifications, reminders and status updates.