Business Applications of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the Manufacturing Industry

With Industry 4.0 on the rise, manufacturers around the world are using automation to improve productivity and minimize costs. The global market size for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is anticipated to grow to $30.85 billion by 2030. Manufacturing jobs are indeed timely and positioned for automation-based technology. As reported by the consulting firm, McKinsey, 87% of manual work that manufacturing workers engage in on a daily basis can be automated. Further, there are also opportunities beyond factory work for manufacturing-related jobs, such as maintenance, materials handler, and engineering.

Manufacturing companies are also leveraging technologies like AI and RPA to automate back-office processes such as vendor payments, vendor communications, and report generation. In fact, manufacturers using RPA to automate processes that support manufacturing (and even create product) is the final frontier. Here we outline some background on RPA challenges, business use cases, benefits of RPA in the manufacturing sector, and RPA status in manufacturing organizations.

Implementation of RPA in the Manufacturing industry

Here’s a rundown of RPA’s implementation (or use cases) in the manufacturing industry:

1. Data Migration
   Successful digital transformation entails that manufacturing companies migrate their applications and data to an ERP system or the cloud. Whatever the reason, robots driven by RPA can automate and accelerate the speed of migration for data. Additionally, the RPA-based system can also minimize the cost of data migration.
2. ERP Automation
   Automation based on ERP can result in significant benefits, including greater productivity and cost efficiency. Implementing ERP automation is not easy when business processes are constantly changing. Manufacturers can take advantage of RPA capabilities to establish ERP with minimal impact to their already established systems.
3. Inventory Management
   Inventory management is typically compounded with numerous issues in the manufacturing sector, which include limited visibility into operations, inefficient stock management, and the inability to have a single inventory management platform. RPA is helpful in improving inventory management, including:
   • Automated order processing and receipts
   • Real-time visibility into inventory flows and supply chains
   • Accurate inventory forecasting
4. Invoice Processing
   RPA-enabled solutions can also automate invoice-related processes like invoice generation and payment processing. Manufacturers can reduce invoicing-related errors and delays and improve customer experience.
5. Admin Tasks Automation
   RPA solutions can also automate administrative tasks in the manufacturing industry. This includes back-office tasks like scheduling meetings, ordering office supplies, tracking employee attendance, and responding to business emails.

Benefits of RPA in Manufacturing

Cost Savings

RPA-enabled solutions can also assist manufacturers with any invoice related processes like generating invoices, processing invoices, and/or paying invoices. Manufacturers can address errors and delays to invoices while improving customer experience.

Reduced Human Error

RPA solutions can provide many options in automating administrative tasks within the manufacturing sector. This can all include back-office work like scheduling meetings, ordering supplies, tracking employee attendance, and responding to emails relating to the business.

Improved Operational Efficiency

RPA simplifies essential manufacturing operations such as demand planning, buying, and logistics. Together with AI, it provides insight across distribution and warehouse management, enabling smarter, faster decision-making.

Enhanced Customer Service

As RPA automates back-office operations, it speeds up product delivery and enhances response times. By using data analytics, manufacturers can determine where bottlenecks exist and continuously improve customer-facing operations to provide better service.

Driving RPA Success with Emergys

At Emergys, we use our expertise in AI, machine learning, analytics and text recognition, to allow manufacturing companies to do proper RPA implementation. With our RPA-based cognitive automation, our manufacturing customers have been able to:

• Mitigating or reducing human error
• Automating repetitive tasks
• Improving process efficiency
• Reducing operational costs

We offer our technical expertise for products such as UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, etc.

Manufacturers can use RPA technology for back-office, customer service, and administrative functions. In general, RPA solutions can help organizations reduce losses (due to manual effort) by 30% or more.