Equipping a heavy machinery manufacturer with increased productivity and happier customers

ABOUT

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction, and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over.

THE CHALLENGE

A leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment was experiencing challenges within its global supply chain management (SCM) operations, including process errors, time-consuming manual processes, lengthy error detection and resolution cycles. Using our strong expertise in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), we helped the client enhance its operational efficiency, reduce costs and improve customer experience.

The client intended to make better use of high-skilled resources engaged in low-end monitoring and routine tasks. Their existing on-premises business application software and proprietary systems were grappling with unstructured data and diverse input formats, consuming significant man-hours. Ad-hoc solutions implemented by the client were not successful in automating workflow level functions. The client wanted to embrace RPA to unlock the next stage of productivity gains, by focusing on increasing the capacity without hiring staff, reducing downtime, improving KPIs, and scaling up operations.

Greater Efficiency

29%

Productivity Increase

Errors

THE SOLUTION

The client took into consideration multiple factors while selecting an automation platform. The key priority was to establish enterprise-grade quality, speed of deployment of the product, and the company’s flexibility in terms of tech support, training and licensing models. Automation Anywhere scored highly on all the above parameters.

After a successful 6-month proof-of-value, EY and Automation Anywhere worked together to extend the Automation Anywhere solution to other areas of the client’s global operations, beyond its SCM function.

THE WHOLE STORY

EY and Automation Anywhere automated several key processes for the client’s pilot:

INTERFACE-DRIVEN RECORD AND DATA ERRORS
Due to mismatches between data in the client’s existing mainframe and its business applications software, SCM team members often had to manually resolve errors related to goods receipts, goods storage, and unidentifiable records. These errors caused delays in the execution of critical business applications and manual intervention was time-intensive, further opening up processes to additional errors.

Now, the bots deployed by EY and Automation Anywhere continuously search the records for each error type, resolve them using a rule-based decision points system, and complete the workflow by sending a resolution email to the appropriate human user.

SALES ORDERS
When interface-driven record and data errors pertaining to sales orders occurred, the SCM team had to manually verify and resolve the details in the system, which was an error-laden and time-consuming process.

The bots have automated the end-to-end process by searching for sales orders in the system, checking all the details via numerous SQL queries in the mainframe system, updating the data in the mainframe, and notifying the user of task completion.

TRANSPORT VISIBILITY SYSTEM (TVS)
The client’s TVS frequently encountered application errors that were difficult to detect and took considerable time to resolve.The bots search all the files in the TVS application, identify any recent failures, extract the reason, and notify the supporting team via email to resolve.Shipment remedy ticketsWhen a customer had a product shipment issue, the client’s system would generate and email an incident ticket to the internal support team, and a member of that team would have to manually create the corresponding ticket in the company’s Remedy application.The bots automatically create Remedy-based tickets. This ensures that no shipment issues are inadvertently missed, leading to accelerated issue resolution and significantly improved customer satisfaction.

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE

Core Digital Media is only in the first few months of its deployment of RPA technology from Automation Anywhere. As the company automates data-extraction processes for the rest of its online publishing partners, further savings are sure to be in store. “There’s still much to be done here,” says Kar. “We’re excited to see where this technology takes us.”

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