Picture-perfect purchase order fulfillment: A human-robot partnership story

THE WHOLE STORY

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION
Automation Anywhere and Genpact’s solution architect designed an automation solution using various RPA technologies available with the Automation Anywhere platform. It reduced the number of employees required for Purchase Order fulfillment from 100 to 10 and reduced overall errors while increasing transaction speed. One of the key questions Genpact and Automation Anywhere faced was whether to create a zero-touch process or create a process that utilizes a human-automation partnership. The advantages of a zero-touch process were obvious, but a redesigned process with a human and automation partnership would create a solution that would reduce exceptions significantly as well as increase customer satisfaction. The latter was chosen.

THE RPA FLOW

1. The system automatically pulls data from the customer system, checking for new purchase orders. This eliminated the current practice where employees had to constantly log in and look for new orders, which further reduced fulfillment times and increased productivity.
2. Once a purchase order is downloaded it is immediately pushed into the legacy system.
3. The agent acts as a “human-in-the-loop” and manually validates the order for accuracy based on the customer contract.
4. Automation Anywhere uploads the purchase order into Oracle.
5. Discounts are automatically applied based on the customer agreements.
6. Agents spot-check the fulfilled order, ensuring quality control and human touch.

THE RESULTS

By adding automation to the legacy system, the fulfillment process was significantly improved, and bottlenecks in productivity, especially during the busy season, were eliminated entirely. While Automation Anywhere had the capability to create a rapid automation process that was zero touch, a unique approach was chosen to combine people and automation to create better customer satisfaction. Genpact’s process and business transformation expertise coupled with Automation Anywhere’s automation solutions created this unique, winning combination for the imaging client.

The non-invasive solution provided countless advantages such as:

• Legacy system integrated automation meant that no additional resources were required for custom programming. No code changes were needed. The entire system could run on the current management system and thus no additional resources were required for modifications.
• Faster transaction speed eliminating bottlenecks during the busy season or times when there was a reduction in manpower available.
• Significantly reduced costs due to elimination of processing duplicate orders.• Faster turnaround of the order fulfillment process, leading to faster transaction speed and increased productivity across both the imaging and trucking departments.
• Fewer human errors, especially in the verification process.