Digital transformation has been playing a vital role in supply chain management. It has changed the way enterprises conduct operations, deliver products and fulfill orders. End-to-end supply chain management operations are being revolutionized by RPA.

How Does RPA Relate to SCM?

The tasks that were once performed manually in SCM are being automated and accelerated by RPA. As part of the ongoing digital transformation, RPA minimizes inefficiency across businesses and defines the business supply chain process. RPA can be applied to integrate and automate data-driven activities also.

RPA offers benefits like decreasing long-term costs, stabilizing labor and utilization, reducing the error rate, minimizing the frequency of inventory checks, increasing worker productivity, enhancing access to dangerous locations, and optimizing, selecting, sorting, and storing times.

There are many supply chain courses in India that can be beneficial in increasing knowledge on the subject. However, supply chain online IIM courses are the most popular. In short, RPA eliminates the manual input of purchase orders and other administrative tasks, responds to supply chain requests for proposal quotes and questions, and creates seamless integration with other supply chain systems and tools.

Creating a Flawless SCM Process-The Benefits

By deploying a smart software bot RPA  automates common operational processes throughout the business . These bots act as intelligent agents that can learn how specific repetitive tasks are performed, thereby eliminating human error and reducing overhead. A breakdown of the benefits of RPA is as follows:

• Order Processing and Payments

Order placement and processing essentially consists of three phases:

1. Selection of a particular product
2. Confirming the order
3. Processing and maintaining payments

Information or data can be directly injected into the company database, payment gateways can process the required amount, auto-generated email and text message confirmation for the confirmation of orders can be sent out by an efficient solution.

Using a network platform to connect the enterprise supply chain to suppliers and financial institutions and then adding  Artificial Intelligence and/or Machine Learning can help organizations administer touchless invoice processing, improve labor productivity and efficiency,  and improve the supplier’s access to capital.

• Planning of Supply and Demand

Planning is an important component of any supply chain. This is true with regard to predicting future requirements of supply and demand. With RPA organizations are able to automate the majority of responsibilities like gathering and merging the necessary information from various sources, transforming the final data into a plan and providing the necessary communication to partners, running data cleansing tools, etc.

A combination of statistics and machine learning is applied by demand planning. Machine learning is applied with the technique called time-series combination. All engines are run and combined for each item. The best combination for the forecast time- series is selected by the machine learning process. The most effective,as of now, is the selection of combined statistical models.

Human intervention is now limited to handling robotics sessions for running simulations, holding supply and accuracy improvements, and reallocation of labor to more complex processes. Additional information on the subject is available on enrolment to supply chain courses in India or supply chain online IIM courses.

• Automation of Inventory Management

Repetitive tasks such as demand prediction, inventory allocation, stock replenishment, assortment and financial plans, seeding, markdown calculations, etc. can be easily taken care of by machine learning / artificial intelligence-powered tools. There are many supply chain courses in India that give in-depth knowledge on the subject which is one of the pillars of the supply chain.

• Warehouse Management

A Warehouse Management System(WMS) ensures that no inventory errors occur during the receiving, picking up and shipping process,  thereby placing both process control and auditing in place. WMS requires the same validation of item ID and quantity to complete the task. RPA powered tools enable a reduction in human inventory errors. COVID has increased the need for automation within the warehouse. In today’s scenario and given the uncertainty of the future it is advisable to gain further insight into the subject with the help of supply chain online IIM courses.

• Risk Mitigation and Procurement

Manual processes for risk mitigation and requirement increase lead-time reduced flexibility, and hinder agility. By adopting a network solution that incorporates RPF organizations are able to automate compliance tasks and reduce both time and labor. Every transaction consists of trade content and compliance data. Adding these elements digitally increases process velocity. It also improves profitability by delivering on time through an increased sales process and better cost management. Buffer inventory levels, as well as detention and demurrage costs, are reduced on account of visibility which ensures that shipments are moving as expected.

The Challenges of Using RPA in SCM

Supply chain courses in India and specifically supply chain online IIM courses clearly specify the challenges of using RPA in RPM. Hurdles that may be encountered in   implementing effective robotic process automation in the supply chain include:

• Ensuring data is captured and managed in a structured way so that efficient use of the information can be made.
• Neglecting changes to business processes elsewhere can significantly impact supply chain operations.
• RPA must be implemented in good time and not in a hurry. If it is not integrated properly with business processes it is likely to create significant projects and operational overheads that are financially challenging.
• Improper change management or design will result in erroneous outputs that are hard to track down and resolve.
• Every aspect of supply chain development should be inbuilt with RPA to ensure proper operations and integration with other tools and platforms.

What is a Supply Chain Management program?

There are several supply chain management courses in India. These courses are an introduction to the fascinating world of supply chain management. On completion of the program, the participant would have a deeper understanding of the challenges that organizations are facing in today’s global economic scenario. Immersive live online sessions help in understanding how organizations are adopting exponential technologies and moving away from traditional operations and supply chain models towards scalable and customizable strategies. Such a course would help you transform your business operations to next-generation strategies and would offer an analytic approach that increases efficiencies and disrupts processes.

More Information:

How to become a Supply Chain Manager?

Best High-Paying Jobs In Supply Chain Management

7 Must-Have Skills to Become a Thriving Supply Chain Manager

What are the Career Opportunities in Operations and Supply Chain Management?