Today’s supply chain management has evolved beyond focusing only on the physical inventories and their availability, movement, and costs.
Most software product development companies realised the significance of RPA in supply chain management processes and helping streamline supply chain business operations.
RPA is impacting positively when it comes to the proficiency and productivity of a business’s workforce and business practices.
But if you are a newbie in the market and not aware of the term RPA, here you go. RPA – A brief introduction
RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is a technology leveraged for software tools to automate repetitive, manual, clerical, time-consuming, and rule-based human tasks.
It is just like a bot that performs more quickly compared to humans can ever do solely.
These RPA software bots do not sleep, do not make any mistakes, interact with in-house apps, websites, user portals, etc.
Source: https://bit.ly/3xE0Rw3
The “Robot” in RPA is for a virtual system. It aids in automating business functions. You can divide RPA technologies into three different categories such as,
| ● Probots: It follows simple, repeatable rules for data processing.
● Knowbots: It acts and responds to users by searching their particular data from the internet. ● Chatbots: It acts and responds as virtual agents and responds to user queries in real-time. |
How does RPA automate Vendors’ and
Suppliers’ tasks?
|1. Assets Capitalization
RPA automates many tasks such as,
| ● Asset creation and posting in SAP (System, Applications, and Products in data processing) ● Approval in DMS (Distribution Management Software)
● Reporting |
Auto-generate reports monitor data across different touchpoints and include,
- Depreciation
- Comparison
- WIP report
- Shit factor update
- Fixed assets report preparation
|2. Vehicle Administration
You can get the vehicle health reports in excel files, shared folders, or emails.
You can keep it in a common local folder and sort the data according to pre-defined business rules to create a single output file.
When you keep it in a shared folder, stakeholders can easily access it or you can send mail also.
|3. Process Monitoring
Monitoring and auditing deliveries are two of the key aspects as your manufacturing business expands. RPA automates the monitoring & auditing and advances operations without additional expenditures.
Here, logistic businesses perform as a mediator among shipping transportation agents and business clients.
|4. Payroll Process
With the help of RPA, you can ease many payroll-relevant processes such as,
| ● Make a template to process salary
● Automatically create a journal voucher file and upload it to an accounting system ● Upload salary document in the HR system ● Generate a bank document and send it to the bank ● Automatically process salary in the HR system ● Create a payslip and send notifications through the HR system |
|5. Payment Service
Using RPA, it is feasible to navigate to various customer portals. It helps to discover the payment status for various invoices generated over a time period.
According to the status, you can generate a report and send it to the receivers.
Upload the invoice and the relevant files such as BOL (Bill of Lading) on the customer websites for which payment status is needed after a predefined time.
|6. Credit Card Billing
Cash rental customers use a credit card to cover and ensure rental costs payment. You can bill the credit card token on a few of the other expenses that influence after the closing of the rental agreement.
You can automate the billing process of credit cards and get all relevant costs for the customer which is not initially charged on the agreement closing such as,
| ● Tolls
● Citations ● Physical damage ● internal fund transfer |
|7. Appointment Scheduling
RPA automates appointment scheduling thoroughly. It includes
| ● Clients calling for available slots to pick up or deliver goods
● Cross verification with own systems to get PO information ● Driver availability ● Truck location |
So you can complete a particular order. On the verification, the answer gets enrolled in the record system.
|8. Inventory and Order Tracking
You will have a precise picture of shipments and inventory shifting through different points and transporters round the clock.
You can maintain real-time status on the web portal and delivery partners and customer satisfaction along with the number of shipments coming in and going out every day.
|9. Customer Service
You can sync data across loads of B2B trading partners’ systems using robotics to mitigate repetitive tasks of data updates.
It is easy to read emails from B2B partners and auto-update the information in internal scheduling techniques. It auto-updates the pick-up date and time in the system of B2B partners according to SLAs (Service Level Agreement).
|10. Delivery Scheduling
You can apply efficient on-time delivery of different parts to ensure mitigated inventory expenses.
You can thoroughly plan and implement delivery to make sure that the right parts get supplied at the right time and location including,
| ● A large group of people across 3PL (Third-Party Logistics) providers
● OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) ● Suppliers |
|11. Shipment Management
RPA makes your distribution process tenfold better across different locations. You can effortlessly get high-volume orders from distributors worldwide through fax, excel sheets, and online forms.
You can assess and extract essential details, enter information into the ERP system, and send a confirmation email after the shipment.
|12. Supplier Fuel Bills Upload
Fueling data provided by the customers will automatically be uploaded to the client accounting system to get earlier deals and discounts.
You will get customer emails in the mailbox that you can format and apply business rules according to predetermined business logic.
Your formatted files will auto-upload to the main system and inform users about the status.
|13. PO Linking to Invoice
You will receive Purchase Order (PO) details available in the accounting system with the invoices and update the stakeholders about any open PO/debit memos, annual Purchase Orders and objections.
The data of received and processed purchased orders can be auto-collected. You can auto search in the accounting system according to invoice and Purchase Orders and confirm the availability in the open Purchase Orders and debit memo queues.
Check for the correct vendor and approved amount difference, make a log for the objections, and email it to the respective stakeholders.
|14. Accident Repair Bills
You can retrieve the
| ● Accident relevant report from the client system
● Automatically validation of the costs ● Revenue account, amount and the details |
Auto elimination of various items is possible based on rigorous business rules and auto-check details of a vehicle, repairing history, and permissions.
If everything is perfect, create a bill with all the essential data and debit taxes and send it to customers through email.
|15. Vehicle Change Notice
The movement of vehicles will be auto-updated in the system for various customers and various usage according to mileage, refer and standby terms. Based on that, each customer gets billed from the effective date.
RPA helps with auto-navigation across different paths to get the vehicle information, perform calculations, and process the notice. It will be sent directly to the stakeholders for decision-making.
Other Benefits
| Billing For Leased Vehicles | Invoice Reporting |
| Notice of Assignment | Online Query for Vehicle |
| Upload Vehicle Enquiries | Create Vehicle Orders |
| Payment Session | Duplicate Checking |
| Rating Process | Miscellaneous Accounts |
| Confirmed Booking | Proof of Delivery |
| National Account Reports | Scheduling and Tracking |
| Operations Monitoring
Overnight Reports Audit Corrections |
Delivery Information Updation
Exception Handling Credit Card Charges |
| Call Centre
Quotation & Invoicing Finance, Accounting & Tax |
Lumper Updation
Sales & Collectibles Report Cargo Received and Shipped |
| Transaction Posting
Entry of New Vehicles |
Fuel consumption tracking
Fuel Statement OCR |
| Driver Pay | Gross Vehicle Weight |
| Matching the Tickets | New Customer Setup |
| Vehicle Repair Billing | Vehicle Repair Processing |
| Licence Forms | Non Voucher |
In a Nutshell
There has been a phenomenal demand for RPA (Robotic Process Automation) in supply chain management as businesses aim for reduced operational risk and costs as well as more revenue.
Robotic Process Automation is worth exploring to acknowledge the capabilities of these bots.
If you want to leverage competitive advantage, RPA is the technology that can aid with better efficiency and productivity.
So start your RPA journey and experience how it revolutionises the way you deal with your supply chain operations.
