Today, enterprises are working on achieving greater business process automation to boost team productivity and customer satisfaction. To create seamless customer experiences and attain efficiency, businesses should consider using a plethora of automation tools.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an automation technology that enables enterprises to manage their end-to-end business processes efficiently. What can it do for the logistics industry? Let’s find out in this blog.
What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
RPA is a technology application that automates business processes by using structured inputs and business logic. It comes with several tools that businesses can maximize to manage data, process transactions, and generate responses.
How Does RPA Work?
RPA utilizes robots, bots, and software to automate processes, reduce costs and inefficiencies, and improve task speed and performance. It plays a critical role in the process design evolution and enhancements.
RPA can be used in several ways, from simple rule-based executions to more complex tasks. This technology mimics and automates basic human activities, including clicking buttons and entering data into spreadsheets.
RPA records the specific steps humans make to complete a task and copies them for similar tasks in the future. Machine-driven automation can deal with mundane and time-consuming tasks, allowing humans to focus on more strategic functions.
What are the Benefits of RPA for Businesses?
Enterprises can benefit significantly from automating their business processes. Let’s take a look at some of the promising advantages of RPA for businesses.
Reduces errors
Humans are likely to make mistakes, and RPA works to address this. One of the significant benefits of RPA is its ability to eliminate processing errors.
Since it is not a turnkey solution, RPA needs training, testing, and governance. However, you need to optimize and map the processes accurately to reap this benefit.
Boosts productivity
Robots can click and navigate through a screen and calculate in a couple of seconds. What usually takes hours for employees to complete, such as monthly reports, can be done in 20 minutes with RPA.
While this benefit isn’t enough to replace employees with robots, it brings actual advantages to businesses like improved productivity. By helping workers become more productive, your business can get tasks done faster and reduce unnecessary costs.
Increases efficiency
RPA software doesn’t take vacation leaves, which means it can work 24/7. Generally, an RPA robot can accomplish the tasks of five or even more full-time workers.
It can complete activities in a shorter period or get more things done in the same amount of time. In a nutshell, not only does RPA help improve productivity but efficiency as well.
Enhances data analytics
Analyzing big data can be a painstakingly long and taxing process. It’s no longer surprising why many companies are leveraging RPA for data analysis.
RPA automates data analysis, helping you to get insights much faster. As a result, your staff can take on more pressing matters and feel more accomplished.
Improves customer service
Many companies today are struggling with meeting their customers’ highly varied demands. With RPA, robots handle mundane and repetitive tasks, allowing employees to deliver outstanding customer service.
With skilled workers having time for more critical tasks like addressing customer concerns, your business can improve client satisfaction. The enhanced data analytics can also help your business understand your customers’ requirements better.
7 Practical Uses of RPA in Logistics
Now that we’ve discovered how RPA can benefit your business, let’s dig deeper into its practical uses for logistics.
1. Scheduling and tracking shipments
Most logistics firms utilize web portals to give customers visibility on inventory and shipping status. But the thing is, these portals typically don’t link to internal shipment scheduling and tracking systems.
As a result, customer service representatives (CSRs) need to rekey data manually, which takes time and increases error risks. With RPA, the process is done automatically, allowing CSRs to attend to more crucial customer service matters.
2. Monitoring order status
Third-party logistics providers typically deal with dozens of payment processors, suppliers, and carriers, which increases the required manual data entry. For instance, your staff may need to acquire data like PRO numbers, and track and bill information from a partner’s system
Then, your staff would need to rekey this information into your internal and customer system to update the data. RPA works to automatically and accurately access and capture data from a carrier’s system using a software robot.
3. Creating invoices
RPA in logistics can also expedite invoicing by automating the entire order-to-cash process. Once your internal systems and customers’ portals are integrated, RPA bots can automatically extract shipping information. They can also attach invoices, PODs, and other files.
Even better, updating these transactions to the customer portals only takes seconds compared to hours or days when done manually. Best of all, you can guarantee accuracy and save time.
4. Forecasting and planning inventory
Companies partnering with logistics firms need to forecast inventory needs to plan for supply and demand successfully. But to do this, you have to analyze big data from several sources, both internally and externally.
The possibility of committing calculation mistakes is likely. Plus, it takes up a huge amount of time and resources.
With programmed RPA bots, you can collect and calculate data for accurate forecasting. You can even program these bots to detect trends and analyze previous data to create more comprehensive reports.
5. Managing purchase orders
RPA bots also help eliminate a lot of manual input and repetitive, time-consuming tasks. Such tasks include converting purchase requests into purchase orders (POs) and dispatching them for approval.
RPA bots can review POs, examining specific criteria or comparing them to related invoices. These bots can then validate and route conforming POs and flag those that don’t so they can be evaluated manually.
6. Managing freight
For logistics companies, it is vital to move freight from origin to destination in the most efficient way possible. RPA is also beneficial in optimizing freight management, ensuring correct quantities and on-time delivery at the lowest possible costs.
With RPA, you can automate tasks related to planning, appointment scheduling, and loading. What’s more, you can automate route optimization and freight accounting using RPA.
7. Processing refunds and returns
Processing dozens of returns and refunds manually can get overwhelming, and it’s time-consuming, too. RPA in logistics helps automate these workflows, reducing the demand on your staff.
By maximizing strategic planning and rule-based automation, you can reduce your team’s stress. Apart from this advantage, you can also accelerate the process of returns and refunds.
In the age of digital transformation, businesses need to know the available technologies they can leverage. This is crucial for surviving and thriving during uncertain times.
RPA in logistics comes with several powerful benefits like enhanced team productivity and efficiency and improved customer satisfaction. By utilizing innovative technologies such as RPA, your company can weather unforeseen challenges today and in the future.
Get started with your digital transformation. Visit our website and discover how Yondu can help your business become future-ready with innovative technology.
