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4 Steps to a successful supply chain automation.
1. Identify opportunities for automation: Analyzing and evaluating current business processes is the first step towards identifying opportunities for automation. A workflow analysis will allow for a thorough review of daily operations with cipf-es.org the goal of identifying obsolete practices and areas of improvement. The goal of this step is to streamline manual operations to improve efficiency and use automation, where appropriate.
2. Map opportunities to process in supply chain automation: Once a workflow analysis has been completed for all business processes and priorities have been established based on the cost to the business, opportunities for automation can be determined.
Potential opportunities can include:
- Compliance challenges
- Security issues
- Employee utilization
- Customer service issues
- Manual tasks
- Work delays
3. Plan for success in supply chain automation: Once steps 1 and 2 are complete, it is time to create a comprehensive plan that reflects the new processes where automation will drive desired improvements. Here, it is important to automate processes that will maximize the impact on resources and costs. Technology, specifically, is key to an automation project, with ERP software providing seamless automation and integration with core business processes, including customer orders, scheduling operation, and recording inventory.
4. Evaluate: A successful supply chain automation process includes an evaluation strategy that is developed in tandem with an implementation strategy. Identifying benchmarks for each area of automation will help determine what success should entail. Factors such as employee productivity, material costs and overheads, operating costs, labor costs and sales figures should be considered when evaluating supply chain processes.