Enhance Productivity through Automation

Manufacturing organizations face continuous pressure to enhance productivity and cut costs in today’s fast-paced business environment.

The process of workflow automation utilizes software to automatically carry out routine and repetitive tasks, including tasks like data entry, file processing, and report creation. The objective is to simplify processes, diminish mistakes, and conserve time and resources. Workflow automation can be employed across all operational departments, spanning from production and quality control to safety and maintenance.

By streamlining operations and reducing the time and resources needed to complete tasks, workflow automation proves crucial in achieving these goals.

Let us examine the ways in which manufacturing organizations can enhance productivity and cost-efficiency by implementing workflow automation.

What is workflow automation?

Workflow automation involves streamlining tasks, documents, and information in work-related activities to operate independently based on established business rules. By regularly implementing this type of automation, productivity can be enhanced in routine operations.

Workflow is a sequence of tasks required to accomplish a particular task. By implementing workflow automation, the responsibility for executing those tasks is transferred from individuals to a computer program.

In order to automate a workflow, an organization starts by identifying the tasks involved in the job. Then, it develops the rules and logic that dictate how these tasks should be carried out. Lastly, the organization programs the software with the predetermined business rules and logic.

The rules and logic consist of if-then statements which function as instructions for the program to determine actions and task progression. By utilizing those rules and logic, the software executes a sequence of tasks autonomously, eliminating the need for human involvement.

What is workflow automation?

Workflow automation is a method used to enable tasks, documents, and information to move independently throughout work-related activities, following specific business rules. Once implemented, this automation should be a simple and recurring process aimed at enhancing daily productivity.

Workflow is a sequence of actions required to accomplish a task. Workflow automation transitions the execution of those actions from individuals to a software program.

The first step in automating a workflow is for an organization to identify the tasks involved in the job. Following that, the organization establishes the rules and logic that dictate the execution of those tasks. Lastly, the pre-defined business rules and logic are programmed into the software.

The rules and logic consist of a series of if-then statements, functioning as instructions to direct the program on its actions and progression from one task to another. By utilizing these rules and logic, the software executes a sequence of tasks from beginning to end, eliminating the need for human intervention in the process.

Enhance Productivity through Automation

Eliminate Repeatable Processes

Manufacturing organizations can enhance productivity through workflow automation, as it eliminates time-consuming manual and repetitive processes. This involves automating routine tasks like data entry, project management, and report generation, enabling employees to dedicate their attention to more intricate decision-making activities that yield greater value.

Employees can concentrate on delivering insights and value by automating monotonous and repeated tasks. Software takes over the administrative duties, enhancing both workflow management efficiency and compliance. Consequently, the process speeds up, leading to increased employee involvement.

Faster Task Completion
Improved Efficiency
Better Resource Utilization
Accelerated Project Completion

Reduce Errors

Manufacturing organizations must balance increased productivity with regulatory compliance. While cutting corners and skipping steps may speed up processes, it can also lead to hazardous defects and safety concerns.

By automating tasks, errors and omissions can be reduced, ensuring that tasks are consistently performed correctly. This, in turn, diminishes the need for rework, defects, and decreases the time it takes to close maintenance tickets.

Standardized Processes
Elimination of Manual Data Entry
Reduced Complexity
Real-time Monitoring
Improved Collaboration
Data Analytics

Save Time & Money

The utilization of workflow automation can lead to cost reduction through the elimination of waste, reduction of errors, and enhancement of efficiency. Through the automation of regular tasks, manufacturers can save time and decrease labor-intensive, manual processes’ costs. Additionally, automation aids manufacturers in waste elimination, perpetual improvement, and increased efficiency.

Reduced Labor Costs
Improved Resource Utilization
Reduced Errors and Rework
Faster Time-to-Market
Improved Equipment Utilization
Improved Quality

Enhanced Collaboration

Manufacturers can enhance communication and collaboration, as well as decision-making and operations efficiency, by automating the information flow between various systems and teams.

The collaboration between different departments and teams in a manufacturing organization can be enhanced through the use of workflow automation.

Centralized System for Tracking and Managing Tasks
Shared Access to Data and Information
Real-time Monitoring and Communication
Improved Communication and Feedback Loop
Improved Visibility into Workflow Processes
Enhanced Cross-functional Collaboration

Importance of workflow automation

There are several reasons why workflows should be automated whenever possible, one of which is to attain quicker operations and enhance the efficiency and accuracy of automated tasks.

There are other reasons why workflow automation is important.

High-value tasks. By relieving workers of mundane, low-value tasks, automation frees them to work on higher-value, nonautomated tasks that only humans can handle.
Savings. Increased productivity generates cost savings.
Visibility. The workflow mapping that’s used to program automation software creates visibility into the processes being automated. That gives an organization a top-down view of its workflows that can help it remove outdated or redundant tasks that drain time and resources.
Communication. That increased visibility in turn can improve employee and interdepartmental communication and coordination, further enhancing efficiency and eliminating bottlenecks .
Customer service advantages. By automating responses to customer inquiries, organizations can improve customer service and customer satisfaction. Of the nearly 300 executives surveyed for the 2021 Global Customer Success Survey from software maker SmartKarrot, 84% saidÂ automation is important or extremely important for their customer service operations.
Product quality. With human error eliminated, overall product quality improves.
Performance tracking. By digitalizing the tasks within a workflow, automation can track performance of the workflow from end to end. This enables an organization to easily review how well its business operates.

These attributes contribute significantly to an organization’s competitiveness in the digital era, as highlighted by the Zapier report. They specifically mentioned that 88% of SMBs surveyed acknowledged the role of automation in empowering their companies to compete effectively against larger entities.

Benefits of workflow automation in business processes

The benefits of workflow automation comprise the subsequent advantages:

reduced workflow cycles;
less need for manual labor and handling of products;
better adherence to compliance rules and regulations;
more visibility into workflow tasks;
increased ability to identify and remove operational bottlenecks;
optimized customer experience , satisfaction and service;
improved employee satisfaction, resulting from the elimination of repetitive tasks;
real-time insights provided by workflow analysis tools such as dashboards and key performance indicators ( KPIs );
opportunities to engage in the continual improvement of workflows due to the increased operational insights;
better workload management due to the increased operational insights;
better internal and external communications and coordination;
more accountability for who is responsible for what because each step in the business workflow is clearly assigned;
more employee time for high-value tasks;
increased productivity;
lower operational costs;
higher workflow accuracy as automation removes the potential for human error;
improved ability to scale because workflow automation can be adjusted as demand goes up and down; and
more efficient task management, with the inclusion of dashboards, calendars and other tools that can be made available through workflow automation software tools .

Workflow automation examples

Workflow automation is capable of handling four specific tasks as illustrated below.

organizing document approval and signing;
moving employees, partners and customers through processes;
facilitating invoicing and other accounting- and sales-related processes; and
responding to customer inquiries and requests.

Uses of workflow automation

Workflow automation is beneficial for organizations in all industries. Additionally, it can be employed in different departments and specialized areas like facilitating DevOps workflows within the IT department.

The applicability of workflow automation in industries and departments is illustrated by the following examples.

In the healthcare sector, workflow automation is used by medical providers to create staff work schedules and on-call rotations. Additionally, these tools assist in patient admission, discharge, and the transfer of electronic health records. By implementing workflow automation, healthcare workers can concentrate on critical tasks such as providing direct patient care, without getting burdened by administrative processes.

Workflow automation is utilized in the legal industry or within an enterprise’s legal function to automate tasks such as billing, inputting client details, submitting and monitoring contract reviews, and handling case deadlines.

Automation is utilized by IT departments to provide support to DevOps teams and various other groups. It is employed to automate the coordination of the software development pipeline, data monitoring, data collection, code development testing, service requests, as well as the setup of new accounts and the execution of tests and code. To illustrate, a DevOps team might automate the testing process of a fresh e-commerce application.

Workflow automation is utilized by financial businesses and groups in an enterprise for tasks such as data entry and account approval processes. Additionally, within the enterprise, it is also used to automate activities like paid time off requests and salary adjustments.

By following a step-by-step approach, the utilization of workflow automation in marketing can assist in automating brand management and campaign activities to occur in a predetermined sequence.

Sales departments frequently utilize automation to approve proposals and quotes, introduce salespeople to leads obtained from website interactions, and generate a task list following a scheduled meeting between a lead and a sales representative.

The process of incident response is made more efficient by the speeding up of workflow automation in cybersecurity.

The automation of human resources enables the seamless execution of various HR tasks, including the approval of time sheets, employee onboarding and offboarding, and the management of personnel changes.

Operations involve a variety of tasks that can be automated using workflow automation, such as compiling reports and assigning tasks.