Imagine a supply chain where repetitive, time-consuming tasks are handled seamlessly by virtual robots, freeing up human workers to focus on more value-added activities. This isn’t science fiction — it’s the reality made possible by RPA in supply chain, that is, robotic process automation (RPA).
In the transportation industry, there is an abundance of time-consuming tasks such as data entry, shipment tracking, and invoice processing. RPA excels at streamlining these types of processes, adding much-needed efficiencies for logistics while reducing errors and lowering costs.
What is RPA?
Robotic process automation — RPA — automates complex workflows by mimicking human actions, such as logging into applications, moving files, and extracting data from documents.
Human experts with detailed process knowledge encode decision-making into systems, and RPA uses this knowledge to execute tasks. RPA in the supply chain benefits operations by continuously examining what is happening, the likely outcome, and whether intervention is required to achieve the best result as determined by stated rules.
IBM explains how RPA handles the tasks that bog down employees by infusing “AI with capabilities of integrating and interfacing with applications in a low-code manager to take those desired actions.”
Optimizing Transportation through RPA
The Transportation Management System (TMS) is often the tool that pulls together transportation data from many systems, even within a single customer account. These multiple systems often contain the same data but perhaps in different formats. This becomes problematic if the various data fields are not standardized and normalized before being imported into the TMS.
Automation technologies such as RPA help the transportation industry overcome these challenges and can significantly enhance efficiency and reduce operational costs. Automating redundant and repetitive tasks like data entry, scheduling, and routing can free up human resources for more value-added activities. By combining RPA-driven data visibility and operational execution into a single platform, we eliminate bouncing back and forth between different systems and enable your team to be more effective and productive, adding value to your bottom line.
RPA Streamlines Freight Claims Management
Freight claims don’t directly boost your bottom line, but efficient management is crucial to keep operational costs under control. Automating the freight claims process frees up resources, reduces manual errors, and speeds up resolution times. For example, RPA quickly assesses claims data, identifies trends, and predicts which carriers will likely have claims, allowing for proactive measures to prevent future issues.
Dynamic Routing and Fulfillment
RPA ensures that freight orders are routed to the best fulfillment centers, leading to quicker and more efficient deliveries. It can tie multiple systems together to optimize the entire fulfillment chain, making real-time adjustments based on disruptions such as weather events or capacity changes, thereby minimizing delays and improving delivery accuracy.
Optimize Inventory Management
RPA improves inventory management by automating data collection and updates, providing real-time visibility into stock levels. It facilitates better forecasting and reordering processes, ensuring inventory is maintained optimally. This automation helps companies stay competitive by reducing stockouts and excess inventory, cutting costs, and improving service levels.
RPA Eliminates Waste by Reducing Manual Interventions
Without the need for human intervention, RPA in supply chain allows you to track goods and manage check calls to provide real-time updates on shipment status. Limiting manual interventions reduces the risk of human error and allows customers to access accurate information about their shipments, improving transparency and customer experience. Additionally, it supports proactive planning by notifying customers of delivery schedules and potential delays.
Predictive Maintenance and Exception Management
Using predictive analytics, RPA can forecast maintenance needs and potential disruptions, triggering automated responses to manage these exceptions efficiently. The benefits include rerouting shipments, adjusting schedules, and notifying relevant parties, thereby maintaining smooth operations and reducing downtime. It also enhances the ability to handle freight exceptions dynamically, ensuring unforeseen events don’t delay shipments.
One of the most significant benefits of RPA in supply chain management is mitigating disruptions. If an issue occurs, the system adjusts in real time to account for any changes, notify pertinent parties, provide issue details, and recommend actions.
Calculate your potential Saving While Using an enterprise TMS
Transforming Transportation with RPA, Data & Analytics, Machine Learning + AI
Our recent webinar Analytics, Machine Learning, and AI for Transportation examines how technology transforms transportation management operations to provide more efficient, reliable, and cost-effective logistics management.
MerrcuryGate Chief Innovation Officer Steve Blough explains, “As we start to get that data out there and do the machine learning to understand the patterns that exist on all those variables, the system can start to make logical recommendations of actions and achieve or even avoid what it’s predicting will happen. The tools today allow you to get that information back in a natural language kind of thing that tells and describes to you what the recommendation is.”
Bringing all this technology together helps execute strategies and make better decisions to set the vision and capitalize on growth opportunities. The systems learn over and over to define relationships and make logical recommendations. As a result, RPA in supply chain provides opportunities for more accurate forecasting, faster decision-making, and disruption mitigation to improve the overall effectiveness of your supply chain operations and maximize how you use your labor.
Watch and listen to our webinar to learn more about how technology is shaping the transportation industry.
