How (if at all) have you used RPA to address logistics challenges? Has it been successful?
2.1k views2 Upvotes1 Comment
Sort by:
Director of Supply Chain in Healthcare and Biotech2 years ago
We have begun to explore RPA solutions in various ways. First, we have automated order creation for shipping materials between our internal and manufacturing facilities to our distribution centers so that we don't have people manually creating those transactions in our ERP system.
Second, we did a small proof of concept about how to read customs documentation and digitize data for our receiving purposes as well as audit and compliance purposes. That project was successful, but it triggered us to look at a different solution which was more of an EDI-based solution instead of RPA, so we're using more EDI in that space instead of RPA. In most of our sites, we use EDIs from third-party suppliers that help us facilitate the receiving of raw materials and components. We're also leveraging EDI between our Merck sites to facilitate our financial supply chains and automating some of the receiving processes for Merck products, specifically within our manufacturing sites upstream from the finished goods facilities and packaging facilities.
We’re also now exploring the use of RPA for the inbound receiving transactions when Merck material arrives at our Merck facilities to automate the transactions that our warehouse personnel would do when we go through that receiving process.
While not specifically RPA, we have done a great deal in terms of using IoT devices to trigger when there are abnormal conditions during transit, whether temperature-related, location excursion related, etc., and we get triggers automatically when abnormal conditions occur. It's not exactly RPA, but it's in the same vein. We've been very successful and saved well over one million doses of medicines and vaccines that normally would have been thrown away because we could not justify their quality release due to a temperature excursion, which is precisely tied to our corporate mission of protecting public health, because of that IoT information.
1
Content you might like
How strong or weak is your IT department’s brand within your organization?
Very strong
Strong100%
Neither strong nor weak
Weak
Very weak
Unsure
View Results
When you need visibility into your team's work, how do you stay informed without micromanaging?
Do you think AI technology will take away jobs?
Yes51%
No (instead creates opportunities)39%
Neutral10%
View Results
What does the blueprint look like at your org for a minimal viable organizational structure needed to run an AI governance program?
We have begun to explore RPA solutions in various ways. First, we have automated order creation for shipping materials between our internal and manufacturing facilities to our distribution centers so that we don't have people manually creating those transactions in our ERP system.
Second, we did a small proof of concept about how to read customs documentation and digitize data for our receiving purposes as well as audit and compliance purposes. That project was successful, but it triggered us to look at a different solution which was more of an EDI-based solution instead of RPA, so we're using more EDI in that space instead of RPA. In most of our sites, we use EDIs from third-party suppliers that help us facilitate the receiving of raw materials and components. We're also leveraging EDI between our Merck sites to facilitate our financial supply chains and automating some of the receiving processes for Merck products, specifically within our manufacturing sites upstream from the finished goods facilities and packaging facilities.
We’re also now exploring the use of RPA for the inbound receiving transactions when Merck material arrives at our Merck facilities to automate the transactions that our warehouse personnel would do when we go through that receiving process.
While not specifically RPA, we have done a great deal in terms of using IoT devices to trigger when there are abnormal conditions during transit, whether temperature-related, location excursion related, etc., and we get triggers automatically when abnormal conditions occur. It's not exactly RPA, but it's in the same vein. We've been very successful and saved well over one million doses of medicines and vaccines that normally would have been thrown away because we could not justify their quality release due to a temperature excursion, which is precisely tied to our corporate mission of protecting public health, because of that IoT information.