Planning a supply chain takes a long time since the consumer’s level of demand, as well as supply, has increased. In addition, the information available in real time has increased at a vertiginous speed, which makes the competition even tougher.
That’s why, nowadays machines perform manual and tedious processes as well as repetitive tasks , which is the automation.
This concept is defined as a self – managing tool to perform administrative tasks, based on fixed or variable factors. In the same way, it has multiple functions and advantages such as:
- Offering permanent visibility.
- Give the possibility of developing schedules for preventive maintenance.
- Generate stock alerts.
- Categorize products according to their characteristics.
- Define the tax rate and price for each product.
- Generate reports on any action or eventuality.
- Create expiration alerts for each product.
- Manage the third parties involved in each area.
- Generate raw material and fuel purchase alerts.
- Integrates with ERP.
- Keep a detailed record of all actions carried out on the platform.
Automation is quite useful to improve decision – making and guarantee an optimal provision of the service. It is esential since companies grow faster and, therefore, are handling a massive volume of customers and orders.
After making the investment to automate processes, operating costs are reduced since automated systems execute tasks and handle information faster. In addition to this, automation also optimizes the company’s supply processes, helping to ensure customer satisfaction.
Purpose and advantages.
For what was previously exposed, it is concluded that automation improves the response capacity and speeds up the processes. It also analyzes information from multiple sources, which speeds up different processes, which results in saving time and resources. Likewise, an automated distribution system optimizes delivery times and, therefore, guarantees full customer satisfaction.
Planning cycles are obsolete, so automated planning offers a continuous cycle, and improves accuracy and efficiency by using intelligent systems. It also helps lighten the load on the different areas of the company by reducing distribution costs and increasing profitability.
It also helps identifying risky points in supply chain planning and the operations that can switch from manual to automatic. After finishing this review, having the necessary information, it is possible to apply algorithms to improve the accuracy of administrative processes.
Once this automation process ends, it is posible to generate continuous reports, eliminating the need for planning cycles, facilitating decision – making.
Automated planning significantly improves the service and reduces supply chain and inventory management costs. On the other hand, the use of algorithms helps to schedule actions such as equipment maintenance and the purchase of certain supplies.
Its main advantages are:
- Increase of the efficiency to execute tasks.
- Decrease in energy consumption, which contributes to the preservation of the environment and sustainability.
- Reinforcement of quality control by detecting failures that, otherwise, would be undetectable.
- Detection of bottlenecks, which allows to avoid them or, if possible, overcome them.
Likewise, it is very useful in the transition from a reactive program to a predictive one to supervise the equipment and detect problems in a timely manner in order to schedule maintenance if necessary. Additionally, the fact that it is possible to schedule tasks implies that the system can execute them during the night and early morning (outside working hours) or even on weekends and holidays without the need for human intervention.
Unlike traditional systems, which don’t work under central planning, automated planning works centrally, which also helps reduce operating costs. In the same way, it is very useful to establish a center of excellence that defines the vision and general direction, in addition to integrating the contributions of experts from the different areas of the company aligning all this information with the company’s digital strategy.
Precisely because of this characteristic, it is essential that the information is centralized so that anyone can access it when required. In order to get the most out of automated supply chain planning, however, it is necessary to acquire an advanced data analysis and process design tool, as well as adapting the organizational structures.
It is precisely to satisfy this need that artificial intelligence enters the scene.
Artificial intelligence.
Technology is a key factor for any corporate process and in the case of automation, the role of artificial intelligence is crucial.
To understand its importance, it is essential to keep in mind that artificial intelligence has three main areas of work:
- Robotics.
- Knowledge – based systems.
- Natural language processing.
The areas of importance, for the particular case of companies, are knowledge – based systems and natural language processing, being the knowledge – based systems particularly useful for analyzing large volumes of information since, in addition, they have the ability to understand this information and generate a recommendation, as well as predict results based on the available information.
Knowledge – based systems:
Analysis and interpretation systems
Make interpretations based on the information obtained in order to provide an explanation or getting conclusions.
Prediction systems
Used to generate forecasts, within which the role of predictive analytics is extremely important.
Diagnosis and debugging systems
Mostly used to detect faults.
Control systems
Used to analyze the data provided by the sensors using feedback techniques.
Design systems
Provide support and assistance to both designers and engineers.
Planning systems
Quickly establish plans to perform complex tasks.
Teaching systems
Evaluate the level of knowledge of the students, adjusting the educational process to their needs.
On the other hand, the techniques of natural language processing (NLP) translate human language for computer systems, which is why it also constitutes an essential element within the automation process.
It is important to notice that, although in some cases it is even enough to use existing ERP systems to automate tasks, in others it is necessary to implement process automation software.
Aspects to consider.
Automated planning, like traditional planning processes, relies on data addition and elimination processes, which require intensive monitoring that includes analyzes and evaluations.
Additionally, by having real – time information of the consumers demand, constant adjustments to the plans are necessary, usually without considering the failures that may have. Therefore, these adjustments cause future problems that result in more costs and service interruptions.
In order to guarantee the correct execution of the automated planning, it is necessary that machines perform planning tasks in the same way that an employee would do it, thus being able to work without human supervision.
It is also very important to know which activities and operations can be fully automated and which can only be partially automated while maintaining a certain level of human intervention. Activities such as short – term demand projections can be fully automated; the planning of sales and operations in the medium and long term, as well as the management of supply and demand risks, on the other hand, still have to be automated only partially since they are still in the process of development and experimentation.
At last, it is also important to keep in mind that, in certain cases, either the technological resources or the information required are not available, in most of the cases, for economic reasons.
In order to reduce the technology gap, companies have to innovate, experiment and often reinvent themselves, and this is why automated planning is fundamental to ensure companies keep up – to – date and at the vanguard.
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