Transforming Order Acknowledgement Processes with Automation
Domain : Logistics
A logistics company creates purchase orders (POs) and sends them to suppliers. In response,
suppliers send order acknowledgement (OA) documents, which are received in a shared mailbox or through a distribution list. Users manually extract information from these OAs to update the purchase orders, verifying the material description, price, quantity, and delivery date. Any mismatches require manual updates to the PO. This manual process was time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Challenges
- Manual Effort: The process of extracting information from OAs and updating POs was labor-intensive and prone to errors.
- Time-Consuming: Manually handling a high volume of OAs resulted in delays.
- Complexity: Managing OAs from multiple vendors across different regions added to the complexity.
Solution
To address these challenges, they implemented an RPA bot to automate the order acknowledgement
process.
- The bot scans the shared mailbox for OA documents.
- The bot extracts data from the OAs, including PO number, OA number, material description, quantity, and price.
- The bot logs into SAP and opens the corresponding PO.
- The bot compares each item in the PO with the extracted data and updates any mismatches.
- The bot updates the PO with the OA number and expected ship date provided in the OA.
Benefits
- Efficiency: Automation significantly reduced manual effort and processing time for handling OAs.
- Accuracy:The bot ensured accurate data extraction and updates, minimizing errors.
- Faster Processing:Automated handling of OAs led to quicker processing and updates of purchase orders.
- Scalability:The bot was set up to handle multiple vendors and regions, improving scalability.
