The still-lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the continuing disruptions, and the quest to enhance operations have prompted supply chain leaders to turn toward technology to redesign supply chains using automation.
Arriving at maturity, fully absorbing global realities, and growing out of obsolete practices are key priorities for organizations worldwide. In this article, we will explore some of the highest-impact use cases for automation in the global supply chain, with Atomatik as a potential game-changer.
Many of the current supply chains throughout the world were not intentionally designed, but rather grew with one industry or another, becoming overly complex and often inefficient. Like slow-moving goliaths, they were late to adopt and adapt to emerging technologies, stuck in old practices that revealed their vulnerabilities in challenging times.
Yet despite the multiple changes and crises, the main goal of a supply chain has remained consistent: to procure raw materials, shape them into final products, and deliver them to the customer, at the latter’s location and time of choice.
For the foreseeable future, automation will completely reshape most of what happens between the raw material and the finished product, especially since most products are created by more than one company in more than one country. According to Gartner, the use of technology in supply chains will not only become a strategic lever but also a differentiator.
While until recently, a sizable proportion of automation efforts were concentrated around automating warehouses and facility floors, the quest for the perfect supply chain takes automation to the next level, one of the integrated ecosystems. From information flow to back-end operations and augmented decision-making, automation and supply chain operations have become inseparable.
We’ve compiled a list of ten of the most common use cases for supply chain automation, where Atomatik’s versatility and proven business value can make a massive difference in achieving several business goals.
1. Order Processing Automation
Atomatik can automate end-to-end order processing, from order entry to order fulfillment. It can extract data from various sources, validate orders, update inventory systems, generate invoices, and initiate shipping processes, reducing manual errors and accelerating order cycle times.
2. Inventory Management
Atomatik can automate inventory management tasks such as monitoring stock levels, generating replenishment orders and reconciling inventory data across multiple systems. It can optimize inventory levels based on demand patterns, reduce stockouts, and improve overall inventory accuracy.
3. Customs compliance
A critical point in all international supply chain operations, customs compliance can also be automated. Using Atomatik, supply chain specialists can automatically generate and submit customs documents, such as commercial invoices, packing lists, and bills of landing. It can populate the required fields, and calculate duties and taxes, ensuring accuracy and consistency in document preparation.
4. Supplier Performance Management
Atomatik can automatically retrieve vendor performance data from various sources, such as supplier scorecards, quality reports, delivery performance records, or customer feedback systems. It can extract relevant data points, such as on-time delivery rates, defect rates, lead times, or customer satisfaction ratings, from different systems or databases where the information is stored.
5. Logistics and Transportation Management
Various logistics processes, like order tracking, route optimization, and documentation management are common use cases for automation. Atomatik can track shipments by extracting relevant data from emails, internal web pages, or tracking systems and updating the information in real-time. This eliminates the need for manual intervention, reduces errors, and enhances visibility throughout the supply chain.
6. Invoice Processing and Accounts Payable
Supply chain finance specialists can automate the extraction, validation, and processing of invoices using Atomatik. The solution can match invoices with purchase orders and receipts, perform invoice reconciliation, and initiate payment processes. This automation streamlines accounts payable operations, reduces processing time, and improves accuracy.
7. Returns and Reverse Logistics
Returns processing and reverse logistics operations can be fully automated with Atomatik. Our digital workers can manage return authorization, generate return labels, update inventory systems, and coordinate with suppliers and customers for return shipments. This automation enhances customer experience, speeds up the return process, and enables efficient management of returned products.
8. Compliance and Regulatory Reporting
Atomatik can automate compliance monitoring and reporting processes, ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements and industry standards. It can collect data related to product traceability, environmental sustainability, and ethical sourcing, generating accurate reports for regulatory authorities and internal stakeholders.
9. Supplier onboarding
Bringing new suppliers into the network and making sure they meet the necessary requirements can be complex. Atomatik can help by automating document verification, including business licenses, tax registrations, and certifications. It can extract relevant information from these documents and compare it against predefined rules and criteria to ensure compliance.
10. Data Integration
The exchange of information between different systems and platforms is crucial in all supply chain operations. Atomatik can automate data integration, improving accuracy, efficiency, and process flow. It can extract data from various sources, like ERPs, transform the data format, structure or layout and map the extracted data to the corresponding fields in the system.
These are just some of the most common applications of automation in supply chain operations. There are many more instances where the people behind the manufacturing and delivery of products can benefit from the help of a digital workforce.
If you want to learn more about how Atomatik can streamline your supply chain operations, book a call with our sales team.