- AgriFood
- Operations
Automating the creation of assembly manuals using UiPath
Employees at a large manufacturer spend a lot of time creating assembly manuals by hand. This causes time-pressure and delays in tight project schedules. We offer a UiPath-based RPA solution that fully automates this process. Our solution significantly reduces throughput times and the number of errors.
Use case: Creating assembly manuals by hand
At the operations department of a large manufacturer, the assembly of machines is part of the order-to-delivery system. Workers use a manual to prepare orders for delivery. Operators create these order manuals by hand. To create one final assembly manual, operators need to combine and print information from various sources such as Excel files, SAP, and Oracle Agile PLM.
This process is very time-consuming and requires unnecessary FTEs, as all of the work is done manually. Such non-value-adding tasks limit operators to reach their full potential at work. In addition, the resulting time-pressure often causes delay in tight project schedules. That is why the assembly of order folders serves as a perfect case for Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
Our solution: Digital workforce saves 1892 hours annually
To automate assembly of order folders, a digital workforce was built using the RPA software UiPath Studio. Our goal was to provide a fully automated solution that reduces throughput times and is less sensitive to human errors. We created a robot that performs all steps securely without the input of a human operator. Our automation was created to perform the following steps:
- Receive multiple Excel files with data of each order number
- Find correct order in SAP by filling in data from Excel sheets
- Print order sheet, bill of material, and nameplate of the machine (all in PDF)
- Extract drawing number from order sheet
- Use this number to find drawings of the machine in Agile PLM
- Print blueprint of the machine (PDF)
- Combine all printed files into one final order manual
- Output order manual on a shared drive
This robot is able to fully automate (100%) the process and save over 1892 hours on a yearly basis. We were able to save up nearly 1 FTE, which can be spent on more value-adding tasks instead. By the automation of the complete process, we also reduced downtime between processes and achieved an error reduction of 90%.
Our RPA solution is effective, efficient, and reliable. Workers can stop wasting time on the manual assembly of order folders and refocus on work that matters.
