Here’s an interesting fact: the term “manufacturing” originates from the Latin word meaning “making things by hand.” This concept has drastically evolved over time—Latin is no longer in common use, and the era of manual mass production is rapidly becoming history.

Today, factories are increasingly automated, with machines handling time- and resource-intensive tasks on the assembly line, while human operators manage the process. The industrial automation market is expected to grow at a rate of over 8% annually worldwide, and the number of industrial robots is increasing by 14% each year.

However, manufacturing encompasses much more than just production on the factory floor. Critical non-production processes such as supply chain management, customer engagement, inventory planning, sales, and order processing are just as vital to business success. Why not streamline these processes with the same automated approach?

This is where Robotic Process Automation (RPA) comes into play. In this post, we’ll explore the main operational challenges in manufacturing, the specific applications of RPA in the industry, and the advantages it offers to all stakeholders. This will help you begin your journey towards fully automating your manufacturing operations.

Learn more about how RPA is transforming other industries like insurance, logistics, real estate, retail, and consulting automation.

The Challenges Facing Modern Manufacturing

In recent years, industries, including manufacturing, have faced significant setbacks from supply chain disruptions, the pandemic, the great resignation, demographic shifts, and inflation. Additionally, businesses must continuously navigate the ongoing challenges of everyday operations. What are these challenges?

While these challenges may seem daunting, the good news is that RPA implementation can help you overcome them.

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management (SCM) often consists of smaller, repetitive tasks that are easily automated, leading to faster ROI. RPA in SCM offers significant benefits, particularly in improving visibility. Shipments are tracked in real-time, and updates are automatically shared across the entire supply chain. By automating tasks such as handling paperwork, filling in delivery forms, and searching through messages for data, RPA frees up employees to focus on more critical aspects, making coordination much smoother.

One of the significant advantages of RPA-driven SCM is enhanced visibility. Shipments are tracked in real-time, and status updates are automatically sent across all supply chain links. Coordinating SCM also gets much more straightforward when your employees don’t need to handle all the paperwork manually, fill in delivery forms, and go through piles of messages in search of necessary data, having handed these tasks over to bots instead.

Bill of Materials

The bill of materials (BOM) is a crucial document in manufacturing, detailing the raw materials, parts, and assemblies required to produce the final product. It also includes specifications like part numbers, units of measure, origin, and manufacturer details.

Creating a BOM is a meticulous process, and even small mistakes can lead to significant losses in time, money, and resources.

RPA simplifies and enhances the accuracy of BOM creation. When integrated with optical character recognition (OCR) technology, it can extract key product details from documents and even suggest better alternatives for parts. With the right programming, RPA ensures that all data within the BOM is traceable, streamlining the creation process.

Inventory Management

With an accurate BOM in hand, ensuring that your warehouse is stocked with the necessary materials can still be challenging, especially when demand and supply fluctuate.

A well-configured RPA system helps prevent stock shortages and keeps production on track. It can analyze large amounts of inventory data to predict demand, monitor inventory levels 24/7, and alert employees when stocks are low. Additionally, it can automatically place resupply orders based on current inventory records, ensuring that materials are always available when needed.

Order Processing

Sales and purchases are the backbone of any business. When order management isn’t handled efficiently, it can impede not only back-office operations but the overall functionality of your organization.

RPA adds value right from the vendor selection phase, assisting manufacturers in tasks such as scanning documents, preparing proposals, and assessing supplier credit. Bots continue to provide value by identifying order emails, submitting orders to your ERP system, tracking payment statuses, and requesting approvals.

Additionally, RPA simplifies invoice processing by generating new invoices or extracting data from existing ones, all with minimal human intervention.

Data Operations

Despite the growing presence of automation in manufacturing, engineers still spend 37% of their work time manually retrieving analytical data. Data management and analysis are not only time-consuming but also highly prone to errors.

RPA shines in this area by integrating with data-rich systems like ERP, WMS, and CRM. Whether it’s migrating, converting, updating, collecting, or entering records, automation ensures speed and accuracy. This allows your engineers to focus their time and expertise on higher-value tasks.