Are you finding it difficult to efficiently manage your products and keep your inventory levels up to date? Well, many firms today experience all that! With the exponential growth in the global sector, a new and flexible inventory management system became critical. Industries, irrespective of their niche, began experiencing the lack of modern-touch in their business operations especially, in managing their inventory processes. That’s where RPA comes to play!
RPA, also known as robotic process automation, is a new and advanced field of the digital era that has gained much momentum in the past few years. RPA in the supply chain has helped many leading businesses to eliminate repetitive tasks and bring smoothness in the inventory management process.
According to the latest report, around 72% of the businesses today have adopted robotic process automation to automate their mundane tasks and streamline their inventory management operations. Planning to become a part of the same community? Don’t worry, we have got you covered! Read this article till last to discover everything about robotic process automation and its role in making your inventory management more efficient.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Inventory Management: Why is it needed?
Having unorganized inventory management can be troublesome for your business in today’s competitive era. Besides inefficient business operations, a mismanaged inventory management system can also lead to loss of money due to inaccurate stock information. And wait, there’s more!
1. Stock-out Conditions
One of the biggest challenges of the retail industry is the stock-out conditions. It is often seen that due to inefficient inventory management, the businesses fail to accurately calculate their limited stocks and inventories, and as such suffer a loss both in terms of finance and in brand value.
2. Inaccurate Visibility
Another critical factor that adds to the problems of the retail and supply chain industries is inaccurate visibility into warehouse and inventory management operations. The traditional inventory management systems could not offer real-time information on your inventory status. Moreover, the data you get so far is also somewhere 63% accurate reveals a study!
3. Decreased Customer Loyalty
As your inventory levels may not be managed properly, you could potentially lose your valuable customers. The inefficiency in fulfilling their demands and orders may cost you a loss in brand value and customer loyalty. Also, not to forget, the customer is the main source of marketing your brand. So, an unsatisfied customer can also result in the loss of new leads.
4. Uneven Forecast
Last but not least, the future demand forecast is also a vital factor for the industries dealing with the products. An inaccurate demand forecast, either less or more, can both result in business loss. Therefore, having adequate and reliable inventory management technology is foremost needed to eliminate such losses both in terms of finance and brand value.
Now, to mitigate all such issues prevailing in the global sector, robotic process automation comes to play! RPA in supply chain and inventory management is a great trend that has brought many significant changes and eliminated many time-consuming and vague tasks that were previously hampering the efficiency of the businesses.
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Automated Administrative Tasks
RPA in the supply chain is an excellent tool that can help you eliminate all the mundane tasks and could seamlessly automate all the critical administrative tasks. Right from purchase order forms, to keep a track of the leftover stocks, RPA in inventory management can help you save a lot of time while providing you real-time information on your inventory management.
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Accurate Demand and Supply Planning
RPA in inventory management can also help you predict the correct forecast for demand and supply so that nothing hinders your planning. Custom RPA bots can interlink with various departments that are closely related to inventory management like warehouses, supply chain, procurement, etc. to offer you real-time information. Those ways, you could potentially save a lot of money and time in optimizing your inventory management operations.
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Vendor Validation
Selecting a proper vendor is a critical but tedious task for most of the businesses. It often involves many critical steps like analyzing quotations, raising requests, discussions, and so on, which could consume a lot of your time. However, the scene is a bit different from RPA., Robotic process automation, with AI, could help you automated all those tasks in a seamless manner, thereby eliminating the loss of time.
Also Read- Choosing the Right Robotic Process Automation Software for Your Business
Benefits of RPA for Inventory Management
Well, if you are thinking, that was all RPA could offer to inventory management, then probably you need to know more! Here are some of the amazing benefits that you could get after adopting RPA for streamlining your inventory management.
1. Smooth Communication
An excellent benefit of including RPA in your inventory management is that it offers smooth communication. Communication is the vital key to success, especially in retail and supply chain business. Having RPA in your inventory management can help you seamlessly communicate with all your parties involved in the business.
Custom RPA bots, paired with ERP solutions can help you know the accurate inventory levels, and the future demand and supply forecast. Not only that, but a custom bot can even solve any order related query by integrating with a custom ERP solution, thus saving your time and efforts.
2. Seamless Integration with Legacy Systems
Another great benefit of having RPA in your inventory management is that it offers seamless integration facilities with your existing legacy systems. It is often noticed that many of the businesses find themselves comfortable in using the existing inventory management software rather than upgrading to a new one. No issues, RPA has got you covered!
A well-planned RPA application can seamlessly integrate with any device or existing system while making your work efficient and cost-effective. However, always choose an experienced software engineering partner while developing your RPA inventory management software!
3. Automated Inventory Management
Not to mention, with RPA, many of your critical inventory management tasks like placing orders, generating receipts, tracking the delivery, and replying to quotations and queries become simplified. A well-configured custom inventory management software, with the capabilities of RPA and AI, can help you automate all the big and small tasks of your inventory management, thereby saving much of your time and cost.
4. Order Processing
Last but not least, we have order processing. RPA in the supply chain can be opted readily because of two main reasons. Firstly, it completely automates your order processing operations, right from placing the orders to generating receipts. Secondly, the custom bots seamlessly handle the payment and the communication process, while enhancing your businesses’ customer experience.
Challenges Associated with the Implementation of RPA in Inventory Management
Although there are endless benefits of adopting RPA for your inventory management process, there are some things that should be kept in mind while doing so. Like every coin has two sides, there are some challenges associated with the adoption of RPA for inventory management. Let us quickly have a glance through it!
1. Engagement from Employees
While deploying any sort of application in your business, it is vital to know the minds of your employees. For a successful deployment of RPA application, not only in inventory management but also in your organization, it is always better to consider your employee’s decisions.
An employee’s engagement level will decide how smooth your application will work in your organization. In short, employee’s acceptance will significantly reduce the constraints, scale your application, and smoothen your supply chain operations.
2. Reliable Technology Partner
Another great factor to consider before deploying any sort of custom RPA application is to choose a reliable technology partner. Now, there are many software engineering firms that claim to have experience in the related field, but as such, they have nothing to show. Many of them even lure you by quoting very less for the project and that’s where most of the businesses fail.
As a leader in software development and digital transformation, we always suggest you to firstly have a look at the portfolios and previous work of the engineering firm and then go for it.
3. Standard Processes
It is a known fact that RPA technology works best for the repetitive and simple process. In other words, if you have complex processes in your inventory management, then RPA may not work as per your expectations. That’s why it is always necessary to consult an expert first before deploying any sort of RPA application for your inventory management.
4. Rigid Learning
Last but not least, it is a popular rumour that RPA bots can only be trained during the initial stages. They can only learn during the first few days, and after that, they do not adapt to current learning. However, that is a false claim!
With the advances in machine learning and NLP(Natural Language Processing), today, RPA bots can easily learn with the current trends of your business. They can adapt to any sort of environment and can simplify your business operations in no time. Just make sure that you partner with the right kind of technology firm to develop your custom RPA application.
How Can Matellio Help?
With more than 15 years of experience, Matellio, with its hundreds of certified developers and testers, has always been a leading name in custom development projects. Whether you have just started, or you are a Fortune 500 company, we always strive to deliver a result-oriented and cost-effective solution catering to all your business problems.
We have delivered over hundreds of successful RPA applications to a multitude of industries of the global market. Still, have confusions? Whether you have questions, or you wanted to know more about RPA in simplifying your inventory management, we are always here to help you. Reach us today, and get answers to all your questions. Plus, get an expert consultation on your business idea absolutely free on filling out our form.
Till then, Happy Reading!
