Technology

How RPA UiPath solutions support production and business processes

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How RPA UiPath solutions support production and business processes

Three years ago, the Nutricia Manufacturing Plant in Opole started a pioneering digital transformation process aimed at building a competitive advantage in the technological field. The effect of the actions taken is the implementation – from the beginning of 2020 – of 10 fully automated, complex production processes. During this project, Robotic Process Automation  solutions were introduced, which allow saving a total of 30 hours of work of various specialists every day. And this is not the end of the planned implementations of RPA robots...

Nutricia is part of the DANONE group of companies, which in Poland operates in 3 areas important for proper nutrition: dairy and plant-based products (Danone), water and drinks (Żywiec Zdrój), specialized nutrition, including food for infants and young children, and food for special medical purposes (Nutricia). All Danone companies share a double commitment to sustainable economic and social development and the mission of bringing health through food to as many people as possible. The plant in Opole produces products for infants and young children, which are delivered to the domestic market and to over 100 other countries on five continents.

BUILDING AN ADVANTAGE IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD

In 2018, the company decided to expand digitization in its production plants. The aim was to create even more innovative technological processes and improve business processes, which also positively affects the quality assurance of manufactured products. Due to the fact that the Opole plant has many production technologies, it was decided to launch pilot projects in the field of automation. Therefore, it became a place where pioneering solutions were tested, so that other European plants of the Danone group of companies could use them in the next step. Thanks to the projects launched at that time, Nutricia became one of the leaders in implementing intelligent automation.

– The decision to become more involved in the digital transformation was made to improve the quality of products, increase work safety and plant productivity – explains Sebastian Felisiak, digital technology manager responsible for coordinating projects related to robotization and automation at the Nutricia Production Plant. – We started on the Blue Prism platform, on which we did a pilot process for creating shipping documents in SAP. Then, seeing that RPA technology is so promising that it is worth using it in a wider range, a decision was made to change the platform to UiPath and establish cooperation with Mindbox. The selection was based primarily on the ease of creating robots by business users without programming skills, as well as cost-effectiveness and the partner's support offered in the field of RPA platform development. We also rewrote the first, pilot process to UiPath – he adds.

40 PROCESSES TO BE AUTOMATED, INCL. BY C-3PO AND WALL-E

And so, the maximum number of processes suitable for automation was collected from all departments of the Opole factory, and then segregated in terms of the amount of return on investment. The level of complexity of individual integrations was also determined. In this way, a number of over 40 processes have been successively automated since then. After establishing cooperation with Mindbox, Nutricia initially used the help of its experts in such matters as maintaining the server on which the UiPath orchestrator operated, the development and production environment, etc. In the next step, the internal IT team from Nutricia took over the full management of the UiPath platform. Mindbox consultants are currently focusing on designing and implementing new robotizations.

So far, 10 processes have been intelligently automated at the Nutricia plant in Opole, thus saving a lot of work. To illustrate, if this was converted into man-hours of work of various specialists, the automation processes each day would save 30 hours of human labor. The first robot created directly on the UiPath platform was the C-3PO. By the way, all the automatic processes that arise in the Nutricia plant are tentatively named after robots known from pop culture. C-3PO creates new input data based on the inventory and production plan in the SAP system. The solution creates more than 40 shipping documents a day, collecting data from various systems standardizing it and sending it as a PDF file to the appropriate employees. Thanks to this, the possibility of making a mistake is limited and the standardization of the process is increased. This tool allows you to save 2.5 hours of specialist work per day. Another example of robotization, created in the Nutricia plant, is Wall-E, which "cleans" orders in the production system and sends them to the SAP system. This tool can, among other things, settle basic orders, allocate labor costs to individual departments or send reports to the e-mail address provided. As a result, it saves 10 hours of work of production analysts per week.

HIRO – DEMANDING, INTELLIGENT PRODUCTION AUTOMATION

The most complicated solution for robotization, which was created in the Opole plant, is Hiro. It is a tool that creates an up-to-date version of the production plan every hour (including orders scheduled for the upcoming hours). It verifies it with the data in the SAP system. Then it overlays the production progress data from the MES (Manufacturing Execution System) type system. This can, for example, delay subsequent orders that are planned to be launched in the ongoing production. Hiro not only checks the production efficiency, but also the availability of raw materials in the warehouse, their shelf life, and verifies selected quality parameters. He can also place orders for raw materials and packaging for three departments of the plant, where there are several production lines.

– When executing this tool, it turned out that the process of updating and executing the production plan depends on many external factors and has many exceptions. The data that could be obtained from the systems was not sufficient. The pre-automation process, on the other hand, was based on the direct exchange of information by employees. Therefore, this information was not collected in any system. Thanks to the functionalities of the UiPath platform – and the support of Mindbox – we have introduced specific changes to the process. And the Hiro robot performs its tasks correctly and is constantly improving – says Sebastian Felisiak. – Thanks to Hiro, the Nutricia plant in Opole has gained, among other things, greater precision in conducting selected processes. Transport management was optimized, which also translated into time savings. In addition, tools based on the concept of the Hiro solution – invented from scratch and created in the Opole factory – are now also used in other DANONE factories – he adds.

EMPLOYEES ROBOTIZE PROCESSES ON THEIR OWN

Importantly, some processes are now automated by the employees themselves, using the UiPath platform, and what is important – these activities do not require programming preparation. The Nutricia factory in Opole hosts the Automation Club, gathering employees trained by Mindbox, who individually automate their processes. They then go to the IT team that supports their maintenance.

– Employees who have done the work to facilitate their work on their own become at the same time “ambassadors” of automation, sharing with others not only their knowledge on this subject, but also enthusiasm for robotization itself – emphasizes Sebastian Felisiak. At the same time, he points out that it is this individual approach to performing simple automation, selected fragments of individual processes, that will develop the fastest in the future. – On the other hand, the next step on the market will be hyperautomation, i.e., the integration of robotization with artificial intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms, which in some time will give us the opportunity to automate virtually every possible proces – he adds.

Another 11th automation project is currently in the testing phase at the Nutricia Production Plant. It combines the capabilities of the UiPath platform with scripts in the Python programming language and image recognition tools. This solution verifies the documents, checking if they are properly prepared. For example, are there signatures and stamps of carriers? As Sebastian Felisiak assures, this solution will be used in production any day. Two other robotizations are at a similar stage, and four more ideas for intelligent automation will soon enter the design phase.

This article comes from magazine:
FOCUS ON Business #5 July-August (4/2022)

FOCUS ON Business #5 July-August (4/2022) Check the issue