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Logistics processes are responsible for controlling and planning the entire logistics of products. It ranges from the purchase of material to the sale of the product. All of this must be well planned, executed and, above all, controlled so that the processes do not suffer bottlenecks along the way and are completed successfully.
Why automate logistics processes?
The logistics area of a company is responsible for taking care of everything from incoming materials to outgoing products. If this process is not efficient and agile, the company will be at great risk of having financial and organizational problems.
Picture a company where there is little communication between sectors and no automation. Some employees in the production area are on vacation, the warehouses are no longer sufficient, and the logistics sector keeps ordering the same amount of material. The problems generated as a result of that can vary.
Using automation to your advantage
Automation has come to facilitate all kinds of process. It is able to communicate between different areas, act efficiently and extremely fast. Besides that, errors occur quite easily.
Going back to the example of the company above. If this problem becomes recurrent, how could they solve it? Hire new employees responsible for managing the stock and production? Always order less material so that there is never a shortage of space in the warehouse? The best solution is, of course, to automate this whole process. But how to automate logistics processes?
Setting up an automated process
If you are still afraid to use automation technology, in this topic you will see how it can make life easier for your company. Before you start: there is no right or wrong process; there is a process that works and does not work for each type of company. To model an automated process, we will keep using the example of the company above and explain how to improve their logistics process. Let’s start modeling the process:
- When the material arrives, the person in charge of storage receives it and immediately updates the system with the amount of material received. When they take the material to another sector, they must also update it. If the warehouse is too empty, the logistics department receives a message saying that it is necessary to buy more material;
- When the employee goes on vacation, this is recorded in the system;
- When a logistics employee asks for more material, they have data on whether the warehouse has sufficient storage space and how many employees are working. Here the amount of material required for purchase can also be calculated, based on the number of employees and the average productivity.
Do you realize how many processes are automated? Imagine doing that without the help of automation, how much work it would be. One sector having to call the other one every time, calculate the amount of material needed, etc.
This example was just for you to better understand how automation can speed up and improve the performance of company logistics processes. In this case you used a process to purchase material and needed to know if there would be enough space to store it and enough labor to use it. But automation is applicable in most logistics processes.
Difficulties and problems when you don’t have automated logistics processes:
- Repetition of tasks;
- Failures. It can be due to the complexity of the process or not having all the necessary information;
- A lot of time is wasted doing the procedures manually. Plus some processes can be very complex.
Facilities and advantages of automating logistics processes:
Now that you know a little more about automation, especially in the logistics sector, I will introduce you to the positives and why every company should use it.
- Efficient communication:
The logistics sector does not need to communicate with all the sectors of the company to obtain information. Each sector just needs to keep the information updated in the system;
- Agility:
Any new information is updated in milliseconds;
- Precision:
It is extremely difficult for failures to occur, unless the collaborator saves wrong information to the system. You will no longer have the problem of one information being passed on incorrectly, losing records, miscalculating and having the excuse that you didn’t know about something;
- Convenience and practicality:
Everything can be done over the internet, no traveling is required.
Conclusion:
Once you know what automation is capable of doing for the logistics sector of your company, the difference with and without it is clear. Automation is able to facilitate and streamline most processes and that is why it has been increasingly used in companies. Nowadays, the more developed and automated a company is, you can be sure that it will have better results for agility and efficiency. Through Fusion, using BPM, it is possible to create any logistics process, fully automated. Surely this process will be much easier to run and manage.
