Why Don't You Automate, Mate?

Oh, no. Don't let the cover image up here fool you.?(It's a pretty cool arm though.)

There was a time, when the term "automation" sparked visuals full of robotics, high-tech cutting edge stuff. But let's not live in a science-fiction world, no matter how much you'd love to have R2-D2 as a pet robot. Let's realize why it doesn't take much to automate laborious tasks. (Unless you're a Jedi, ignore the line that talks about a pet-robot).

While yes, replacing human labor with machine labor is a textbook example of automation at work, it's far from being the only one. You'd find automation in businesses of all sizes; including subtle features in common softwares, and more obvious implementations like self-driving vehicles (Thanks Elon) or autonomous robots.

You might be right to be skeptical about where workplace automation will lead the general economy, but there are some studies that tend to agree that this trend is surely gaining momentum. Here's a nice representation by McKinsey, showing where they believe automation is at the moment:

Virtually, every business process is on the table for automation, especially as technologies involved become more sophisticated. Automation will undoubtedly change the workplace and the wider economy. The only question is: To what extent?

At its core, automation is about implementing a system to complete repetitive and easily replicated tasks without the need for human intervention and labor, i.e you and me. By automating repetitive business processes, you and your team are freed up for tasks that are more valuable than those that can be completed by your machines.

All the time you saved through automation can be utilized into refining what you sell: Be it your product, your services, content creation, you name it. So if you can, why don't you automate, mate?

Hmm, so how do you find Automation Opportunities?

I'm glad you asked. (I think you did. You did, right? Wow, I must be hearing things.)

There are likely to be a gazillion processes throughout your organization that are ripe for automation. Virtually any task that is repeatable, high-volume, and standardized, represents an opportunity.

INPUT ---> PROCESS ---> OUTPUT

The format of the input data is another important factor. If the above characteristics of a task are true, and the input data is standard and digital (PDFs, CSVs or spreadsheets), you may have a winner; but not so fast. You could potentially also consider tasks that:

1. Involve a high degree of manual, repetitive human intervention
2. are prone to human erRors
3. Have clearly defined business rules, static in nature
4. Are relatively stable and mature (i.e. not expected to go through a major change or redesign in the near future)
5. Are less complex in terms of the number of systems/databases and steps involved

There could be a lot of tasks which you can potentially consider automating with more than just these five things to be mindful of. But these guidelines should give you a good place to start looking.

Soooo... if this robot is doing an awesome job, can I Netflix and Chill in the meantime?

No.

Remember, that even with automation, processes and businesses can change, exceptions can still occur, and humans, i.e you and me, aren’t off the hook. Developing and maintaining bots is an investment that can't be ignored, and as such, it might actually be more cost-effective for certain low volume tasks, like those that occur only once or twice a month, to be performed manually.

Sometimes, bots simply aren’t advanced enough to complete a given task. Although recent developments in AI and Machine Learning can handle some human-like reasoning, any process you wish to automate must be well standardized with clear, and comprehensible steps.

So, when looking into automation opportunities, it is critical that you also:

• Analyze whether automating the task is cost-effective based on the volume
• Identify the steps of the task are or can be standardized
• Classify the steps as requiring of a human judgement vs. not needing human intervention
• Be mindful of the limitations of bots.

Phew! TL;DR?

There's a lot of scope for automation in almost any business, and across all industries. Automation won't replace people or take away jobs, but it will free them from performing mundane and repetitive tasks. With time, as technologies mature, more tasks are up for grabs to be automated by enthusiasts like you and me.

In my personal experience automating processes, I have seen first hand, the benefits of all the time saved, and the resulting improved quality of the deliverables produced. I'd highly recommend being on a lookout for opportunities like this in your organization, and figuring out a way to automate things.

I hope this article helps you and your team know how workplace automation could benefit your business by freeing up resources, and improving quality and consistency.

Do take time to review the linked blogs and studies that have been a source for this article. Let me know what you think is the future of automation, and share this article with anyone you think will benefit from it!

* Cue R2-D2 sounds *

-Sushant.

Disclaimer:?This article is written as a personal point of view, and is not to be considered an opinion or view of PwC.