Let’s start with a very basic example of hiring which is fully automated now. Basically it kills the demand of human efforts. There are a lot of process in our daily lives too which have gone from fully human labour to fully automated be it security systems, car washing, web check in at airports, arts & designs, AI-enabled photography and what not. Process automation shortens or eases manual tasks, often making the results more accessible to users. Automation typically decreases the need for human deliberation or exertion while performing a task. Automated actions respond immediately to an earlier action. In technology, automatic features have been programmed so that actions trigger further related actions.
ELE Times correspondent and Sub Editor Sheeba Chauhan took this wonderful opportunity to interact with Arun Krishnamurthi, MD & CEO, Axiscades Technologies Ltd.
Excerpts:
ELE Times: How will AI take robotics process automation to the next level?
Arun Krishnamurthi, MD & CEO, Axiscades Technologies Ltd – Robotics and AI augment when teamed, amplify human potentials, increase productivity, and from simple ordinary expertise, it is marching towards human-like cognitive abilities. Industries from across sectors including finance, telecommunications, manufacturing, government, retail, utilities, automotive, energy, transportation, and more have been evaluating robotic process automation to transform their digital transformation journey.
RPA simulates software and methodologies capable of advancing with the latest technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, voice recognition, and natural language processing to take automation to the next level. When AI merges with RPA, businesses can create more intelligent automation that can benefit the business. Customized RPA solution as per the business requirement utilizes information fetched by AI, cognitive technologies, and ML (Machine Learning), empowers robotic process automation by introducing a human response in the workflow.
There are multitudes of use of RPA for advancing business operations, some of them being-
- Continuing service: 24/7 service offering business continuity without glitches
- Transparency and truthfulness – with a log of every step, it provides a track of all assigned tasks
- Scalability: The processes specified for one project can be expanded and decommissioned to work on another one
- Audit trail: The modus operandi of a robot involves the generation of output data. This data aims to ensure compliance
With AI, RPA enhances the level of intelligent automation with a degree of cognitive thinking to the machine processes. Machine learning plays its part where it helps robots develop the critical thinking skills needed to handle complex tasks. Today, across industries, intelligent automation is used to assist with fraud detection, form completion analysis, claims processing, and more.
In all, combining AI with RPA supplements the capacity to understand speech, eliminate manual tasks, and work with less structured data sets. Businesses can benefit from this synergy between AI & RPA to bridge the gaps in process or identify and reduce inefficiencies.
At AXISCADES, we are enabling OEMs to infuse robotics process automation into the manufacturing, as it has become one of the primary tools for the industry. When it comes to the application of AI in robotics process automation and manufacturing, the tide is shifting. With decades of experience in manufacturing, AXISCADES spearheads the collection, analysis, and use of active data that will help in building a smart ecosystem and effectively converts data to build solutions using artificial intelligence.
ELE Times: How would you compare robotics process automation vs process automation?
Arun Krishnamurthi, MD & CEO, Axiscades Technologies Ltd –Process automation and robotics process automation both serve a similar purpose: to help perform business functions more effectively through automation. Process automation was first introduced to the technology market and can implement robotics process automation within its system. Robotic process automation uses rules-based automation for eliminating the human effort required for operating applications to manipulate and transport structured data.
Both the process aims at driving efficiency and productivity throughout business processes by automating them. There’s a very thin line of difference between process automation and robotics process automation and it involves identifying combinations of technologies apt for business functions. There are three major factors that distinguish process automation from robotic process automation: workflows, integration, and pricing. Here are key in-depth differences between process automation and robotics process automation –
- Process automation automates processes across business functions whereas robotic process automation works on specific, task-oriented automation
- Process automation requires an in-depth analysis of business problems and robotic process automation can operate within existing business processes
- Process automation requires an approach to optimize business processes for maximum efficiency and robotic process automation requires software that automates and optimizes a certain business process
- Process automation builds a solution from the ground up whereas robotic process automation eliminates tasks, by performing them just as a human
ELE Times: How can an organization benefit from process automation?
Arun Krishnamurthi, MD & CEO, Axiscades Technologies Ltd – Process Automation uses various technologies to increase efficiency and improve the bottom line of a business and has become the fastest-growing segment of the enterprise software market in recent years. The primary benefits of operations automation cited most often were cost reduction, productivity, availability, reliability, and performance.
Here are the 6 key process automation benefits –
- Visibility and transparency – Process automation facilitates transparency into processes and improves the visibility of processes through customizable dashboards
- Improved operational efficiency – Process automation also facilitates the identification and correction of errors in workflows. This leads to higher process efficiency overall
- Document management – Process automation secures confidential data with role-based access and accurate information moves smoothly between processes
- Reduced costs – With process automation, the cost of operations is minimized, increasing profit margins. This leads to resources being optimally utilized and wastage being eliminated
- Advanced customer service – Process automation software helps meet service level agreements (SLAs) where products and services can be made available to customers in a timely manner. innovation in process automation like chatbots allows companies to harness artificial intelligence to address customer cases timely and accurately, heightening customer experiences.
- Greater compliance – Process automation software helps businesses stay compliant. When an automated process runs, the log records task performers’ details. These logs are helpful during audit trials and demonstrate compliance
At Axiscades, we bring expertise that caters to the digital, engineering, and smart manufacturing needs of large enterprises. With decades of experience in creating innovative, sustainable, and safer products worldwide, AXISCADES delivers business value across the entire engineering lifecycle. With decades of experience, we enable workforce orchestration, robotic automation, and cognitive automation for global OEMS.
ELE Times: Can product automation be a part of process automation? If so, what could be the possible challenges?
Arun Krishnamurthi, MD & CEO, Axiscades Technologies Ltd –Product automation is products used to automate production can be called automation products. Examples are numerical controlled machines, robots, or sorting devices. Three types of automation in production can be distinguished as follows: (1) fixed automation, (2) programmable automation, and (3) flexible automation.
- Fixed: This form of automation is characterized by high initial investment and high production rates. Therefore, suitable for products that are made in large volumes.
- Programmable: Production rates in programmable automation are generally lower than in fixed automation, because the equipment is designed to facilitate product changeover rather than for product specialization.
- Flexible: Extension of programmable automation. Disadvantage – The time required to reprogram and change over the production equipment for each batch of new product. This is lost production time, which is expensive.
Factors that rank among the top challenges for manufacturers enabling automation include lack of experienced workforce to operate the machines, high transition expenses, and safety concerns. These challenges aside, automation technology, if used wisely and effectively, can yield substantial opportunities for the future. There is an opportunity to relieve humans from repetitive, and hazardous work. And there is an opportunity for future automation technologies to provide a growing social and economic environment.
ELE Times: What could be the recent trends in process automation in 2022?
Arun Krishnamurthi, MD & CEO, Axiscades Technologies Ltd – Process automation enables enterprises with highly focused solutions to tackle complex workloads, challenges, and processes, adding efficiency and profitability. In 2022, more organizations are moving towards leveraging the power of process automation for navigating towards recovery, the significance of the technology is ever increasing. Here are a few of the key process automation trends
- Widespread adoption of process automation – Process automation is set to witness widespread adoption, by helping industries address labor shortages and maximizing output. The year 2022 will witness an upward trajectory in the automation market.
- Leaders take the reins on automation – Many organizations are issuing ‘automation mandates.’ for strategic implementation of plans to deliver enterprise-wide automation capability—along with centralized governance, visibility, and control.
- Automation centers of excellence (CoEs) – To address the AI deployment issue CoEs are expanding their purview beyond process automation to cover AI and ML deployment
ELE Times: The pandemic has an effective impression on the virtual world. What could be the effective benefits of virtualization?
Arun Krishnamurthi, MD & CEO, Axiscades Technologies Ltd – Virtualization can raise manufacturing efficiency, it has various benefits that include hardware consolidation, less energy consumption, improved application load time, disaster recovery, and easier streamlining of processes.
