Automation to Increase Productivity

June 10, 2021

If we analyze the economic reports of several countries, we notice that the concept of “productivity” is much more used and studied in strong economies than in weak ones.

However, with the technological evolution and with the change of mentalities of many companies and, mainly, of workers, many are those who seek to make their companies more productive. How is it possible to increase the productivity of each worker and each machine or software so that the entire company becomes stronger in an increasingly competitive world?

One of the successes of Robot Process Automation, or RPA, is exactly there, increasing productivity. Doing more with what you already have and making better use of the knowledge of employees who may be locked into tasks that can and should be automated.

RPA can be summarized as emulating human behavior in front of a computer.

Let’s say that what is done with a mouse and keyboard can be automated, freeing the worker for tasks that are more demanding in terms of thought and decision. That said, it is obvious that the great triumph of RPA is to automate repetitive processes, with well-defined rules, regardless of whether it is a process with a large or small decision tree, and that, due to being repetitive and time-consuming it will inevitably lead to human errors, mental fatigue, lack of focus and demotivation.

However, companies shouldn’t look at implementing RPA just as an addition to what’s being done. A well-structured strategy to automation using RPA should analyze existing processes, how they are performed and why. It should be noted that processes that were created, for example, ten years ago, and that are still carried out, in the same way, today, may not make sense with current technological resources.

Therefore, you should not just automate a process as it is, but take advantage of this change to improve the process. In short, automation must be part of any digital transformation process.

The result should be something that drives the process, the department, and, consequently, the company. But not only.

Employees, who previously used a lot of their time on these repetitive tasks, should take advantage of their knowledge of the company’s business to have tasks that are more focused on decisions and less on copying data or filling out forms, among many other examples. With this, what the RPA must achieve is an improvement in processes, greater employee satisfaction, and a better quality of life for everyone who every day helps the company to move forward and produce.