Do you know ” RPA ” which has been attracting attention in recent years ? Some people may say, “I’ve heard the name, but I don’t know the details,” while others may say, “I’ve never heard of it.”
RPA is a system that has the potential to improve operational efficiency and significantly change the way people work . RPA is now being implemented in many companies.
In this article, we will introduce the concept of RPA and its advantages and disadvantages.
Table of contents
- What is RPA?
- What is the difference between RPA and AI?
- Background of RPA’s attention
- What you can do with RPA
- Case 1: Case of Tsukuba City (first municipality in Japan)
- Case 2: Asahi Pro Management Co., Ltd.
- Advantages of introducing RPA
- Automation of white-collar work
- Increased productivity
- Increased time to “think”
- Prevention of human error
- Cost reduction
- Opportunity to review business content
- Can be used by non-IT departments
- Disadvantages of introducing RPA
- Some work is unsuitable
- I will continue even if I make a mistake
- Risk of malfunction due to system specification change
- Business stoppage risk
- Business becomes a black box
- security risk
- summary
What is RPA?
RPA is an abbreviation for *Robotics Process Automation*, and refers to technology that automates indirect work performed by white-collar workers (mainly personnel, general affairs, accounting, information system departments, etc.). The feature is that desk work can be streamlined and automated by recording their daily computer operations on a software robot.
What is the difference between RPA and AI?
It’s easy to get confused with “AI (artificial intelligence)”, which is a hot topic these days, but while RPA is a system that “reproduces operations determined and set by humans according to rules”, AI “has a self-learning function. , the AI itself finds the rules and makes decisions”.
Background of RPA’s attention
Systematization is already progressing for factory line work, which involves a lot of simple work. Every factory should be equipped with all sorts of machines and systems to ensure stable mass production. In the factory, the role of humans is to maintain machines and to perform detailed work that cannot be covered by machines.
On the other hand, office work is still mostly done by humans. Even if a system is introduced to make work more efficient, it is human beings who use the system, and it is rare to entrust everything to the system.
However, development progressed from the idea that “if we could automate factory work, we should be able to automate office work,” and the prototype of RPA was born around 1999. Around that time, BPO (outsourcing) also progressed in the work done by white-collar workers, and it became possible to package work, so the automation of work with RPA further accelerated and spread.
There are several labor issues such as the decrease in the productive working population due to the declining birthrate and aging population behind RPA’s attention. Many companies are actively introducing RPA with the aim of “If RPA works well, it will be possible to improve productivity while implementing work style reforms and effectively utilizing the labor force.” it’s starting.
What you can do with RPA
RPA is good at routine work with fixed procedures. However, because it is highly customizable, it can be introduced to a wide range of operations. Therefore, there is a possibility that the introduction of RPA can improve the efficiency of tasks that have been considered for system introduction but have been given up because of low cost-effectiveness or tasks that could not be automated.
The tasks that can be performed with RPA are as follows.
- Data linkage between different systems
- Form input
- Slip creation
- Expense confirmation (confirmation that the declared commuting route and transportation expenses are correct)
- Data input/download work
- Regular information gathering
- Copying and pasting data
– organizing and analyzing accumulated data, etc.
Now, let’s look at some real-life RPA use cases.
Case 1: Case of Tsukuba City (first municipality in Japan)
Issue/Purpose
Some of the tasks at the city hall, even though they are simple tasks, involve a large amount of work and require a considerable amount of working hours. In particular, it took a long time to process taxes during the tax return season, and the staff in charge had to work a lot of overtime to complete the work. Therefore, we introduced RPA in order to solve the problem by achieving both shortening of work time and accurate processing.
Implementation content
We have introduced RPA for five tasks such as new business registration and electronic tax return printing performed by the Municipal Tax Division, and transfer notification reception notification tasks performed by the Citizen’s Window Division.
Achievement
The Municipal Tax Section has succeeded in reducing about 116 hours in three months, and is expected to reduce about 330 hours on an annual basis. The Citizen’s Counter Division also succeeded in reducing about 21 hours in three months, and it is expected to reduce about 71 hours on an annual basis.
Staff also commented, “While the number of cases to be processed is increasing year by year, the number of staff who can handle them is limited. RPA was helpful because it reduced simple work.” It is said that the voices of joy were received, such as “It will be possible to turn to Tsukuba City plans to continue introducing RPA to departments where it is expected to be effective.
Case 2: Asahi Pro Management Co., Ltd.
Issue/Purpose
Asahi Pro Management Co., Ltd. undertakes management operations for the entire Asahi Group, including finance, personnel, and general affairs. In particular, the personnel and labor management department collectively manages personnel data for the 31 Asahi Group companies, and performs attendance management and payroll calculations. Until now, we have manually entered all of the approximately 36,000 personnel data submitted annually by each company into the system when hiring employees or part-time workers, transferring personnel between companies, or retiring or taking leave of absence. I was. In order to do this work more reliably and efficiently, we introduced RPA.
Implementation content
All data entry is performed by RPA. Since the personnel data to be created originally had different management items and formats for each group company, we also added a flow for RPA to read Excel data and standardize the format. As a result, we were able to create a mechanism that allows automatic registration without changing the work content of each company.
Achievement
We were able to reduce the annual work hours of about 1,300 hours for data entry, content confirmation, etc. Even if a large number of applications are received from each company in the evening, the RPA can be operated at night, so we have succeeded in improving efficiency, such as by having the personnel data registered in the morning. In addition, it is now possible to prevent input errors due to manual input. By reducing complicated work with the introduction of RPA, personnel and labor affairs personnel can focus on the work they should be working on.
These are just a few examples, but with the advent of RPA, it has become possible to outsource simple tasks that have been “unavoidably done by humans.” RPA has already been introduced in advance in the financial industry, where there are many routine tasks, and it is demonstrating its effectiveness. As a result, many companies, public organizations, and local governments, regardless of industry, are introducing it.
Advantages of introducing RPA
Now, let’s take a look at the benefits that RPA implementation actually brings to companies.
Automation of white-collar work
You can automate office tasks such as data entry that were previously thought to be possible only for humans.
Increased productivity
RPA can operate 24/7. As a result, the processing speed of the overall business is increased, and productivity can be expected to improve.
Increased time to “think”
By substituting RPA for simple work and clerical work, you will be able to spend more time on “thinking” work such as formulating strategies and work that requires creativity. It will contribute not only to immediate business improvement, but also to long-term business growth.
Prevention of human error
When humans do the work, mistakes are bound to happen. This is because the amount of time humans can maintain their concentration is limited, and mistakes can easily occur due to feelings of impatience, especially during busy periods.
On the other hand, RPA can accurately reproduce the work once recorded, so mistakes can be prevented. If mistakes can be prevented, time loss and various risks can be avoided.
Cost reduction
By having RPA process operations on behalf of humans, it will lead to a reduction in daily work man-hours and overtime hours. Since there is no need to hire employees or outsource work due to lack of manpower, labor costs can be reduced as a result.
In addition, if RPA takes over the work that was considered to be systematized at development cost, development may not be necessary and the cost may be saved.
Opportunity to review business content
Before introducing RPA, select “which tasks to automate with RPA”. At this time, in order to take an inventory of the work that is currently being done, it will be an opportunity to reconsider the importance of each work, such as “Is this work really necessary?”
Through this process, we can boldly eliminate work that we have been doing for some reason, simplify complicated work flows, and improve the overall work content.
Can be used by non-IT departments
Looking at the merits so far, there may be some people who think, “It certainly seems convenient, but isn’t it difficult to introduce it?” In fact, RPA is designed so that even non-IT department staff can master it, such as making it possible to create scenarios (business operations) without programming knowledge.
In the past, if you wanted to improve your own system, you would request it to the internal system department, and in most cases, only those improvements that were deemed necessary and technically possible would be improved. On the other hand, RPA can easily create and modify automation scenarios on the screen, so the person in charge who understands the business content can create and modify them themselves.
Disadvantages of introducing RPA
Of course, there are some things to keep in mind when implementing RPA. We have summarized the disadvantages of introducing RPA and the countermeasures for each.
Some work is unsuitable
RPA is not AI, so it cannot “think and process on its own”. Therefore, there are tasks that are unsuitable and tasks that are more efficient to be done by humans.
For example, when sorting the names of fruits from a huge amount of text , if you specify “fruits = apples, oranges, kiwis”, “bananas” and “strawberries” that are not specified will be included. Sometimes it happens that they can’t recognize them as fruits. In order to prevent such things from happening, it is necessary for humans to envision all possible scenarios and create scenarios, and sometimes to draw the line that “humans will take over from here.”
I will continue even if I make a mistake
RPA has the advantage of being able to work without rest according to given instructions. On the other hand, even if there is a mistake in instructions or procedures and it malfunctions, RPA will not notice the mistake and will continue processing.
To avoid these risks, be careful when creating RPA scenarios.
Risk of malfunction due to system specification change
If the business department that has introduced RPA and the information system department do not cooperate properly, it may happen that the system specifications have changed and the RPA has malfunctioned.
When introducing RPA, both the RPA user department and the information system department should work closely together to understand the relevance and specifications of the internal system.
Business stoppage risk
Since RPA is a system, it cannot be said that system failure will never occur. If a system failure occurs, the work entrusted to RPA will stop.
It is difficult to predict when a failure will occur, so be sure to take proper risk countermeasures, such as confirming in advance with the company that provides the system (vendor) about the countermeasures and security systems for troubles.
Business becomes a black box
It is very convenient to be able to automate work simply by executing RPA, but as the number of people in charge progresses, it becomes a situation where the person in charge uses RPA without fully understanding what the work is for. tend to If you don’t understand the business content, you will be in trouble because you will not understand the mechanism when a system failure occurs or when a process is changed.
By properly handing over the purpose of work and the details of automation in documents, etc., you will not be confused even if you encounter such a situation in the future.
security risk
There is also the risk of unauthorized access from unprivileged users if administrator privileges are not properly set. When installing, be careful not to grant unnecessary privileges to an unspecified number of people.
In this way, RPA implementation also has some disadvantages. However, most of the risks can be avoided or minimized by making assumptions in advance and taking countermeasures.
summary
RPA brings benefits such as productivity improvement and cost reduction to companies if you understand its characteristics and introduce it appropriately. By taking over simple tasks that used to take a lot of man-hours, humans will be able to spend their time on more creative work and work that requires communication.
In the future, the ideal situation would be for humans and RPA to divide up the work and support each other as work progresses. When considering the introduction of RPA in the future, we recommend that you first organize your current business processes and issues, then select which business will benefit your company by entrusting it to RPA, and start collecting information.
