What is Workflow mechanisation?
Workflow mechanisation refers to the automation of routine, repeatable processes within an organization using software, robotic process automation (RPA), optical character recognition (OCR), and other technologies. By automating manual and repetitive workflows, employee productivity is improved and costs are reduced.
The Benefits of Workflow mechanisation
Some of the key benefits of automating workflows include:
Increased Efficiency and Productivity
Automating routine tasks allows employees to focus on more strategic work that requires human judgment and problem-solving skills. Workflow mechanisation eliminates mundane, repetitive tasks and paperwork, freeing up employees' time to focus on higher-value activities. It streamlines processes so they can be completed much faster with little to no human involvement.
Reduced Errors and Re-Work
Manually processing Workflow Automation means more room for human error. Automating workflows minimizes errors by standardizing best practices and reducing manual data entry. It eliminates redundant tasks and re-work by automatically routing workflows to the right person or department.
Cost Savings and Improved ROI
Automating labor-intensive manual workflows reduces operational costs. It cuts down on expensive human resources and allows existing staff to take on a greater workload. Workflow mechanisation leads to higher returns on investment by improving productivity, quality, and compliance at lower costs.
Enhanced Compliance and Governance
Automated workflows help ensure processes follow regulations and adhere to best practices and policies. They keep detailed audit trails and logs of all actions. This facilitates compliance and governance by reducing compliance issues and risks associated with manual processes.
Improved Customer and Employee Experience
Automation streamlines workflows for customers, partners, and employees. It enhances customer and employee experiences by speeding up response times, eliminating bottlenecks, and providing transparency into process status.
Key Industries Transformed by Workflow Automation
Below are some industries that have significantly benefited from Workflow mechanisation:
Healthcare
Automating paperwork-intensive administrative workflows has helped reduce costs and improve patient care. Digital documentation, prior authorization, claims processing, medical coding, etc. are now automated. This frees up clinicians' time for higher-value patient care activities.
Finance
Workflow mechanisation has transformed back-office operations in finance. Processes like new customer onboarding, payments, loans, client servicing, financial analysis, and reporting are now much faster and efficient, improving client experiences.
Insurance
Claims processing, underwriting, policy servicing and renewals are heavily automated. This has led to faster turnaround times, reduced claim denial rates, improved customer service, and lower costs.
Government
Automating processes like permits, citizen services, records management, audits, and inspections has improved governance and citizens' experience of public services across departments.
Manufacturing
Automating various plant workflows for quality control, scheduling, materials procurement and parts tracking has improved productivity and supply chain management on the factory floor.
How Workflow mechanisation Tools Work
Workflow Automation leverages various technologies working together to automate end-to-end processes. Common tools used include:
- Process mining: Analyzes event logs to understand existing processes and bottlenecks for optimization opportunities.
- Robotic process automation (RPA): Software robots that mimic human actions to complete repetitive rules-based tasks across various systems.
- Optical character recognition (OCR): Extracts structured data from scanned documents or images.
- Workflow management software: Maps out workflows, routes tasks between teams, triggers actions, and manages approvals.
- Natural language processing: Parses conversations and extracts actionable insights for automating customer support workflows.
- Integration platforms: Connect disparate systems to build seamless automated processes across applications.
- Process orchestration: Combines various tools and choreographs steps across automated workflows.
Implementing Workflow Automation
Implementing Workflow mechanisation requires workflow assessment, requirements gathering, selecting the right tools, development, testing, training employees and go-live support. Focus areas include:
- Identifying core processes for automation based on volume, transactional nature, repeatability and predictability.
- Assessing people, process and technology components to identify integration opportunities.
- Building a center of excellence team for ongoing governance, maintenance and upgrades.
- Change management to prepare employees for new roles focusing less on transactional work.
- Continuous process improvement as automation reveals new optimization areas over time.
Workflow Automation is a key digital transformation initiative that delivers tangible benefits across industries. By intelligently combining different technologies, complex multi-step processes that were previously manual and inefficient can now be automated end-to-end. This revolutionizes how organizations operate through higher productivity, better quality, lower costs and enhanced customer experiences. The future of work involves augmenting human potential through smart process automation.
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About Author:
Ravina Pandya, Content Writer, has a strong foothold in the market research industry. She specializes in writing well-researched articles from different industries, including food and beverages, information and technology, healthcare, chemical and materials, etc. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravina-pandya-1a3984191)
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