Agentic automation & RPA in manufacturing:
use cases, benefits & challenges

To free up inventory managers and warehouse staff from manual data entry, document processing, and constant inventory status tracking, companies can use RPA bots and agents driven by artificial intelligence to automatically perform the following tasks:

• Processing the scans of material delivery notes, supplier invoices, and sales documents using optical character recognition (OCR) technology and inputting inventory-related data into the inventory management system
• Triggering the product reordering process on a scheduled basis or when raw material inventory levels go below the set threshold, sending replenishment requests to the procurement team, and generating purchase requisitions and purchase orders
• Tracking material data across manufacturing execution, warehouse management, and manufacturing ERP software, updating inventory management databases, identifying duplicate inventory data, and reconciling discrepancies
• Generating custom inventory reports or reports based on data from disintegrated inventory, ERP, and warehouse systems

Accounting departments in manufacturing companies can implement RPA and agentic software to automate the following manual processes, ensuring data consistency and minimizing financial losses:

• Extracting financial and vendor data from electronic and scanned invoices, purchase orders, receipts, and bills of lading, validating its accuracy, identifying discrepancies, duplicates, and missing fields, routing exceptions for review, and inputting this data into manufacturing accounting software
• Categorizing incoming invoices from raw material suppliers, shipping companies, and utility providers, as well as conducting two-way and three-way matching
• Keeping track of invoice processing statuses, distributing invoices to wholesalers or retailers via email, and sending payment reminders to clients or accounting specialists
• Reconciling manufacturing company ledger information and bank statements

Manufacturing teams can use software robots and AI-powered agents to streamline the generation of bills of materials and ensure their accuracy, relevance, and comprehensiveness by automating the following manual processes:

• Extracting relevant data, like ingredient names, part numbers, costs, and quantity, from various sources, including technical designs, product specifications, and inventory records, and creating a detailed list of all the parts required to create a finished product
• Validating BOM data consistency and updating BOM records on request or when changes like part substitutions or modifications to product designs within ERP, product lifecycle management (PLM), and MES systems are detected
• Routing BOMs that contain incorrect or inconsistent data to the employees responsible for maintaining BOM records

Robotic and agentic process automation solutions are being actively implemented in manufacturing to support quality control teams, automating processes such as:

• Capturing product data, such as weight and dimensions, from scanned paper forms or standalone systems, including calibration management software or computer vision solutions, and sending it to the QMS or relevant QA teams
• Synchronizing product details and quality inspection data across non-integrated QMS, ERP, and MES systems to ensure record consistency
• Sending notifications about upcoming external audits to quality control specialists
• Generating routine inspection reports using ready-made templates and inspection data distributed across disjointed systems, eliminating manual data consolidation

Order management is a tedious process consisting of many labor-intensive tasks that can be streamlined with the help of agentic automation or RPA tools:

• Monitoring order and quote requests in real time, scanning the incoming order documents to extract the information required to create a new contract, such as a billing address or payment method information, and entering it into the respective contract template, order management software, or the ERP system
• Verifying purchase order and invoice accuracy based on the established contractual terms, such as total cost, delivery dates, and product quantity
• Sending order confirmations and updates, payment receipts, and delivery notifications to customers via email or customer portals

Manufacturing businesses can integrate RPA bots and AI-powered agents within their IT systems to entrust them with tasks related to manufacturing equipment maintenance, automating equipment data handling, staff alerting, and task coordination, preventing costly breakdowns and downtimes, and facilitating predictive maintenance:

• Processing maintenance work orders within computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) and directing maintenance requests to relevant specialists
• Scheduling routine equipment maintenance tasks, sending reminders to technicians, and detecting missed deadlines
• Generating maintenance reports by populating templates with details, such as asset data, who performed the task, and the work conducted, from paper documents, digital spreadsheets, and CMMS

As regulatory requirements applicable to the manufacturing sector evolve and keeping track of all of them becomes challenging, companies are seeking ways to streamline compliance procedures. Process automation solutions can be highly helpful in making sure that manufacturers meet such requirements at every stage of the manufacturing process while maintaining operational efficiency by performing the following tasks:

• Extracting data from manufacturing BI, ERP, MES, and QMS systems, entering it into compliance report or incident templates, and sending compliance reports in bulk to regulatory bodies on request or on a scheduled basis
• Monitoring regulatory updates by processing legal documents and regulatory databases and sending notifications about relevant changes to compliance teams
• Tracking compliance calendars, identifying compliance deadlines, and alerting compliance teams about the need to prepare relevant reports
• Consolidating enterprise financial and operational data for auditing evidence to see if a company complies with accounting, safety, or environmental standards

Software bots and agents can also prove useful in customer relationship management, performing routine tasks, such as:

• Categorizing incoming client questions about products or order statuses and sending them to appropriate sales or support specialists
• Setting up new customer accounts and updating existing ones in the manufacturing CRM system
• Extracting relevant client and order data from internal databases during customer conversations to help support agents rapidly respond to customer inquiries