Supply Chain Automation: The Complete Guide

In today's globalized economy, supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, with numerous stakeholders, processes, and data points involved. From raw material sourcing and production to shipping and delivery, managing the supply chain can be a daunting task for businesses.

This is where supply chain automation comes into play, offering a range of benefits, from increased efficiency and productivity to reduced costs and errors.

In this blog post, we'll discuss the importance of supply chain automation and how Nanonets can help businesses automate their supply chain data capture and finance-related workflows.

What is Supply Chain Automation?

Supply chain automation refers to the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA), to automate various supply chain processes.

From procurement and production to logistics and delivery, automation can improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of these processes, while reducing costs and errors.

Why Supply Chain Automation is Important

Managing a supply chain involves coordinating with multiple vendors, suppliers, distributors, and logistics providers, which can lead to delays, errors, and increased costs.

Traditional supply chain management methods are often paper-based or rely on manual data entry, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

Supply chain automation can streamline these processes, reducing the risk of errors, delays, and costs, while improving overall efficiency and productivity.

Automation also provides real-time visibility into the supply chain, allowing businesses to make data-driven decisions and respond quickly to changes in demand or supply.

Examples of Supply Chain Automation

There are several workflows in the supply chain process that can be automated. Here are a few examples:

Procurement

Automating the procurement process, from supplier identification to purchase order creation, can help businesses reduce manual data entry and streamline the procurement process.

Production

Automating production processes, such as quality control, assembly, and testing, can improve the speed and accuracy of production, reducing errors and delays.

Logistics

Automating logistics processes, such as tracking and tracing shipments and filing Electronic Export Information forms, can provide real-time visibility into the supply chain and run efficient and error-free operations. It enables businesses to optimize logistics operations.

Finance

Automating finance-related workflows, such as invoice processing and payment reconciliation, can reduce manual data entry, improve accuracy, and reduce processing times. Nanonets can be used to automate invoice processing and payment reconciliation. This can help businesses streamline their financial operations, reducing costs and improving efficiency.

Benefits of Supply Chain Automation

Implementing supply chain automation can provide businesses with several benefits, including:

Increased efficiency

Automation can reduce manual data entry, eliminate errors, and speed up processing times, improving overall efficiency and productivity.

Reduced costs

Automation can reduce costs associated with manual data entry, errors, and delays, resulting in lower operating costs and higher profit margins.

Improved accuracy

Automation can improve data accuracy by reducing the risk of errors associated with manual data entry.

Real-time visibility

Automation can provide real-time visibility into the supply chain, enabling businesses to be proactive in dealing with issues.

Automating supply chain data capture with Nanonets

Nanonets provides businesses with an AI-powered platform that automates document data capture and finance-related workflows.

The platform uses advanced OCR technology to extract data from documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, and receipts, and automatically enters this data into the company's ERP or accounting software.

This automation reduces the risk of errors, increases processing speed, and allows employees to focus on more value-added tasks.

Here's how to get started with Nanonets:

1. Identify the documents to be captured: The first step is to identify the types of documents that need to be captured, such as invoices, purchase orders, or shipping documents.
2. Pick an AI model: Pick a pre-trained AI that can extract the relevant data fields for your document.
3. Test & train the model: Test it on a set of sample documents to ensure accuracy and identify any errors.
4. Build custom workflows: You can slice and dice the data any way you want with Nanonets workflow builder. Apart from post-processing you can also define integrations in this step.
5. Integrate with your business software: Clean validate data can be integrated with your existing business software or ERPs via API.

Automating supply chain data capture with Nanonets can help businesses save time and reduce errors, while improving the accuracy and efficiency of their supply chain operations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, supply chain automation is becoming increasingly important for businesses looking to streamline their operations and stay competitive in a fast-paced market.

With Nanonets, businesses can take advantage of the latest in machine learning and AI technology to automate their supply chain data capture, improving accuracy and reducing manual labor.

By automating processes across procurement, production, logistics, and finance, businesses can gain a competitive edge and improve their bottom line.