Category Archives: Automation

India boasts of having one of the largest food processing sectors at the global level. It comprises 32% of the global food market share and 11.6% of employment opportunities. Grains, sugar, edible oils, beverages, dairy products, packaged, preserved as well as ready-to-eat food items occupy a significant share in the segment.

While the market has always been driven by labor; ever since the coronavirus outbreak, it is gradually treading on the path of digital transformation. According to Invest India, the national investment promotion and facilitation agency, India's food processing industry is growing at a significant pace and is projected to be valued at the $535 billion mark by 2025-26 owing to tech deployment.

Amongst the new-age technologies, automation however receives a special mention as the industry has been keen to embrace this technology as a solution.

The impact of the pandemic on the food processing segmentIn the pre-pandemic times, consumers were inclined towards purchasing unpackaged and loose food items from their trusted shopkeepers. However, Covid-19 transformed the scenario altogether. Not only it expedited digital adoption of the sector but also brought about a shift in the customers' preferences. As a result, the modern consumers now prefer customised products that come with a promise of health quotient and quick delivery.

The automation of the Indian food processing segmentWhile earlier technology was adopted by the players to survive and thrive in the market and cope with unforeseen situations; digitisation is now being embraced to enjoy a competitive edge. The industry players rely on automation to meet thegrowing and diversifying demands of the consumers. Various segments such as snacks (namkeen, bhujia, mixture), and frozen foods (naan, samosa, bhajias) have incorporated automation in the form of complete lines for fried snacks, extruded snacks fryer, aloo bhujia/namkeen extrusion line, automatic moongdal processing lines, as well as specifically designed equipment such as conveyors.

Along with them, complete lines and conveyors for baked snacks and automation solutions for Indian sweets including soanpapdi, kajukatli, gulabjamun, are other automation forms that are also witnessing a growth.The industry players are leveraging the power of this solution for pumping and extrusion, washing and soaking, weighing and blendingprocesses, and automate all of these processes so as to ensure smooth operations.

According to Meticulous Researchs recent reports, the global food automation market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% from 2020 to 2027 and will hit the $29.4 billion mark by 2027. The study further points out that the APAC region especially India is increasingly adopting automation and this trend will continue to pick up pace in the times ahead as well. Thus, it would be appropriate to say that automation is playing a pivotal role in upscaling the market and offers a plethora of benefits to the industry players. Simplifying operations and improving efficiencyAutomation as a solution is helping in simplifying and improving operational efficiency. Not only is the inventory management streamlined but the supply chain management and product recalls are also facilitated. With the automation of the product line, machines can communicate seamlessly with one another, analyze any issues that may arise, and resolve the problems in real-time without human intervention.

Boosting efficiencyMachines perform tasks with greater efficiency, speed, and accuracy as compared to manpower. They don't feel bored, fall ill or become unproductive frequently except in case of malfunctions. Incorporating the technology of automation in the food processing market thus helps increase the performance and enhances the productivity of the operations. Ensuring end-to-end traceabilityAutomation can help track the products right from their inception to fulfillment stages. At the manufacturing front, process monitoring and control are automated where the machines monitor and analyse the operations, detect deviations and take corrective measures without involving humans. This end-to-end traceability provides data that will not only help in tracking the products but also in building a detailed profile and predictive system for the long run.

Ensuring quality checksA vital element in the food processing sector is quality control. Faulty, defective, or contaminated products can tarnish your brand image as well as the relationship with your customers. Automation is helping in dealing with this challenge and is ensuring food hygiene at various levels. With this solution, the quality of food, colour, shape, volume, and labelling accuracy can be monitored. The technology even helps detect the presence of any foreign substance on the product surface. Problems can be identified well in advance during the processing or packaging stages. This way, automation ensures that only quality and premium products enter the market and reach the customers.

Ensuring worker productivity and reduced operational costAutomation takes over repetitive and mundane tasks. It relieves humans from the boredom and unproductivity associated with routine work and spares them time to focus on important responsibilities of customer satisfaction, managing the organization, and driving its growth. When machines work in place of humans, the labour maintenance and retention costs reduce significantly. It also leads to fewer accidents and hence lower insurance premiums. Adopting automation thus offers the added benefit of reduced operational costs for food processing firms.

Coming with the promise of reduced wastage and boosted sales Automation enables the production of food items with minimal use of ingredients that too without compromising on their appearance, taste, or quality. This helps increase the line efficiencies which further pave the way for bottom-line profit and greater sales.

Digital adoption was once an option but has now emerged to be the dire need of the hour for the Indian food processing industry. It has always been known as a labour-intensive sector. However, with automation gradually foraying into the segment, the market is disrupting digitally in the truest sense. The technology is helping organisations to reduce their operational costs, boost their productivity, tap the global markets and ensure greater efficiency, customer satisfaction along with food safety and quality.

Automation adoption in the industry is still in its nascent stages but will soon pick up pace in the times to come. It offers a myriad of benefits and will emerge to be a game-changer for the Indian food processing sector. Hence, it would to be appropriate to say that due to automation, the market seems to have a promising future.

(The authored is director at Kanchan Metals)

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Food processing industry in India - Benefits of automation | FNB News - fnbnews.com

In todays transaction-driven banking environment, providing an exceptional treasury management experience and service are key factors in creating value for customers. In order to optimize treasurys value, banks must embrace automation in their sales and onboarding processes to reduce the amount of time between when a new treasury customer says yes to the first time a customer receives an account analysis statement.

Treasury management is one of the most complex operations in any institution, yet most technical solutions that are used to manage the process are limited to single aspects of the treasury process. For example, regular maintenance and routine changes are typically very labor intensive in most systems or processes, and as a result, are ineffective at creating a seamless end-to-end process.

This often means that, even if the bank has an existing treasury system, they continue to rely on manual, paper-based and disparate processes requiring multiple approval layers. The result? Extended cycle times, decreased revenue and customers who are looking for alternative methods to achieve their complex commercial transaction requirements. By taking a look at each role in the treasury process, one can easily understand why it presents operational challenges. These challenges can include:

Because of the number and complexity of treasury products and services, a cumbersome delivery model is a gateway to lost opportunities and underperformance.

In order to fully optimize the treasury process and capture critical opportunities for non-credit, fee-based income business and more complete customer relationship management, it is clear banks should embrace an integrated, end-to-end automated treasury strategy that connects directly to their lending and deposit process.

A typical, fully implemented onboarding process offers the following benefits:

Moving forward, banks must think of treasury origination and onboarding from a digital and fully integrated perspective, where technology is easily managed by the institution and each stakeholder is seamlessly connected in the process, resulting in success and value for both the bank and the customer.

Our latest guide outlines treasurys value, common challenges faced during the treasury process and how the right combination of onboarding strategy and technology can lead to measurable straight-through processing results and accelerate time to revenue.

To learn more about elevating the customer experience and driving revenue through treasury management, download our guide here.

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Optimizing treasury management sales and onboarding - bankinnovation.net

Automation is the use of electronics and computer-controlled devices to assume control of processes. The aim of automation is to boost efficiency and reliability. In most cases, however, automation replaces labor. In fact, economists today fear that new technology will eventually push up unemployment rates significantly.

In many manufacturing plants today, robotic assembly lines are progressively carrying out functions that humans used to do. The term manufacturing refers to converting raw materials and components into finished goods, usually on a large scale in a factory.

Automation encompasses many key elements, systems, and job functions in virtually all industries. It is especially prevalent in manufacturing, transportation, facility operations, and utilities. Additionally, national defense systems are becoming increasingly automated.

Automation today exists in all functions within industry including integration, installation, procurement, maintenance, and even marketing and sales.

According to PC Magazine, automation by definition is:

Replacing manual operations with electronics and computer-controlled devices. For example, office automation replaced manual typewriters, filing cabinets and paper appointment books with computer applications.

Tape and disk libraries have been called automation systems because robotic arms pick cartridges out of a stacker and move them to the drives.

Artificial intelligence is gradually creeping into every aspect of our daily lives. Not only is it becoming more common in the workplace, but also in the home and even outdoors. Will it lead to a better quality of life and standard of living for humans, or a living hell?

Over the past forty years, information technology has completely changed the office environment. Such functionsas communication, documenting, correspondence, and filing have become fully automated. Offices today even feel and look completely different from what used to exist in the 1950s.

Apart from the huge difference in decibel levels, our offices today have much less furniture. Offices used to have loud typewriters, filing cabinets, and other furniture.

If we could travel ina time machine to the 1950s, the piles of paper would amaze us.

The average office desk used to be full of materials and equipment. Examples included folders full of paper documents, calculators, phone books, staplers, diaries, and post-it-notes. There were also Filofaxes, sticky tape, pens, and even paper maps and atlases.

While some traditional office workers still keep a number of these items in their desks, technology, and automation have eliminated the need for most of them.

How many of us today use a map made of paper to find directions compared to thirty years ago? When you wanted to find somebodys phone number, you had to look it up in a book. You could also telephone a service and talk to a human being. Today, however, we go online or talk to a robot programmed with voice-recognition software.

Technology has shifted most office workers from a fixed 9-to-5 routine to flexible working. Thanks to the Internet, the Cloud, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, we can now work from anywhere. Not only can we work wherever we like, but also whenever we want to.

This flexibility means that people are now better able to manage their work-versus-life balance. However, we now have a new problem; we cannot switch off from work completely anymore.

Bank branches used to have lots of staff and customers in them. Today, fewer and fewer of us do our banking physically inside a branch. We do most of our banking either online or by talking to robots on the phone.

Even if we go into a branch, most of the now are full of machines and technology inside. These state-of-the-art machines allow us to complete our banking tasks. In fact, most of us could easily manage without ever having to meet a human banker face-to-face.

Professor Henrik Christensen, from the University of California San Diegos Contextual Robotics Institute, believes that babies born today will never drive. Self-driving cars will be everywhere. He also predicts that a wave of companion robots will serve as health care, home companions, assistant robots, robotic pool cleaners, and many others. Some which are reviewed on Roger Corbinettis site.

Manufacturing has undergone enormous changes over the past few decades. Employment in manufacturing in the advanced economies has declined considerably.

In 1996, fourteen percent of the US workforce worked in manufacturing, compared to just 8% today. That dramatic decline was in just two decades! Who knows what the percentage will be in two decades time!

Not all of those jobs have disappeared because of automation. Some jobs have shifted abroad to countries with cheaper labor costs. However, a sizable proportion of that loss has been due to automation.

Experts say that the rate of decline in manufacturing employment will not slow down. In fact, most of them predict the problem will get progressively and more rapidly worse.

In the US, there were 1.2 million robots in factories and warehouses in 2012. This number jumped to 1.5 by the end of 2014.

The Brookings Institution said that by the end of 2016, there were 1.9 million robots in factories and warehouses.In other words, over a period of four years, the number of robots rose by nearly 60%.

Robots are becoming more sophisticated and skilled at performing complicated tasks. The high costs associated with transforming a labor-intensive factory to an automated one is changing. The cost differential with human workers is narrowing rapidly, to the robots advantage.

Put simply, it is becoming cheaper and within more business budgets to convert to full automation.

The late Professor Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk have often expressed concern regarding artificial intelligence (AI). They worry about what will happen to us as AI becomes more sophisticated and smarter. Prof. Hawking said: It [AI] would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldnt compete, and would be superseded. The three men were nominated for Luddite of the Year, mainly because of their worries regarding AI.

In an article How technology is changing manufacturing that the Brookings Institution published online, Darrel M. West wrote:

Estimates for labor cost savings in various countries through automation and robotics now are averaging around 16 percent in industrialized nations. But places such as South Korea have seen 33 percent cost savings, and Japan has seen a 25 percent savings.

The convergence of these developments means that robots are helping to increase overall output and save money, but not helping to add jobs. In looking at data from 2010 to 2016, manufacturing has seen 10 to 20 percent increases in output, but only a 2 to 5 percent increase in jobs.

Robots and other technologies are not only replacing workers in manufacturing, but also in teaching. The number of online courses that run automatically has exploded over the past decade.

The way we move around will soon change dramatically. It will not be long before private cars, buses, and trains have no drivers. In fact, even commercial airliners will probably have no pilots by the middle of this century.

Even professions that are super-secure today will eventually give way to robots. Robot surgeons, doctors, and veterinarians will probably run all aspects of medicine by the end of this century. In other words, by the year 2100, there might not be any human medical professionals.

By 2030, up to 861,000 UK public sector jobs may be automated, says a Deloitte and Reform report. Not only would this cut the wage bill by 17 billion, but it would also reduce the workforce by 16%.

There is growing concernthat in the future, only those with specialized qualifications will have jobs. Perhaps skilled artists, talented musicians, and others with gifts that humans admire will be busy. However, what will happen to the rest of the population is anybodys guess.

Robert (Bobby) Kennedy (1925-1968) was an American politician from Massachusetts. He was a United States junior senator from New York from January 1965 until June 1968, when he was assassinated. (Image: Wikipedia)

Moshe Vardi warns that over 50% of the worlds workforce will be unemployedwithin thirty years because of automation. Prof. Vardi isDistinguished Service Professor of Computational Engineering at Rices Department of Computer Science.

Not only will smart robots replace humans in the workplace, they will probably out-perform us too.

Bill Gates is an American business magnate, investor, author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen, which became the largest PC software company in the world. Since 1995, he has been rated by Forbes as the richest personin the world on many occasions. (Image: biography.com)

Regarding how humans and robots perform, Prof. Vardi said:

We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task. I believe that society needs to confront this question before it is upon us: If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?

Our schools must restructure their curricula so that pupils get better training in math, engineering, technology, and science. There is a growing need for workers with *STEM skills as software developers, systems analysts, biomedical engineers, and some other fields.

* STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

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What is automation? - Definition and examples - Market ...

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The hybrid workplace is here to stay. Employees will continue to work from home at least part of the time, as survey after survey confirms that at least 53% of employees prefer the flexibility and balance of working from home (WFH) and 43% attest they are more productive with a remote work model. Its clear that we need to reimagine how technology can empower employees to work smarter and part of that includes intelligent automation.

Intelligent process automation (IPA) is a growing category. IDC defines IPA as "a collection of software tools and platforms used to simplify, automate and manage processes, and to coordinate, connect and control distributed processes." Its an estimated $17.3 billion market according to IDC, being pushed forward by the convergence of AI with automation tools such as intelligent document processes, task and process mining, and predictive analytics. So how can intelligent process automation support this new era of hybrid working?

Employees still spend a lot of time on unnecessary stages, skipping steps, searching for information inside company documents and duplicating tasks. In fact, 90% of employees say their job is made more difficult due to challenges accessing data in documents to serve customers, and nearly a quarter (24%) lose a full day of productivity per week doing so. These numbers are not ideal as companies struggle to balance a digital skills gap and continue to lose employees during the Great Resignation all while striving for economic recovery. Its easy to see the impact efficiency in document-centric processes can have on employee productivity. This is of particular significance when you consider 80% of processes are document-centric, according to Gartner. This is where IPA comes in.

Today, tasks like finding and extracting data from physical documents are automated by solutions such as robotic process automation (RPA) robots and/or intelligent document processing (IDP). However, this doesnt mean that employees will sit idle in an office chair. Automating processes allows them to focus on more simulating tasks like building relationships with customers, analyzing data for new opportunities and creative problem-solving.

Organizations with remote and distributed workplaces invest in intelligent automation to make data from documents more easily accessible and add new document types into their workflows to support their workers in their new hybrid environment.

Related Article: The Role of Robotic Process Automation in Digital Transformation

Intelligent process automation works in the background, often without employees realizing. And with the World Economic Forum predictingAI will create 133 million new jobsthis year, and increasethe world GDP by $15 trillion by 2030, its no surprise that businesses are looking to invest in more solutions that leverage AI for intelligent automation.

Among the most popular over the past few years have been RPA bots infused with cognitive abilities. These bots can help improve efficiency and collaboration and ease the burden of administrative tasks. Its why 46% of employees say they spend up to two hours a day working with RPA and by some estimates could save 54 days per year by using it. However to gain these efficiencies, the processes the RPA bots are automating must first be operating as effectively as possible with minimal human involvement to fix bottlenecks, deviations or broken processes.

Related Article: Why We Need Universal RPA Design Standards

From a leadership perspective, organizations will need to work out how to equitably support both remote workers and those who chose to return to the office. People have reasons for working where they do: whether its working from home to avoiding long commutes or to take care of family, while others feel more productive in the office. People work differently. And organizations need to understand and accommodate varying scenarios and circumstances.

However, the perception that employees working in the office are better workers (akaproximity bias) is unreal and untrue and must be curbed at its onset. The right technology can potentially help here. Instead of seeing employees as better workers because they are in the office, its important to evaluate performance based on productivity.

A full understanding of the deepest aspects of business processes and the content that fuels them will be required here. Part of this is evaluating, monitoring and measuring how employees interact with software applications to complete tasks within a business process. It provides the foothold needed to make the leap with new intelligent automation initiatives. For example, the finance industry is extremely process-centric, as teams tackle time-consuming tasks relating to procurement, purchasing and invoices. Having the ability to analyze their tasks within processes and understand how they interact with systems to complete them enables IT and innovation teams to identify opportunities for improvement and increase the speed and accuracy of performing processes. It can also provide details down to the individual worker on their performance which can help identify if more training is needed, or perhaps a better way of completing a task can be found. Easing the burden of admin-heavy tasks and improved workflow are important steps to accurately evaluating employee productivity and avoiding proximity bias in the long run.

The rise of the Great Resignation, the ongoing drain of Zoom fatigue, the lack of in-person interactions, and the constant adjustments to a new way of work are just some of the challenges employees have faced over the last two years. Intelligent process automation can help organizations improve staff productivity, have better alignment with digital colleagues and avoid proximity bias to make hybrid working productive, balanced and fair.

Anthony Macciola is Chief Innovation Officer at ABBYY, a Digital Intelligence company, where he leads the companys AI vision and strategy. He holds more than 45 patents for technologies in mobility, text analytics, image processing, and process automation, and advocates their use for changing the future of work, improving the customer experience, maintaining business continuity, and achieving process excellence.

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What Intelligent Process Automation Can Contribute to the Hybrid Workplace - CMSWire

By Derek Rickard, Director of Sales, Cimcorp

Everyone along the fresh food supply chain works towards a common goal: provide safe, top-quality products to consumers. But time is of the essence when moving perishable goods. One make-or-break point in the supply chain? The warehouse or distribution center.

Within these facilities, fast and efficient fulfillment operations directly translate into a reliable supply of fresh food on store shelves. On the other hand, inefficiency leads to order delays, sub-par products, and unhappy customers. So to better manage warehouse operations, more fresh food companies and distributors are investing in automation.

Installed within the distribution end of fresh food production sites or in climate-controlled storage facilities, robotic solutions can optimize and control order fulfillment processeseverything from goods receiving, storage, and buffering, to picking, palletizing, loading, and dispatch. Facilities that automate, rather than solely relying on manual product handling, become up to six times more efficient and gain big advantages.

Lets look at three of the top benefits, along with examples of leading food companies getting automation right:

Warehouses and distribution centers that handle fresh products must meet very short lead times to minimize spoilage and maximize shelf life. After all, the less time products spend in the warehouse, the sooner theyre available to customers.

Todays automated solutions are designed to meet the need for speed. Storage and order picking functions can be integrated into a single system, enabling rapid, end-to-end product handling for those tight lead times. Perishable goods with strict sell-by dates then reach stores as fast as possible, and customers get their moneys worth when buying fresh food.

One great example comes from grocery giant Kroger and its Mountain View Foods milk processing plant in Denver, Colorado. When building the plant, Kroger implemented an end-to-end automated warehouse solution to precisely control the entire material flow of the facility. Now Kroger is able to rapidly distribute its packaged milk, cream, and juice products to more than 160 storesensuring longer shelf life, optimal freshness, and satisfied customers.

Demand fluctuations are a given in fresh food distribution. Some are predictable to a degree, like the seasonal surges many facilities see during the summer months and holiday season. Others are nearly impossible to anticipate, making it much harder to adapt. Just look back at the onset of COVID-19. Panicked shoppers left countless grocery store shelves empty, as distribution centers worked tirelessly to keep up with heightened demand for essential goods.

Modular automated systems can help fresh food facilities prepare for the expected and the unexpected. These systems utilize pre-engineered cells of automation that are standardized and easily repeatable. Facilities can quickly and easily scale up their levels of automation as needed to meet changes in demand, without disrupting ongoing operations.

Consider how one Midwest convenience store chain improved surge capacity through automation. In 2018, Kwik Trip opened a state-of-the-art baking facility in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to boost production volumes of its popular fresh bread and buns. The company invested in automation for efficient and well-orchestrated product flow throughout the facility. As soon as goods are baked and packaged, they enter an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). Then they are picked and dispatched to stores according to a first-in-first-out (FIFO) inventory management model.

At the outbreak of the pandemic, Kwik Trip saw demand for its fresh-baked products nearly triple in a single week. But equipped with flexible automation, Kwik Trip easily maintained its usual high levels of order speed, accuracy, and freshnessdespite the unexpected disruption.

Labor shortages are common nearly everywhere, and warehouses and distribution centers are no exception. Many in the food industry are struggling to recruit and retain enough staff to keep operations running smoothly. These shortages put the most strain on facilities where employees have to manually move products in and out of storage and pick and prepare all orders by hand.

Instead, automation can take over the labor-intensive tasks involved in order fulfillment. They can run around the clock with minimal human involvement to fill any existing gaps in the workforce and maximize productivity.

In turn, human employees can move away from physically demanding roles and take on safer, more engaging positions in the warehouse. This could include supervising automated equipment, selecting picking sequences, transport planning, and system maintenance. Overall, employees will benefit from better working conditions and companies will find new savings through reduced labor costs and increased productivity.

Martins Famous Pastry Shoppe, Inc.a Chambersburg, Pennsylvania-based food manufacturer known for its potato bread and rollsrealized these benefits firsthand. After struggling with seasonal staffing during busy summer peaks, the bakery decided to automate order fulfillment in its headquarters warehouse. Martins Famous Pastry Shoppe, Inc. implemented an automated system that stores, processes, and fulfills orders with little human intervention, reducing its labor requirements and man hours by 30%. And by moving employees away from labor-intensive positions, the bakery has eliminated the safety risks that come along with manual order fulfillment.

Despite the clear benefits of automating, some fresh food companies may be hesitant to make the investment. After all, what happens if their needs change down the road and their system is unable to accommodate the changes? Fortunately, automation doesnt have to be an all-or-nothing choice.

Flexible, modular automated solutions can be easily incorporated into new constructions or existing facility footprints. And while automation can handle the entire order fulfillment process, companies can also automate areas of the warehouse that will provide the most benefit and the biggest ROI. These islands of automation can be integrated with manual operations, and scaled if needed, so operations can run at their best no matter what the future brings.

Whatever approach you choose, automated solutions can give you the speed you need. Fresh food distribution is a race against the clock, and its time to get ahead of the game.

As Director of Sales at Cimcorp, Derek Rickard leads the sales team in developing robotic order fulfillment solutions to meet each customers warehousing needs. With 20+ years of supply chain experience, Rickard has worked on many of the first fully automated robotic picking systems in North America.

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Top 3 Reasons to Automate Fresh Food Distribution - Food Industry Executive

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The AP automation specialist Tipalti recently held a one-hour webinar to share some best practices for implementing a technology-empowered procurement process, and the real-life examples and insights were grounded in straightforward terms even though technology can be seen as scary or too complicated.

Spend Matters Global Head of Client Services Jenny Draper talked with Tipaltis GM of Procurement, Bar Winkler, and with webinar panelist Tomer Gamlielle-Druyan, VP of Global Supply Management for Cybereason, an end-to-end cybersecurity solution.

As a senior leader who oversees Cybereason's procurement, facility, travel and vendor compliance functions, Tomer and his team carry a broader mission and loftier goals to support the whole business including adopting technology to modernize procurement. As such, Tomer said his company changed the name of its procurement function to Global Supply Management to align with the elevated mission.

He said the companys hyper-growth going from 590 employees to about 1,500 in less than two years resulted from its focus on technology and being more efficient. A plan to go public also meant the company needed to ensure it had the proper compliance capabilities, internal controls and automated processes in place.

Nothing can be left for human error, Tomer said. We have to have automation all the time. Automation works.

Later in the webinar, an attendee asked a question that cut to the heart of the matter: How does technology prevent common mistakes attributed to procurement?

Tipaltis GM of Procurement, Bar, had the answers because he has spent the last few years building procurement technology and has spoken with hundreds of procurement executives and professionals on this subject.

To procurement pros, his list of problems will sound familiar problems like hunting down old information for a PO, late involvement in business decisions so procurement teams feel like a rubber stamp, no visibility into spend, and slow onboarding or complex processes that upset other departments across the company.

The systems in place can alert you, he said of the technology that can prevent problems, analyze spend or smooth out repetitive daily tasks.

And that struck a chord with the host.

That is the role of technology to get rid of those problems, Jenny said.

Jenny used her experience with Freemarkets (pre-Ariba acquisition), lessons from running other businesses, and her insights from the vendor and solution research at Spend Matters to curate and share 18 trends in digital procurement.

The first nine trends (above) reflect the developments related to strategy, but No. 12 on her second slide in the webinar lists a tactical, long-term problem that technology is finally addressing and thats getting control of tail-spend management. (With greater visibility into tail spend and better payment options, you could control more of the nearly 30% of spend that isnt managed. As Spend Matters analysts have pointed out, if you could cut 30% of your spend by 30%, that's a 9% cost reduction that could go straight to the bottom line.)

Tail-spend management is NOT the sexy thing, is it? Jenny said. Remember that sourcing was all hype and sexy and doing reverse auctions and so on. People didnt want to talk about tail spend because it was low value and its administration. But its become uncontrollable for some organizations so (technology) is really getting ahold of that.

Spend Matters also partners with Deloitte on its procurement-focused research that comes out every two years, and in 2021, the Global CPO Survey of more than 400 procurement professionals showed that the top concern wasnt cost-cutting, which procurement is known for.

The biggest focus for CPOs was driving operational efficiency, which the webinar panel discussed in detail.

The panelists also addressed a range of other issues, like the steps to take to switch to a technology footing and how to ensure that new processes and technology serve the people using them. But the discussion also focused on why technology is needed and how businesses decide to do digital transformations.

Our management had a learning curve, said Tomer, of Cybereason. When they thought about procurement, they thought about procurement in the old days.

He said they hired him to make a change, so he asked for three things.

I need the support, I need the funds and I need the systems, Tomer said, noting that he got good technology and hired proper procurement experts to use it. Im happy to report that the entire company sees the advantage and the added value.

With a big-picture perspective of how companies are seeking growth with the aid of technology, Jenny said I think a lot of (companies) are at this tipping point in making that investment and how they can sell that to the board.

Bar said the need for digital transformation commonly results when companies seek a funding round, are going public or are making leadership changes to spur growth, like adding offices or going international. Each of these comes with the expectation to show investors, regulators or the open market that your company has the proper controls and systems to meet the challenge.

Often, Bar said, the pressure to make a technology-based change comes from a new senior person who is hired. He noted that when the new leader sees that the companys current setup will not scale and that they have to automate to grow, the leader will have to say to management Whoa if you want me to take responsibility over this huge budget and very fast-growing budget then I need tools and systems in place. Otherwise, its going to break.

Bar said that before this person comes in, its very hard for people to make this kind of statement, its hard for them to get the support to change core workflows in an organization.

Go beyond the highlights mentioned here and listen to the full Tipalti webinar to get all of the slides, insights and expertise to help build a technology-driven procurement process.

Originally posted here:

Procurement leader on digital transformation: 'Nothing can be left for human error. We have to have automation all the time' - Spend Matters

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Good morning, Marketers, and is marketing ops synonymous with marketing automation?

It sometimes seems that way. Most of the MOps professionals I talk to are Marketo champions or HubSpot experts or Pardot geeks. Theres no question that marketing automation is a key part of the stack, helping marketers segment and message their audiences. But in these days of increased emphasis on omnichannel orchestration, perhaps a broader view is required.

In his latest article, Steve Petersen argues that the web is too often overlooked, especially as a channel in which significant experimental testing can take place, often providing insights applicable to other channels. Sure, email is important, but marketing automation is too often reduced to being just the email channel. Shoppers (and B2B buyers) can now be reached in so many other places.

And one things for sure. If you dont meet them where they are, they might not come looking for you.

P.S. Please spend just a few minutes on our salary survey.

Kim Davis

Editorial Director

Shorts

Quote of the day. I will never forget the day when the company that hired me only after I anglicized my name gave me Diversity and Equity training. What would your reaction be? Jahanzaib Ansari, CEO, Knockri (read the whole story here)

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Good morning: There's more to MOps than marketing automation - MarTech

Protecting product quality at the divider means reducing stress on the dough as it goes through the equipment. While this might not be as important for some products, reducing friction opens up the world of automation to more sensitive doughs.

When the dough is stressed during dividing, the gluten structure will be damaged, explained Patricia Kennedy, president, WP Bakery Group USA. With servo technology, we are able to avoid this stress.

With the data provided by the servo controller, WP Bakery Group can minimize pressure inside the divider, allowing delicate doughs to go through the process without losing finished product quality.

There are also ways to build that gentle processing into the divider.

For Middleby Bakery Group, oversizing double screws and divider pumps while also slowing down their rotations has reduced dough pressure and friction. This leads to less stress and heat and creates a more consistent dough. All of this is made possible by servo technology, controls and the companys proprietary software.

Servo technology provides the feedback to the operator and the original equipment manufacturer so we can monitor each lane, said Jay Fernandez, master baker at Middleby Bakery Groups Innovation Center. For example, our ability to see the exact rotations needed to deliver the required dough weight, knowledge and control the specific density of the product. The math works out very well.

The latest technologys ability to provide accurate weights and reduced stress on the dough simultaneously can have some unforeseen results.

Precision servo-driven sinusoidal pumps are delivering very accurate weights across multiple lanes with the added benefit of reduced pressure and stress on the doughs, Mr. Fernandez said. This may equate to cleaner labels due to a reduction in traditional dough conditioners.

Monitoring and control of temperature can also have a direct impact on the dough integrity as well as yeast activity. And controlling these parameters from batch to batch ensures consistency throughout a days production runs.

The ability to set, maintain and re-implement very precise parameters and call them up from the dividers memory helps keep quality levels throughout shifts and across multiple shifts over time, said Cesar Zelaya, bakery technology manager, Handtmann. More than that, the ability to adjust for variables and apply optimized parameters across lines and plants helps maintain product consistency across the enterprise.

This article is an excerpt from the December2021issue ofBaking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Dividing,click here.

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Reducing friction at the divider opens up automation to new products - Baking Business

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brigade Automation Corporation (BaggerBot), a San Jose, California-based startup, has literally reinvented the "sandbag"-filling process and minimized human interaction with the bagger machine itself.

The company's patented, robotic technology minimizes the amount of human labor required to operate the machine and is capable of running 24 hours a day. The BaggerBot can produce up to 1,600 filled bags per hour, can accommodate over 140 different types of bags, and is capable of filling wet or dry contents up to 1.2" in diameter.

The engineers at Brigade Automation Corporation created The BaggerBot with one goal in mind to revolutionize the way that we respond to weather and climate disasters.

Many companies have tried to create bag-filling solutions to combat the onslaught of climate change and natural disasters, but none have incorporated the ability to automate the entire bag-filling process like Brigade Automation Corporation's BaggerBot.

The lightweight design gives the Baggerbot the mobility to be trucked to any destination on-demand and the flexibility to be used for a multitude of different applications. The bags can be filled with sand, gravel, coffee, tea, etc., and, remember, the BaggerBot can accommodate over 140 different types of bags consisting of either wet or dry contents up to 1.2" in diameter.

The BaggerBot's 24/7 operating ability and minimal reliance on human physical labor sets it apart from competitors in the same space. Why? The majority of those companies do not provide fully "autonomous" bagger systems like the BaggerBot, which incorporates a patented robotic technology. Those companies still use manual labor to either fill their bags by hand or use inefficient machinery which (again) still requires demanding physical labor.

BaggerBot was designed to maximize efficiency while reducing and eliminating the risk of human limitations, all with the focus on supporting communities impacted by climate change and weather disasters.

The United States is Bracing for Trillions in Losses From Climate Change

In the United States alone, over four billion sandbags are produced each year (source) and, based on current trends and according to ASCE's 2021 Report Card, the U.S. needs to invest nearly $6 trillion by 2029 to protect against massive economic losses (source). BaggerBot meets a pressing need for better resources to protect against increasingly extreme weather patterns while also serving as an invaluable resource for other high-demand applications, such as erosion control, military operations, landscaping, and construction.

For more information about the BaggerBot and to learn more about our goals to help communities: contact Thomas Burns, President / CFO, Brigade Automation Corporation at 408.230.6567 or visit our web page to invest at equity crowdfunding platform StartEngine.

Related Images

Image 1: BaggerBot

BaggerBot: a mobile, highly sophisticated robotic machine that rapidly and safely produces sand and gravel bags to prepare and protect communities against natural disasters and other weather emergencies

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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Brigade Automation Corporation is Reinventing the Sandbag-Filling Process to Expedite Water Flood Protection and Humanitarian Efforts to Communities -...