Every business has processes that can be automated. But is it worth it? Of course automating tasks does cost both time and money. But there are many benefits that must be taken into consideration, some of which are not easy to define or measure, but can have a real impact on any business. Here are some of those benefits to keep in mind when trying to decide if you should automate a process…
Reduce stress
For some reason, doing the same task over and over again actually adds to our stress level. I am not sure why this is, but I have seen it time and time again. My working theory is that as tasks become repetitive, we become impatient with them. We know they are inefficient and we know we have other things we need to work on, but we can’t until the task is complete. This causes us to stress out about the pace and nature of the task. So clearly, removing those tasks will reduce the stress level in the office for everyone involved.
Increase job satisfaction
This may be stating the obvious, but I think we underestimate how much job satisfaction can be impacted by inefficient tasks. No one wants to sit and do the same thing 20 times a day for years, especially if we have other things that are more interesting or challenging to work on. I once automated the manipulation of a sales report for one of the office assistants at a company I was working for. She had to run and manipulated the same report every week for almost 15 years. The report was given to the president of the company at the end of each week and she would spend about 3 hours a week on it. When I surprised her with the automation tool that reduced 3 hours of manual work to about 5 seconds, she literally stood up and gave me a hug and began to cry (which totally caught me by surprise). It turned out that while it only took 3 hours a week to do the report, it was the one part of her job she absolutely dreaded. With the automation she no longer had to trudge through the monotony and could focus her efforts on a long list of other things she had to do.
Save time and money
Of course removing wasted effort will lead to time and money savings – in some cases significant savings. And don’t forget about the undocumented and soft costs of employee turnover and low morale. I worked on a project for a company that had some specialized scheduling requirements. They had offices in two different cities and a staff of 6 or 7 who did nothing but document patient visits in a spreadsheets and then schedule the next round of visits based on these entries. The job was tedious and they had a fair amount of turnover in their staff, which meant they were constantly training.
After reviewing the process, we found it to be very inefficient and error prone. Much of the “work” being done was wasted effort. To automate the task, we created some software that facilitated the scheduling and reduced data entry. Once the system was up and running, they were able to reassign 3 members of their staff to other jobs. Meanwhile, the remaining staff spent more of their time dealing with real issues that added real value to the company. Their turnover rate also dropped significantly which meant less time and money was spent hiring and training new staff.
Reduce errors
Automating tasks is a great way to reduce user errors – errors that are often introduced during data entry or data manipulation. Every time a piece of data is typed into a system, there is a chance for error. Multiply that by the difficulty of staying focused when doing data entry for hours on end and you can understand why errors occur. Most of the time, data entry can be eliminated entirely through automation. This is done by importing the data directly from one system to another. When data entry can’t be eliminated, automation can be used to validate the data when entered so that errors are caught immediately.
In one project I worked on, users were typing in the weight of packages into a spreadsheet, hundreds of times a day. Initially, we set up some automation rules that checked the entered value against historic values to capture potential data entry errors. This worked well, but still required data entry. Eventually, I convinced them to upgrade their scales to ones that had the ability to communicate directly with a computer. We then provided software that captured and stored the weight automatically, completely eliminating any chance for error.
Standardize processes
Many companies have defined processes, but frequently we find that they are not being followed because there is no way to easily enforce them. Automation can be used to standardize and enforce processes so that all employees do the job the same way, without error. This is done by creating custom forms, data rules and error checking. If well designed, processes will not only be identical, but much faster too.
Improved insight through increased data
When tasks are inefficient, it is very likely that only the most essential information is captured and the most vital tasks are completed – to do anything more would consume even more time. However, if those same operations and tasks are automated, then we find that additional information and details can be easily captured and stored for future analysis. The increase in the amount of detailed data allows for a more complex analysis of the data, which can lead to increased understanding of how the business is performing and where there may be opportunities and issues.
Prepare for Growth
We often find that many inefficient tasks are bottlenecks within the business. These inefficient tasks often prevent businesses from being able to scale their business or are the stumbling block that causes the business to fail when growing. By identifying and working on these processes early, you are prepared to handle future growth and your processes will be there to help you, not get in your way.
Business Automation Costs
Of course there are also costs associated with automating any process. These should also be considered and weighed against the benefits when making these kinds of decisions.
Development Costs
The most obvious costs of automating a business process are the development costs. These costs include the actual time spent developing the software or automation tool – the money spent paying programmers and developers to produce new software.
However, they should also include the costs associated with evaluating the current systems and developing proper strategies and approaches for the new processes. Many people try and minimize this part of the process and end up with less than ideal processes and software. Make sure you spend the time and money needed to get the design right – kind of a modern day version of “Measure twice, cut once”.
Hardware and Equipment Costs
Another obvious cost category for adding automation to any process is hardware and equipment costs. This includes obvious costs such as computer hardware (servers) and software. Other common hardware might include label printers, bar code scanners, RFID readers, shipping scales, office cabinets and other furniture. The type of equipment and costs will depend on what part of the business you are automating. Make sure you take some time to consider and document all of these potential costs.
Decreased Flexibility
One cost many people don’t consider is the decrease in flexibility that occurs with automating processes through software. They key to minimizing this cost is doing your homework upfront during the evaluation and design stages of the development. If upfront research is done properly, then any flexibility that is required should be captured and built into the new system or the system should be designed in such a way to allow that flexibility to be added later.
In some cases, if the processes are fairly new, then you may not know enough to fully automate the process right away. In these cases, you can either wait until you have refined the processes and know what is needed to implement it, or go ahead and proceed, knowing that you will have to come back and modify the software in the future.
Training
Don’t forget to include the cost of training your employees on the new system. This cost can include dollars for training materials, classes or just increased supervision. There may be other less tangible costs including slowed production when things are first implemented. The magnitude of this cost will depend on the complexity of the process being implemented and how it is designed. If done properly, the learning curve should be minimal and the system should be intuitive.
Making the Decision
When you are trying to decide whether to automate a task or not, make sure you take into consideration all of the benefits and costs associated with the automation. It is generally best to put together a comprehensive plan for your entire business and then start with the processes that are the most troublesome. This helps to minimize your budget and keep the scope of the project small enough to easily manage.
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