"Rise of the Robots": Automation as a Process Improvement Tool

NYBPP Meetup (4/5/2017)

Highlights and Q&A

Agenda

I. "Rise of the Robots": Automation as a Process Improvement Tool■ Separating Robotics and Automation■ Robotic Workflow versus Automated Business Process■ Automating Processes■ Leveraging Robotics as a Tool■ Robot or Human? Analyzing Cost■ Summary

II. Q&A■ How can we expect robots to make decisions?■ Is the risk of hacking and cyber security critical in robotics decisions?■ How could we automate highly complex processes?■ How do we differentiate robotics from other forms of automation?

"Rise of the Robots": Automation as a Process Improvement Tool

Understanding the application of robotics as a

workflow tool to enable process automation

Separating Robotics and Automation

● Robotics deals with the design, construction, operation, and use of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing.

● Automation is about creating processes that can operate with little or no human intervention. It means structuring process logic in a way that make data inputs and outputs MECE, such that no judgement is required to action a given situation.

● Automation enables robotics - not the other way around!

Robotic Workflow vs Automated Business Process

Robots operate here at the workflow layer where they enable process

Automation happens here at the business process layer

Robotics and Automation are fundamentally unrelated!

Automating Processes

Before robots are even considered, business process has to be analyzed and built for automation. It is at the decision points of a process where automation can be applied.

By constructing MECE and objective criteria, human judgement and intervention can be reduced in process decision making, and automation can increase.

Leveraging Robotics as a Tool

Once a process is automated, it requires less intervention (or less experienced intervention), so the work can be re-allocated to a lower cost base. This is known as operating model optimization.

Robotics is simply one option in this tool set.

Deciding to use robotics as an option is simply leveraging another labor tool option to lower the cost of an automated process.

Ultimately, the decision to use robotics to automate your process comes down to cost.

If robotics is the lowest cost option available within organizational constraints, then they should be leveraged to scale the business or simply change and optimize an existing process.

Robot or Human? Analyzing Cost

While cost analysis can become very complicated when deciding to invest in robotics as a long term strategy, some simple process mechanics can help structure the thinking:

○ How is the work being done today and what does it cost? ■ e.g. human labor? additional tools? time to process?

○ How much would it cost to have a robot do it?■ robot investment (amortized over time)? fixed costs

(energy and maintenance)?○ How much are other human alternatives?○ Do the projected savings offset the costs?

Understanding robotics as a tool that should be compared with alternatives will help navigate the coming “rise of robotics”.

Summary• Robotics and automation are fundamentally different and

need to be understood as discrete process elements that operate in different layers of process work (workflow versus business process).

• Automation precedes and is required for robotics. You can’t expect to add a robot to a process to automate it, it happens the other way around.

• Process automation is achieved through structuring decision criteria: without understanding the flow and decisions within a process, automation is not possible.

• Robotics is a tool. Like any other tool, it should be incorporated only if there is a proper cost justification for it.

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Q&AAnswering questions from the Meetup

How can we expect robots to make decisions?

We won’t!

● Automation is the act of minimizing human intervention by removing the need for decision making. Once you successfully automate, you can have a robot execute a process with no decisions in it.

● We don’t want robots to make decisions necessitated by them being put in ambiguous situations.

Is the risk of hacking and cyber security critical in robotics decisions?

Yes.

Is this a reason to be afraid of robotics? No.

But cyber security and other robotics-related risk should be considered - like any other process risk - when making decisions regarding process improvement options.

How could we automate highly complex processes?

Through detailed process analysis!

● Complexity of process is relative, based on what is currently known. Through disciplined and thorough process analysis, all complexity can be automated within physical constraints.

How do we differentiate robotics from other forms of automation?

Robotics is not automation!

● There is only one type of automation: the creation of processes that can operate with little or no human intervention.

● Robotics is simply a tool that enables automation and is one of many such tools.

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