RESULTS
Cost
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$ 0 k/year
Integration
to ERP
0 %
Improved
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Automating the Intake of Material Certificates
SphereGen Case Study
The intake and recording of Material Certificates was a highly manual, time intensive process which was prone to error for a Connecticut Manufacturer. Their goal was to automate the process and increase accuracy.
SphereGen used Intelligent Document Processing with AI and Machine Learning to automate the intake and validation of Material Certificates from multiple suppliers. This automation transformed the Materials Certification process by removing the need for manual data entry, saving hours of time every day and increasing accuracy.
Automating
the Intake of
Material Certificates
SphereGen Case Study
The intake and recording of Material Certificates was a highly manual, time intensive process which was prone to error for a Connecticut Manufacturer. Their goal was to automate the process and increase accuracy.
SphereGen used Intelligent Document Processing with AI and Machine Learning to automate the intake and validation of Material Certificates from multiple suppliers. This automation transformed the Materials Certification process by removing the need for manual data entry, saving hours of time every day and increasing accuracy.
O V E R V I E W
Our Manufacturing client accepts materials from multiple suppliers. Every materials shipment is associated with Material Certificates which are used as the reference point for manually recording and receiving data about the shipment. Each supplier’s Material Certificate has a unique layout and may represent pertinent information differently.
Challenge
Our client wanted to improve their Materials Cert intake to reduce the amount of time required to complete the process and the percentage of errors caused by manual data entry. The major obstacle in improving this process was the variation of certificate layouts per supplier, the unique data representation of data elements and hard to read handwritten or blurred forms data.
SOLUTION
SphereGen built an automation using Intelligent Document Processing with AI and Machine Learning to recognize each supplier’s Materials Certificate and look for data elements based on supplier recognition. The automation is trained to identify supplier certificates. Once identified, the automation pulls the correct data to build a pdf, which is then moved to a folder for review based on the destination system that receives it. Certificates which cannot be processed, are moved to an exception folder for correction. The status of all processed certificates is tracked for reporting purposes.
This automation saves hours of manual data entry work each day and has significantly improved the accuracy of data entering the ERP system.
THE DETAILS
In automating the Materials Certification intake process, there were many steps to be researched and setup. All supplier certificates had to be identified, and the automation trained to read them.
OUR APPROACH
Identifying All Supplier Certificates
The first step of development required researching all supplier certificates flowing into the process and determining the destination system. Sometimes one supplier certificate contains information for multiple departments. These types of certificates must be broken into multiple files for each system load.
Training the Automation Digital Worker
Once certificates were identified the digital workers were trained to recognize them. Since the layout of each supplier certificate is unique, the automation is trained to recognize the pattern of each supplier form and identify the data elements.
This was accomplished by continually feeding certificates through the automation process until a high degree of success, or confidence level is registered in recognizing the cert layout and properly translating the data.
In the case of Material Certs for our client, the automation must recognize the symbols of chemical elements and the compositional makeup of each element within the material. If certificates are not printed properly – for example numbers don’t line up with field headings, or the copy is blurry – the process has trouble recognizing the values. Proper training is key to increasing the ability to overcome these issues and reducing the percentage of certificates which fail document recognition.
Human Review and Integration to the Receiving System
After the necessary materials data is retrieved from the certificate, the data is converted to a pdf and placed in a queue for review. A staff member reviews each pdf for accuracy and approves or rejects the pdf for upload to the receiving system. These systems include ERP, Quality, and Procurement. Once all certificates in the batch have been processed, the automation updates the materials received and notifies the appropriate departments which materials certificates have been successfully loaded to their system.
Exception Errors
If any certificates cannot be intelligently processed with a high degree of confidence, or the pdf is rejected during the review process – the file is moved to an Action Center for manual review and correction. Staff are notified that exception files need attention. These exceptions contain the original file and the resulting values which the automation attempted to translate. Upon review, staff can either accept the data translation as is or fix the incorrect values. This exception process is important, as the automated process learns from these corrections – training it for the next time a similar issue may be encountered.
Each exception is logged for tracking throughout the system and analysis reporting.
CONCLUSION
By automating the intake and recording of Material Certificates, our client was able to recognize considerable time savings and increased data accuracy.
- Less Data Entry time – With Intelligent Document Processing, the majority of Material Certificates can be processed automatically. A very small percentage of exceptions require manual action. Because many staff members were previously required to enter data manually, this time savings is multiplied across the board.
- Improved Accuracy – With a large percentage of the data processed digitally, the chance for human error has been significantly decreased. By increasing the accuracy of data as it enters the system, all processes down the line have likewise been improved.
- Increased Productivity – As a result of less time entering data and fixing errors, overall productivity increases across multiple departments.
Automating the processing of forms and pdfs is just one way you can use AI based automation functions to streamline workflows and improve productivity. If you have any questions regarding automation and its benefits, we would be happy to discuss any potential opportunities for automation you may have!
SphereGen is a unique solutions provider that specializes in AI and Intelligent automation, cloud-based applications, and custom web/mobile apps. We offer full-stack custom application development to help customers employ innovative technology to solve business problems.
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