Building a paperless supply chain journey with intelligent document processing

The digital revolution has been underway for a number of years, with industrial sectors adopting new technologies at their own pace. With so much urgency around meeting demand, the systems involved in procurement, logistics, and other sectors of the supply chain have been relatively slow to digitize and automate. The biggest third-party logistics providers, retailers, and suppliers have the most advanced artificial intelligence tools guiding their supply chains, while many processes for small and mid-size organizations remain fairly analog. Many are even reliant on physical paper.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how dependent we are on each other. Problems and inefficiencies in one organization don’t just hurt their profits — they have a ripple effect through the entire economy. The record-breaking demand, labor shortages, and material shortages over the past few years created an impetus for organizations of every size to upgrade their supply chain technology.

Intelligent document processing (IDP) platforms are a critical investment for large organizations that still have automation gaps left by their enterprise resource planning tools as well as small and mid-sized companies that can’t fully take advantage of the capabilities of ERPs. Intelligent document processing solves supply chain problems at the most granular level — on paper.

The problems with paper

Paper documents were once our only choice. But paper can now hold technology back because it does the following:

Increases processing times

Any time a paper document is used, it can create a bottleneck as its information isn’t immediately available. Even worse, workers have to waste time manually entering data, drastically increasing labor expenses. Automation Hero found that simply digitalizing documents saves some customers 20% of their budgets.

Limits visibility

Without immediately available data from a bill of landing (BOL), stakeholders along the supply chain journey can’t access critical information, like pickup and delivery times.

Lowers accuracy

Handwriting can be hard to read, leading to incorrect data entry. Even worse, paper documents are easy to lose, resulting in critical operational information being lost forever.

Creates a gap between analog and digital operations

With AI increasingly tasked with mining process data to improve efficiency, paper creates a blind spot AI can’t analyze.

Prevents real-time decision making

With supply chain chaos, many procurement teams are forced to find alternative suppliers to meet deadlines or demands. Leaders need data to make the best decision, but the more data hidden away on paper from an AI, the more difficult decisions become.

Unfortunately, many small and mid-sized businesses won’t have the resources available to fully eliminate paper. But with intelligent document processing, paper doesn’t have to be such a big problem, either. IDP can help companies easily reap the benefits of digital processes without the time and investment of fully revamping their operations.

How intelligent document processing cuts through paper waste

The supply chain runs on documents, but automation and AI need data. What companies need to really improve the efficiency of their supply chains is an easy way to extract data from their documents. IDP platforms like Automation Hero’s use advanced AI to capture necessary information from documents as efficiently as possible. And with ultra-fast scanners, even paper documents won’t be a problem to process, as long as workers are quick to upload files.

Intelligent document processing can help supply chain workers to

Minimize data entry

Automation Hero’s AI extracts data from documents without the need for manual data entry or even review. Data extraction formats all critical information in a form that other computer systems can understand so information is immediately available for further processing.

Improve accuracy and compliance

Data extraction eliminates typos or other human errors from manual data entry. Since it labels the information pulled from packing slips, contracts, and other documents, it’s easy to ensure regulatory compliance and contract governance. For example, if the AI extracts mention of a lithium ion battery from the packing slip, it can automatically generate a label or other document that declares its presence in the package, in compliance with local laws. 

Bridge the data gap between large and small enterprises

Mega corporations in the supply chain already have mostly paperless, digitized processes. Automation Hero lets even small- and mid-sized companies with analog-heavy processes easily connect to external systems for seamless communication. This enables them to send and receive documents and data without needing accommodations from outside vendors.

Use real insight to change supply chain workflows

Automation Hero doesn’t just overcome the biggest burdens of paper. Users can also extract all historical data from their documents and let the system analyze them for optimal suppliers, routes, and other workflow changes, without the need for a large team of data scientists.
Can intelligent document processing build a completely paperless supply chain? Automation Hero can eliminate some paper documents from workflows, but it’s not necessary to achieve maximum efficiency. With data extraction and advanced AI, users can quickly improve their bottom line without any complicated system implementation. Learn more about how Automation Hero can streamline procurement and supply chain management processes in our new e-book.