Process Overview

The process for procurement of ship’s technical equipment encompasses a sub-process of ’Releasing the Request for Quote (RFQ)’. The requisitions generated by ships are converted into ‘Parked Queries’ at AMOS procurement application, which are reviewed by the client’s ‘Buyers’ team. Parked Queries are converted into ‘Active Purchase Orders’ basis defined rules for different scenarios.
Buyers identify the appropriate suppliers who can fulfill the request and release the RFQ. Once all the quotations are received from the vendors, buyers choose the best quotation and send it for approval. The entire process is manual and effort-intensive requiring a team of 20 buyers to manage the day to day activities.

Automation Need

The cruise line was facing below challenges in the current process which propelled them to consider automating it.

• Delays due to manually monitoring the requests which are action ready
• High process execution time
• High manual effort & human dependency
• Manual errors and oversights

About the Client

The client is a leading US-based cruise line with a fleet of 14 modern ships. They offer more than 500 sailings an year visiting all seven continents. Cruises include both popular and less-traveled ports in the Caribbean, Alaska, Europe, Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

Solution

• IGT conducted an onsite consulting exercise to understand and assess the process for automation potential. A pilot RPA implementation followed this by automating the first part of the process- Release of RFQs.
• The process is tuned for automation to speed up the procurement process by freeing employees from repetitive and time-intensive tasks thus allowing them to focus on business-critical activities like decision-making and strategizing.
• A set of Bots are run on pre-defined time intervals to execute the operation needs daily.
• Bot monitors the ‘Parked Queries’ in AMOS application and converts them into ‘Purchase Orders’ basis validation of information like contracts, vendor details etc. in the query details.
• Bot refers to a decision matrix for vendor selection in scenarios where vendor details were not available. Once the ‘Parked Queries’ are converted to ‘Active Purchase Orders’, these are sent to appropriate vendors as per the workflow.
• A consolidated excel report with Bot status for processed queries is sent after each run for tracking and to work manually on the exceptional cases flagged by the Bot.

Benefits

• Faster Processing time - 70% improvement in overall processing time
• Improved Accuracy - 90% accuracy achieved by reduction in manual errors and oversights
• Process Streamlining and consistency
• Predictable processing time with better compliance
• Productivity Gains –Manual bandwidth freed up for high-value intricate work

Applications in Scope

• AMOS application
• MS Outlook
• MS Excel

Automation Tool Partner

• Automation Anywhere