Mindbox

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Danone is a global company offering products supporting good nutrition and well-being of customers in over 120 countries on five continents. Danone's mission is "to bring health through food to as many people as possible."

In Poland, the first imported Danone products appeared as early as 1990, and just two years later, the company launched production here.

Today, the Danone group in Poland consists of more than 3 thousand people working in two offices - Warsaw and Cięcin - and seven production plants located mainly in the country's south, one of which is Nutricia Factory in Opole.

The history of Nutricia Factory in Opole begins in 1946 when production of grain coffee started. Since 1962, the factory has been producing nutrition products for infants and young children. In 2007 it joined the DANONE Group.

The factory is one of the most robotized factories in the DANONE Group. It was awarded a North Star as a digital lighthouse, which means that the solutions it implements are also implemented in other Danone factories worldwide.

There are currently almost 20 projects underway in the factory, focusing on reducing the use of paper, vision contact with mechanics, automatic tracking of machine failures and reporting, and virtual machines in training new employees.

Projects in the area of intelligent automation are also developing dynamically.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mindbox, and what were your goals?

In 2018, we decided to launch an extensive digital transformation initiative. The goal was to create even more innovative technological processes and improve business processes, which also positively impacts the quality of manufactured products.

Thanks to the projects launched at that time, we have become leaders in implementing intelligent automation on a DANONE Group-wide scale and across the entire industry. We started on the Blue Prism platform, on which we built a pilot process for creating shipping documents in SAP.

We quickly realized that RPA technology had much more potential than we initially thought and that it was worth using more widely. Therefore, we decided to change the platform to UiPath and establish cooperation with Mindbox.

Initially, Mindbox experts supported us in maintaining the server on which the UiPath orchestrator was running, the development environment, and the production environment. Eventually, all tasks related to the management of the UiPath platform were taken over by an internal IT team.

Currently, Mindbox consultants are focused on designing and implementing further robotizations from a pool of 40 processes that were initially selected as potentially providing the greatest return on investment from automation.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

In choosing a new intelligent automation platform, we were primarily guided by the ease with which business users without programming skills could create robots.

The choice of Mindbox as automation partner was determined mainly by the cost-effectiveness offered by Mindbox and their support in the development of the RPA platform. In addition, Mindbox had previously supported RPA projects in several Danone country groups in Europe.

We knew that Mindbox experts have extensive technical knowledge and business experience in intelligent automation and were proactive in proposing new solutions to achieve additional benefits.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

So far, we have automated ten processes in our plant. The first robot created directly on the UiPath platform was C-3PO. It handles the creation of new input data based on the inventory and production plan in SAP. This amounts to more than 40 shipping documents per day.

The robot collects data from different systems, standardizes it, and sends it as a PDF file to specific employees. This reduces the potential for error and increases the standardization of the process. This tool saves a specialist 2.5 hours of work per day.

Another example of robotization is Wall-E, which "cleans" orders in the production system and sends them to the SAP system. This tool can, among other things, account for basic orders, assign work costs to individual departments or send reports to a specified e-mail address.

As a result, it saves ten working hours per week for production analysts. The most complex solution for robotization that has been created in our plant is Hiro.

It is a tool that creates an updated version of the production plan every hour, including orders scheduled for the coming hours, then verifies it with the data in the SAP system. Later, it adds data on production progress from the Manufacturing Execution System.

Thanks to this, the company is able to, for example, delay the following orders that are scheduled to start in the ongoing production. Hiro checks production efficiency and the availability of raw materials and their expiration dates, and verifies selected quality parameters.

It can also place orders for raw materials and packaging for three departments of the plant with several production lines. In executing this tool, it became apparent that updating and implementing the production plan depends on many different external factors, and there are many exceptions.

The data that could be obtained from the systems was not sufficient. On the other hand, the process before automation was based on the direct exchange of information between employees, so the information was not collected in any system.

With the functionality of the UiPath platform - and the support of Mindbox - we made substantial changes to the process. The Hiro robot performs its tasks correctly and is constantly being improved. Currently, the next automation project – our 11th - is in the testing phase.

It combines the capabilities of the UiPath platform with Python scripts and image recognition tools. The solution verifies documents, checking whether they are correctly prepared, for example, whether there are signatures and stamps of the carriers on them.

Two other robotizations are at a similar stage, and four more ideas for intelligent automation will soon enter the design phase.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

• 5 RPA Developers
• 1 Senior RPA Consultant
• 1 Marketing Manager
• 1 Account Specialist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The primary goal of automation was to free many different professionals from monotonous, repetitive tasks. Automation processes save at least 30 hours of human labor each day. But that's not all.

Thanks to Hiro we have gained, among other things, greater precision in conducting selected processes. We managed to optimize transport management, which resulted in additional time savings.

It is worth mentioning that tools based on the Hiro concept - invented and developed from scratch in our Opole factory - are also used today in other DANONE factories.

Notably, some of the processes are now automated by the employees themselves, using the UiPath platform; importantly, these actions do not require any programming preparation.

There is an Automation Club at the plant, which brings together employees trained by Mindbox, who individually automate their processes. These processes are then transferred to the IT team, which supports their maintenance.

Employees who have made their own robots to facilitate work become automation "ambassadors," sharing with others their knowledge on the subject and their enthusiasm for robotization itself.

The robotization conducted so far will allow us to take the next step: towards hyper-automation, i.e., the integration of robotization with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, which in time will make it possible to automate practically every process at our factory.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Representatives of both companies worked practically as one project team. Exchange of information, teamwork, involvement of both parties - everything was at the highest level. This was due to the open and collaborative organizational culture of both companies.

The high level of Danone employees' knowledge of RPA also played an essential role in the effective workflow. The representatives of the companies' cases spoke the same language, thanks to which we understood each other better.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Mindbox is a modern, dynamic company open to challenges and flexible in its approach to client needs. However, this does not mean compromising on quality.

The company has broad and deep technological competence in RPA and ERP while perfectly understanding the need for an innovative approach to business.

It is the approach to new technologies and the awareness of their transformational potential but at the same time the conviction that technology alone is not enough to achieve success - that is most important. Our organizations share common values, which is why we work so well together.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

While the quality of work was great, they could have been more didigent about documentation. I've been told that their Project Manager is working on this now. Skills of developers - there is a need to align between them. Mostly they're very good, but there is 1-2 that require more practice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of IT for a manufacturer of automotive exhaust components to the on/off highway markets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mindbox?

Our company was expanding operations from North America into the European market, specifically Poland.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Our ERP vendor led us to the team at Mindbox in order to implement the US Epicor system and translate it for Polish and European regulation requirements

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project was initiated when we broke ground for a new greenfield site in southern Poland. The US teams traveled to Poland in order to train their Polish counterparts while being considerate to local customs and regulations.

The work was managed in several stages. Construction of the building and technical infrastructure, building the Polish management team, documenting US processes and developing training material, training of the processes and ERP system, and ultimately starting production and shipping to our customers.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Our main point of contact was Piotr, VP of ERP. Agnieszka Hermaniuk was our project manager while Artur Popielarski and Cezary Rak were the financial and production consultants.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We were successful in implementing and translating the requirements on time and under budget. Production started as expected meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Mindbox was incredibly easy to work with and was very responsive to our changing needs. They were effective in working with both the US and Polish teams throughout the entirety of the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their ability to understand the needs of our situation and translate them to the local requirements and regulations far exceeded our expectations. They commit to their promises and always deliver on time and budget or better.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Mindbox continues to be one our strongest business partners.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

SCANIA Poland is a part of SCANIA, a global organization selling trucks and buses and providing maintenance services in over 100 countries. It is responsible for the sales of new and used vehicles in Poland. In addition, it rents vehicles and offers a wide range of maintenance, repair, and financial services. The company is distinguished from its competitors by a dense network of workshops located all over the country - most of them are owned by the company. SCANIA Poland employs nearly 700 people, half of whom are mechanics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mindbox, and what were your goals?

Continuous improvement, waste elimination, and innovation are part of our DNA. For many years, we have been trying to optimize processes, in production, workshops, and administration. We are looking for solutions to increase productivity while reducing our environmental impact. Two years ago, we heard about RPA or Robotic Process Automation. The idea of using robots that replace human labor for repetitive tasks and that can work on many different systems simultaneously intrigued us. We realized that we could achieve significant benefits in process optimization. Mindbox supports us precisely in the area of intelligent automation of business processes.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Previously, Mindbox had supported SCANIA in operating the Epicor ERP system. The cooperation went very well. The company completed the contracted work on time and within budget and, at the same time, it was flexible and responded quickly to comments and suggestions. Mindbox experts have extensive technical knowledge and business experience, and they are proactive in suggesting new solutions that allow them to achieve additional benefits. We knew that they also specialize in intelligent automation, and we were sure that the planned pilot of RPA robot implementation would go smoothly.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We first decided to run an RPA pilot project using a demonstration license offered by UiPath. Within three weeks, it became clear that we could achieve significant results without significant investments. This was the beginning of the robotization of processes at SCANIA. Other projects quickly followed, bringing the expected results and exceeding expectations as they opened up new opportunities.

Slowly, step by step, we invested more and more effort in optimizing processes using RPA tools. At one point, when we became convinced that it was indeed a tool that could adequately replace human labor, we decided to use it in the process of posting supplier invoices. The robot took over this task in less than ten months. The implementation of RPA in SCANIA began with the accounting department, where there were the most processes susceptible to automation. Another area was the sales and logistics departments. And this is where we managed to save the most time, i.e., robots replaced, on a large scale, the time spent by humans on data entry and the updating of systems. We also have automated processes in the HR department and IT department, and we are still thinking about more areas. The first robot operating in SCANIA was relatively simple, responsible for updating the accounting journal in the iScala system.

At night, the company's ERP system received thousands of documents from external systems. Every morning after coming to work, the accountant would run the update process, which could take up to an hour. This was lost time for him because he could not use the system during that time. The effect of using RPA was immediate and noticeable. By running a robot that performed the journal update at night, after receiving a signal that all documents had been uploaded, the accountant, upon arriving at work, could immediately take care of other tasks without wasting time.

Due to technical problems or factual errors, journal updates were sometimes incomplete - not all documents were uploaded and posted. Every time an update was made, two lists had to be compared: those documents that should have been entered into the system and those that had been entered. After a trivial but time-consuming correction of errors, data was taken from the current journal for reports, in which it was recalculated according to internal accounting rules. A file was then created that was saved to disk and imported into the ERP system, followed by another accounting journal update.

These processes were sequential: the accountant updated the journal, checked for missing items, corrected errors, recalculated, and generated a file that had to be re-imported into iScala. We were able to automate this with four sequentially deployed robots. After automating over a dozen processes, we decided to take on a more significant challenge, namely automating the posting of supplier invoices. This is one of the key processes from the perspective of the accounting department.

Until recently, it was handled by an external outsourcing team consisting of several people; however, today, it is the responsibility of the Virtual Accountant. This was a more complex challenge because automatic document accounting required the use of four independently operating robots, and the architecture of the solution had to include the use of an intelligent OCR system and artificial intelligence algorithms. Thanks to the use of machine learning, if the robot cannot apply one of several accounting rules to a given invoice, artificial intelligence decides how to classify it based on the content of the invoice.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2-3 experts

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The automation of processes has meant that we have data in our accounting system earlier, and we can react more promptly to situations in the accounting area. This also allows us to transfer them faster to our dealers and our parent company, SCANIA Global. The measurable effect of Virtual Accountant is a reduction in the process from receiving an invoice to sending it for final approval from 5 days to a few (2 to 5) hours. It takes 90 seconds to prepare an XML file, which stores all the invoice data in a structured form, and about 45 seconds to schedule line item postings.

The return on investment has been 4 thousand invoices per month in less than a year. Of course, robots have not replaced accountants. But they have enabled them to take care of things for which there was no time before. Having to focus on the basics leaves little time for innovation. Thanks to RPA, accountants can use predictive analytics to take care of workflow improvements, debt collection, or more advanced reporting. Robots have relieved people of the most monotonous and repetitive work and opened up new opportunities. This was the case with the automation of a sequence of manual activities related to updating the accounting journal at night.

Processing in the data warehouse of SCANIA takes place at night because a large amount of data puts a heavy load on the servers. Until recently, this meant that the data used by top management to make decisions was always a day late. Today, top management has a complete set of up-to-date information every morning - a result that was not planned initially. The experience gained from implementing the first robots now allows SCANIA employees to look at other processes not individually but more comprehensively, as more extensive sequences of processes.

This approach enables us to achieve more. Indeed, the success of the implementation of the first robots convinced us to launch a long-term program. RPA is no longer looked at as a project but as a program. A comprehensive approach to automation has been created, and accounting is no longer the only business area in SCANIA where robots are used.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The cooperation was excellent. The source of success was the superb attitude and the team compatibility, the open culture of both organizations. in addition to the education of SCANIA employees in the field of RPA, which, from the beginning, was provided by Mindbox experts. Thanks to these factors, both sides understood each other better as they became aware of the possibilities and limitations of the technology over time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We know that Mindbox has broad and deep technological competence and perfectly understands the need for an innovative approach to business. However, what is unique is the simultaneous emphasis on traditional values such as transparency of operations, openness to client needs and proposals, and partner relationships. In addition, Mindbox is aware that one of the significant challenges of intelligent automation lies in psychological aspects: building awareness within the organization, fighting stereotypes, and alleviating employee fears.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Everything was perfect.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Applica AI-based Intelligent Document Understanding is a platform that automates document-intensive business processes. I'm Applica's CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mindbox?

Mindbox helped us in porting Applica across multiple cloud providers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We shortlisted 3 vendors and executed ran an RFQ.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Confidential

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a team of two cloud consultants supported by a cloud architect.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project was executed on time and within budget.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We managed to build a partnership built on trust.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We were impressed with the competence and agility of the Mindbox team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None