Abstract
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is currently a topic of interest for both research and industry. Many administrative tasks in operations consume a vast amount of time and create little value. The possibility that the responsible employees can quickly and easily automate these processes by themselves makes RPA a promising approach for many processes. However, RPA procedures are only able to automate a process in its present form. In this way, redundancies and excessive process steps are incorporated into RPA process flows. Combining RPA with the popular Business Process Management (BPM) approach poses a useful strategy as the as-is process is optimized first. The RPA procedure is then deployed on the optimized process to reach its full automation potential. This paper proposes a methodology to combine RPA and BPM and demonstrates the potential within a case study. Benefits, limitations, and further research opportunities are likewise addressed.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the EU project iDev40. The project iDev40 has received funding from the ECSEL Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 783163. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. It is co-funded by the consortium members, as well as grants from Austria, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Romania.
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Flechsig, C., Lohmer, J., Lasch, R. (2019). Realizing the Full Potential of Robotic Process Automation Through a Combination with BPM. In: Bierwirth, C., Kirschstein, T., Sackmann, D. (eds) Logistics Management. Lecture Notes in Logistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29821-0_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29821-0_8
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