GRAMMER CZ specialises in production of interior components for cars, lorries, buses and trains. The company is part of a group with more than 43 production and distribution sites in 20 countries around the world. GRAMMER CZ is undisputedly a global partner for the automotive industry worldwide. Its domain is, among other things, production of head and armrests for major global automotive companies such as BMW, VW, AUDI, Porsche and Bentley.
In the Czech Republic, GRAMMER CZ employs more than 1,500 people at its plants in Žatec, Most and Tachov. This high number of employees goes hand in hand with the administrative burden of sorting and processing the incoming data messages from the individual plants. One of the possible solutions was to robotise the entire sorting process. And automate processing of e-sick notes and distraint notices using software robots.
Grammer contacted us with a request for automation of operations in data boxes. Specifically in the field of sorting messages from the data box and processing e-sick notes and distraint notices.
This is routine work which used to be performed manually in GRAMMER CZ. Manual sorting and processing are time consuming operations. This repetitive activity can be described and algorithmised - it is therefore suitable for robotisation.
The aim of the robotisation process was to sort and partially process incoming data messages stored in folders by individual plants. After getting acquainted with all phases of the process, robotisation was designed to automate the entire process of sorting messages from data boxes. We deployed UltimateRPA robots in key phases of the message sorting process. And partially also for the phase of processing e-sick notes and distraint notices in SAP.
The robot finds and sorts messages from data boxes by itself. Then sorts messages according to their content into: e-sick notes, distraint notices and other mail. The messages, including attachments, are downloaded by the Recomando software. And subsequently saved and moved between the individual folders of the specific plants. In the event of a data message with an e-sick note, the robot automatically assigns data about sick leave to the specific employee in SAP. The robot enters data about new and continuing sick leave into SAP.
The UltimateRPA software robot also prepares an output summary. And another output report with individual records - including the status of how the record was processed.
UltimateRPA software robots by StringData automated sorting and processing of messages from data boxes in GRAMMER CZ.
Thanks to robotisation, a GRAMMER CZ employee now only needs to launch the software robot. Then itself downloads messages from the data box and sorts them according to predefined categories. If the robot finds data messages with e-sick notes or distraint notices, it automatically assigns them to a specific employee in the SAP application. In addition to this, the robot extracts data from the message. And enters newly created and continuing sick leave into SAP.
Robotisation has brought GRAMMER CZ major time savings, a zero error rate and taken over routine time-consuming administrative activities. The software robot sorts around 800 messages per month and enters about 200 e-sick notes into SAP. Thanks to RPA robotisation of the process associated with data boxes, it has been possible to save 0.3 FTE and 55 h of time per month.
The StringData Automation Team worked on the project in close cooperation with representatives of the IT Department at GRAMMER CZ.
In total, 2.5 months elapsed from the start of implementation until the first processing operation performed by a robot.
“In cooperation with GRAMMER CZ, the StringData Automation Team devised and designed a suitable procedure for automating the process of sorting messages from the data box. Thanks to this, sorting of messages from data boxes has become faster, simpler and we have reduced the error rate as a whole. The robot sorts 800 messages per month and enters 200 sick notes into SAP.”
