Food Manufacturing – RPA

Food manufacturing is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector, consisting of three stages in the production chain: agriculture, manufacturing and retailing. This results in huge amounts of document processing for employees, including risk assessments, receipt and storage of food, and label reviews.RPA-Food-Manufacturing

Robocloud (part of Cleardata UK Ltd) provides RPA as a Service, aiming to provide your employees with a helping hand to ensure compliance with regulations set by the Food Standards Act 1999, and the more recent Food Information Regulations 2014.

This intelligent automation service is offered via a simple monthly subscription, scaled to suit your needs. The robots work 24/7 to help boost your efficiency and compliance, while saving time and money. You’ll also have access to our team of RPA experts who can program the digital workforce to meet your rules and requirements.

RPA Uses In Food Manufacturing

RPA can be used to automate many manual processes in food manufacturing, ranging from invoice processing to supply chain management.

Here’s a few examples:-

  • Administration – RPA can be used to automate the completion of paperwork digitisation, and conduct activities for HR and Finance departments such as employee onboarding and accounts reconciliation.
  • System integration and data migration – robots can ease the integration of legacy systems, new technology, the CRM database and risk assessment systems to keep all records in one easily accessible place and help achieve compliance across your food manufacturing operation.
  • Records Management – Maintain manufacturing records of foods, substances, food-producing animals and clients who have purchased supplies. These records can be easily organised and updated by our digital workforce, providing a full audit trail and easy access for approved persons. Some examples of other Food Manufacturing records that can be sorted by RPA include:-
    • Food safety audits – allergen information, cleaning, temperature control and receipt and storage of food among other documents.
    • Container packaging and label requirements
    • Health and safety documents
    • Information regarding multiple Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
  • Data validation – a critical activity in ensuring compliance in all processes.
    • Risk assessments and audits can be validated to ensure that all necessary and up-to-date information is contained such as effective control and monitoring procedures at critical control points (CCPs) and contamination control.
    • Data validation can also be used in Supplier Verification, ensuring that your suppliers meet your operation’s standards for quality and food safety, validating your supplier audits in accordance to the rules set by you to ensure compliance with industry regulations.
  • Inventory management – the bots can monitor customer demand and previous orders to establish appropriate order levels for when stock reaches a minimum threshold. Check out our Retail page to find out more about RPA in inventory management.
  • Supply chain management – through email automation, monitoring and transport system integration, RPA can keep both suppliers and customers updated of movement across the supply chain. For more information take a look at our Retail page.
  • Automated alerts – The bots can provide automated alerts to both managers and employees regarding various issues, for example, in the Food Manufacturing sector this can be done to optimise cleaning schedules.
    • UK food hygiene certificates are updated approximately every 3 years, RPA can also provide automated notifications to managers to alert them of this and when employees may need to be retrained. This can also be done by providing managers with easy access to the information to identify this need themselves.

RPA Benefits In Food ManufacturingBook a demo

  • Full audit trail
  • Improved compliance and reduced errors
  • Cost savings
  • Save time – focus on high value tasks
  • Improved service for customers
  • Boost quality
  • Enhance efficiency and productivity
  • Improve supplier relationships
  • Flexible access

Speak to one of our RPA Consultants to find out more about how RPA can transform your food manufacturing processes. Contact us or call 0800 046 8086 to start your process automation journey today!