PEX Network caught up with Stephan Blasilli, director of Lean, business process excellence at EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA),
Ahead of his session at PEX Live: Digital Process and Workflow Automation 2023, taking place on 24 - 25 January 2023, Blasilli discusses recent successes and shares his advice for implementing automation initiatives with success.
PEX Network: Can you tell us more about your experience with digital process and workflow automation? Are there any success stories you would like to share?
Stephan Blasilli: In today's organizations many employees are knowledge workers, which means that they spend most of their time in unstructured work patterns.
For example, our engineers who troubleshoot issues on a wind turbine fit this description. Their goal is to keep the fleet operating but the troubleshooting process is highly adaptive.
The solutions for these kinds of processes will often focus on surfacing contextual information and facilitating collaboration. For these purposes, I highly recommend BPM technology. On the other hand, repetitive tasks like document processing and data validation can be solved in many cases with automation. A popular technology for achieving this is robotic process automation (RPA).
One success story is our fleet performance management solution called Cobra. We used BPM to support the dynamic case management (DCM) approach and we were able to capture over US$100mn worth of issue solutions within the first nine months.
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Forrester defines DCM as “a new way of thinking about how complex work gets done. For enterprises, DCM provides a transformational opportunity to take the drudgery out of work and enable high-value, ad hoc knowledge work”.
PEX Network: What are the biggest automation trends you are seeing at the moment?
SB: Tying back to my last answer, the idea of dynamic versus rigid processes is not a black or white decision. Many times, end-to-end processes have rigid and dynamic work patterns that call for coordination and integration of different capabilities. I see the trend going toward platforms allowing for process orchestration, automation, task and process mining and digital adoption as all-in-one platforms.
PEX Network: What is your advice for organizations looking to implement digital process or workflow automation in their own business?
SB: When attempting to implement digital process or workflow automation businesses can set up initiatives with confidence and improve the likelihood of successful outcomes by adhering to the following four steps:
- Set a clear goal to assess the costs and benefits of the initiative.
- Maintain a process focus by tailoring solutions to the way employees work. It is important to develop an understanding of how to treat rigid versus unstructured processes.
- Pick the right technologies that allow for speed and flexibility.
- Make use of techniques such as user stories, actionable metrics, rapid adoption, exception-based processing and case management to ensure a sufficient focus on the people involved.
Related content: Overcoming inefficient workflows in manufacturing
PEX Network: What do you hope viewers will take away from your session at PEX Live: Digital Process and Workflow Automation 2023?
SB: I hope attendees will leave with a solid understanding of what the key drivers for business transformation are. I will also discuss how an agile toolkit integrates people, processes and technology to enable rapid transformation while also allowing businesses to remain flexible.
During the session, I will also offer an overview of some key examples of transformation projects that attendees can learn from and will assess the agile tools applied.
Has your business noticed the advantages of dynamic case management? Let us know in the comments below.
To uncover digital process and workflow automation insights from a range of industry experts, register for PEX Live: Digital Process and Workflow Automation 2023.