The Great Resignation has caused a global labor shortage. Workers are still leaving their jobs, even though it has been more than two years since the start of the pandemic.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.3 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs in May 2022. Many businesses are faced with difficulty finding employees, making it hard for them to continue their operations. Management of their supply chain functions is a significant challenge for companies: invoicing, logistics, billing, creation of bills, and so on.

It is well-documented that the world's supply chains are in crisis. COVID-19 has disrupted the global transportation, shipping, and manufacturing industries. Since March 2020, 1.52 million people in the shipping industry have been laid off. A shortage of 330,000 truckers is predicted for 2024.

Lately, businesses tend to lose their most valuable assets, their people, and they need to be creative and flexible in managing their supply chain.

How can companies tackle this?

There are no easy solutions, but technologies like robotic process automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP) can help. All of these technologies can be combined to create intelligent automation that will help you bridge gaps in your supply chain while streamlining and improving efficiency. Intelligent automation also has the following capabilities:

• Eliminate manual data entry 
• Eliminate human error
• Boost your return on investment (ROI).
• Work in all time zones, 24/7, 365-day supplier engagement
• Integrate legacy tools and applications

A bot-driven supply chain management

RPA automates repetitive tasks at a basic level. But it can be combined with AI, machine learning, and other advanced technologies to create intelligent automation that can be used in complex supply chain management decision-making. These are just a few areas that can be automated using intelligent RPA robots and have exceptional results.

Order Processing

Many businesses still rely on manual paper shuffling to process orders and input them into ERP systems. Depending on the company's size, many orders need to be processed before shipping or invoicing can take place.

Inventory Management

Your supply chain activities are deeply related to inventory management. You must ensure that you have enough raw materials, spare parts, and products to meet your customers' needs. Nowadays, finding enough talent to track inventory levels, identify when stock is low, or reorder is hard. An RPA bot can automate all of these tasks automatically. Intelligent automation can be combined with AI, allowing you to use predictive analytics to determine optimal inventory levels. This is possible by analyzing historical data and economic patterns in the larger marketplace.

Purchase Orders

The management of purchase orders. Intelligent automation can help create purchase orders if supply levels fall below a certain number. Even if your workforce is smaller, you can maintain consistency and minimize the risk of errors or delays when you use bots.

Logistics Management

It can be a tedious task if you cannot monitor orders, update shipping status, and track handling progress across all systems. This process can lead to unhappy customers and loss of future sales if it is not adequately managed. RPA bots monitor incoming orders, update order details, and collaborate with an AI-based routing system that can coordinate various logistics partners, such as road freight, cargo vessels, and air freight. These bots can automatically assign an order for delivery to a partner based upon the following parameters: product size, location of purchaser, product weight, and other details.

In the end, bots can do anything but not everything. Human workers will be needed to manage the front-desk operations, maintain customer relationships, and monitor deviations. Even though the workforce is expected to remain low through at least 2022, Intelligent automation can fill the gaps.