Monthly Archives: July 2021

There has been a huge focus on automation and digitization over the last few years. With the rise of machine learning and AI, business owners are looking at more and more areas within their business where they can utilize this technology.

If youre not already automating your bookkeeping, then you need to.

Here are my top five areas that you can start automating today.

Here are the areas of accounts payable you can start automating straight away:

Use a recurring bills function

Use an app such as hubdoc to collect all of your bills into your accounts system

Utilize the email bill to your accounts system straight from your inbox

Integrate your PO system for seamless PO generation and bill matching

Get your employees to submit their expenses directly to your accounts package

Implementing some of these will save time and duplication of tasks and allow your workflow to be more efficient.

Automating our accounts receivable, in particular credit control, has been a huge time-saver.

Here are some of the accounts receivable functions that can be easily automated:

Debtor chasing

Integrated invoicing with your operating system

Setting up automatically emailed invoices direct to your customer (useful if you send regular invoices that are consistent amounts)

If you only do one of these, I absolutely recommend implementing a debtor-chasing app that integrates to your system. This will send automatic chasing emails from a template and at intervals set by you. While you will have to pay for one of these services, the time you will win back makes it worthwhile.

Importing your bank and credit card transactions is an easy time-saver.

Reconciliations are so much simpler as the transactions are imported daily, and this cuts down human error as they are automatically imported. They match off quickly with invoices and bills, which are in the system awaiting payment. The whole process is so much quicker and easier and you have better visibility of your balances on a daily basis. Most systems automatically remember where you coded similar transactions too, so are auto-populated.

Are you still managing cash flow on Google sheets or even a spreadsheet? If so, stop now.

The best piece of automation we have implemented within the finance function without a doubt is our cash-flow management.

We use an external cloud-based cash flow tool (there are many available with a quick Google) and this integrates to our accounts software.

Some of the benefits of using an integrated cash flow tool include:

Real-time cash flow updates (due to integrations with accounts and automated daily banking reconciliations)

Planned to pay dates for bills and invoices are updated automatically as they get updated in the accounts system

Full visibility of when client/supplier invoices are due

Variance tracking of cash in and out

Scenario planning/cash flow modelling

Ability to add your forecasts in to give a realistic look of where cash will likely be at any given time in future months

My final recommendation for automation has to be your management accounts. This is not an easy area to automate and we have had to use multiple data specialists to start pulling this together, but the end result presents information in a more user-friendly way for all relevant stakeholders of the business in one place.

You can go from manually compiling a spreadsheet with data, leaving you open to error, to populating a more sophisticated version using imports from trial balances and data from other areas such as operations and sales.

We are now working towards an integrated dashboard, which populates a monthly report using data straight from our accounts package and from other data sources in the business.

This will give us a complete BI Dashboard, which can be tailored for different areas of the business in an easy-to-interpret way and that takes a fraction of the time to put together, meaning month-end reporting is quicker and more accurate. Who doesnt want to save time during month end?

Before we automated these areas, a huge amount of our time was taken up on basic bookkeeping and administration. Once we had automation processes in place, it enabled us time to focus more strategically on the business, and this is where the finance team is best utilized. We also have the added knowledge of knowing our data is more accurate due to the integration of systems with less manual entry.

If you can automate some of these areas you will most definitely allow your finance team more time to add real value to your business instead of being bogged down by mundane administrative tasks.

Julie Rodrrigues is finance manager at Hallam.

See more here:

Finance automation: automate and create value in your finance team - The Drum

From increasing use of automation and starting wages that are considered too low to the lackluster image of industrial work, theres no shortage of opinions about the factors contributing to the current shortage of skilled workers in the industrial production industries. Confronted with a shortage of available workers, industrial companies are increasingly turning to technology to maintain their operations.

Aaron Crews, director for modernization solutions and consulting at Emerson said the personnel shortage in manufacturing has lasted long enough that organizations are now hyper-focused on helping existing workers be more efficient and effective. And the key to doing more with fewer personnel is ensuring personnel have clear, contextualized visibility into their processes and equipment no matter where they are.

Aaron Crews, director for modernization solutions and consulting at Emerson.He clarified his point by noting that plants dont need the highest level of expertise all the time, instead they need smart systems that determine when expert help is needed, and then deliver information in context to experts wherever they are. Todays workers are mobile, and control systems embracing mobility help personnel be more effective. Organizations expect digital tools to drive DCS (distributed control systems) data from the plant level to the enterprise, where smaller groups of experts can manage entire fleets across the country or across the globe without the expense and delay of travel.

More continuous processing industry customers are using advanced and state-based control to capture expert knowledge and encapsulate it in control logic, said Crews. As experts retire, the knowledge they have built up over years in the plant can be captured as automated control strategies to ensure the control of critical process variables permanently resides in the control structure and are performed reliably every time.

Josh Eastburn, director of technical marketing at Opto 22.Josh Eastburn, director of technical marketing at Opto 22, said they have seen customers use remote access and data acquisition, built on edge computing, to reduce the need for on-site labor by as much as 50%. He cited an example of how Engenuity Inc., an oil and gas industry OEM, is using these technologies to validate pressure testing of blowout preventers and well control equipment.

Despite the ability of technology to reduce the number of workers needed in industrial operations, some contend that manufacturing and processing industries increasing deployment of modern technologies can also be an important factor in attracting the workforce of the future.

Jesse Hill, process industry manager at Beckhoff Automation.Jesse Hill, process industry manager at Beckhoff Automation, said, Embracing new technologies is key to providing a pool of talent for the process industries. A generation of engineers with experience in traditional process technologies such as 4-20mA, HART, Foundation Fieldbus, etc., is exiting the workforce. Now, processing facilities need to replace this talent with a younger workforce that is schooled on emerging technologies, which is where their interest lies.

He cited Beckhoffs TwinCAT automation software as an example of this because it gives engineers the capability to program in the language they are most familiar with or that suits the application best, whether thats real time code using object-oriented extensions of IEC 61131-3, standard PLC function blocks, or interfacing to computer science standard languages, such as .Net or Python. Also, advanced functionality like analytics, machine learning, and simulation using MatLab/Simulink can be implemented directly in the standard engineering environment and deployed on our scalable industrial PCs.

Michael Risse, vice president and chief marketing officer at Seeq.The hiring benefits of using technologies the younger workforce is more familiar with is a key realization more companies should be aware of, according to Michael Risse, vice president and chief marketing officer at Seeq (a supplier of industrial analytics software). We dont see a labor issue [impacting the available workforce] so much as an enabling employee discussion, or even a demand from younger employees, he said.Younger generations expect something better than the 30-year-old tradition of spreadsheets and historians. They are frequently comfortable with coding or scripting and, based on consumer experiences, they expect innovation in their software. Of course, that means they [expect to be able to] work from anywhere and the solutions [they use] must provide collaboration, like Google docs.

Kevin Finnan, Yokogawa industry consultant.Kevin Finnan, Yokogawa industry consultant said, Our robotics portfolio addresses the dirty and dangerous [aspects of process industry work] by using robots to venture into hazardous industrial areas. As a result, one of our customers in the process of digital transformation is changing the role of process operators [in its plants] to production analysts. This means these workers will transition away from constant attention to their screens to monitor the condition of the process at a given moment. Instead of responding to unplanned events, they will support optimization. Their focus will be on automation performance and solving performance shortcomings.

Hill added, The more we can implement these types of new technologies, the better chance we have to recruit and retain this talent in our industry. [In fact], this is an area where I think remote access can help in recruitment. Many in this next generation of engineers may not be as enthusiastic about putting on fire-resistant smocks, steel-toe shoes and hard hats to go to work every day. If much of this engineering and monitoring can be done from comfortable offices, this will lead to higher recruitment of talent into the process industries.

Read more from the original source:

How Automation is Helping Industry Adapt to Today's Workforce Reality - Automation World

Facebook is testing a change that will let users know when their post was removed as a result of automation. The new experiment comes in response to the Oversight Board, which has said the social network should be more transparent with users about how their posts are removed.

The company revealed the new test in a new report that provides updates on how Facebook is handling the Oversight Boards policy recommendations. The test comes in response to one of the first cases the Oversight Board took up, which dealt with an Instagram post meant to raise awareness of breast cancer that the company removed under its nudity rules.

Facebook restored the post, saying its automated systems had made a mistake, and updated Instagrams rules to allow for health-related nudity. But the Oversight Board had also recommended that Facebook alert users in cases when a post was removed with automation rather than as a result of a human content reviewer. Facebook previously said it would test this change, which is now in effect.

Weve launched a test on Facebook to assess the impact of telling people more about whether automation was involved in enforcement, facebook writes in its report. People in the test now see whether technology or a Facebook content reviewer made the enforcement decision about their content. We will analyze the results to see if people had a clearer understanding of who removed their content, while also watching for a potential rise in recidivism and appeals rates. The company added that it will provide an update on the test later this year.

The report also shed some additional insight into how the company is working with the Oversight Board. The report notes that between November 2020 and March 2021 it referred 26 cases to the board, though its only chosen to take up three one of which was in response to its suspension of Donald Trump. (Notably, the latest report only covers the first quarter of 2021, so it doesnt address the boards recommendations in response to Trumps suspension.)

Though the Oversight Board has only weighed in on a handful of cases, its decisions have resulted in a few policy changes by Facebook that could have a much broader effect. However, in some areas, the company has declined to follow up on its policy suggestions, such as one that Facebook study its own role in enabling the events of January 6th. In a blog post, the company noted that the size and scope of the boards recommendations go beyond the policy guidance that we first anticipated when we set up the board, and several require multi-month or multi-year investments.

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Facebook is notifying some users whose posts were removed by automation - Yahoo Tech

Auto-mate solutions & implementations manager Damien Williams believes that may bring the best of both those worlds.

To his mind automation will bring the best out of electric vehicles and electrification will make it much easier to automate equipment.

"It's not really one driving the other or one hindering the other," he said.

"They are almost symbiotic."

Consider what is happening in the automotive sphere.

The internal combustion engine has ruled the automotive world for more than one century and the approach has been pretty much unchanged for all that time. The engine feeds into the drive train that turns the wheels and moves the car forward.

Electric vehicle makers have turned to wheel motors, replacing the drive train and all the complications that come with that. It makes for a much simpler approach.

Mining truck makers are already across this of course. Electric drive haul trucks have been making use of wheel motors for decades. Yes, those trucks use a diesel engine but that is just the power source for the wheel motors. It could theoretically be a battery.

Williams said this approach would benefit automation.

"Let's get the energy source driving the components directly," he said.

Williams' argument is that by removing the drivetrain and hydraulic gearboxes and replacing them with electric motors, automation systems become much more effective.

Removing those components removes the "noise".

"It's a reduction of input-output complexity," Williams said.

"Your control of that machine can be much tighter.

"You are taking away layers of conversion."

Williams said that approach became even more effective when applied to other pieces of equipment such as drills where diesel engines play an even bigger part driving hydraulics and air compressors.

"In addition to the myriad of transfer systems you have to monitor, parasitic loss occurs from the moment the piston fires until it activates the movement or pressure of hydraulic fluid or air. Without these steps you can be more accurate and economical in your autonomous control, critical on conventional drills where the air supply can directly impact the quality of the holes being drilled," he said.

Williams argues that using electric motors to provide the drill torque could give an even better outcome, particularly when considering introducing automation to the drilling process.

The "noise" internal combustion engines bring to the control process means automation systems providers have to start introducing fuzzy logic to compensate.

"We can be so much more effective when we don't have to use fuzzy logic," Williams said.

"With an internal combustion engine, you have more variability in output due to the underlaying design, for example what position is each cylinder is in before it starts, what condition is it in and which one is going to fire first.

"It is so much simpler with electric motors, the design complexity is not there."

"A drive to automate EV's is going to come down to management and conversion of energy."

Williams said electrification of equipment provided other issues that would have impacts on operators.

Heating is one of them. While not such an issue in Australian operations, consider those operations where the temperature goes well below 0C.

With conventional equipment waste heat from the diesels provides that heating.

"With electric vehicle providing heating can be very energy intensive," Williams said.

"You may have to put on additional componentry.

"However, if the machine is automated, there is no operator and no need for heat."

Torque is another issue. Electric vehicles can bring an enormous amount of torque to bear, which can make for an uncomfortable ride for the operator. No operator, no need to worry about that and the full torque the machine is capable of can be brought to bear optimally.

Range anxiety is a problem facing EV use and Williams believes automation can play a role in alleviating that.

"An automation platform can be tuned to get the best productivity and efficiency for an electric drive system," he said. "if there are acceleration or speed parameters for machines that will get the best efficiency from their electric energy source we can tailor our systems to achieve this."

"In addition, automation allows us to look beyond our immediate horizon, we know a logistics and support function beyond light vehicles will be needed to support the mine of the future and so we've been investing into a fit for purpose EV platform to do just this."

Read the original:

Two of the biggest topics facing miners are electrification and automation - Mining Journal

Workers in IT, HR, finance and other roles welcome the use of tools that automate processes and improve productivity -- but many are concerned automation might someday make their jobs less relevant.

A study by Thirdera, specialist in services for ServiceNow users, finds 83 percent of workers are using AI-powered search, chatbots, self-service portals, mobile apps, AIOps, business intelligence and dynamic scheduling tools every day, and 46 percent have been doing so for at least a year.

The most common use cases are IT service management platforms (68 percent), IT operations management platforms (57 percent) and financial management platforms (37 percent). They're also being used with CRM, ERP, HR and marketing automation platforms. Within this tools category, the most popular technologies are mobile apps (used by 69 percent of respondents), business intelligence tools (65 percent), self-service portals (53 percent), AI-powered search (44 percent), intelligent chatbots (36 percent) and dynamic scheduling tools (36 percent).

The research shows the tools are having a positive impact too, 69 percent say their productivity increased substantially by using these technologies. While 40 percent report saving at least six hours per week, and 67 percent are saving at least four hours per week. In addition 34 percent say ROI from the use of these tools was achieved in less than three months, 41 percent said three to six months, and 89 percent achieved ROI in less than a year. 48 percent of respondents have at least six business processes attached to the use of these technologies.

"These tools are tailor-made to automate employee workflows and improve productivity," says Jason Wojahn, CEO of Thirdera. "They can be used by IT to respond to service requests, HR to fulfill employee inquiries, employees to submit legal forms, and field-service managers to assign tasks. Most companies that deploy these tools experience a significant and rapid return on their investments. In our business, companies are using ServiceNow to automate these tasks and workflows end-to-end."

However, there is another side to the coin, 63 percent of respondents say they are concerned their company's use of these technologies will someday make their job functions less relevant. Other worries include technologies being too expensive (48 percent), and 38 percent saying the colleagues and/or customers they're serving with these technologies would prefer more human-to-human contact. Also, 32 percent say the tools malfunction frequently, and 26 percent think theyre hard to learn.

"The purpose of this survey was to validate our assumption that modern tech tools are improving employee workflows and productivity, which they clearly are," adds Wojahn. "What we also learned is that workers still have reservations about these tools, which means service providers like Thirdera have more work to do. For example, we need to be educating the market and showing users how more comprehensive patterns of automation can enhance their value and contributions to their organizations, and augment their ways of working rather than replace human-to-human contact."

You can find out more on the Thirdera site.

Photo Credit: Wright Studio/Shutterstock

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Office workers welcome automation but worry about their jobs - BetaNews