Automated Packing for Warehouse Operations

Discover how we eliminated a critical outbound delivery bottleneck for a leading U.S. music devices manufacturer by automating SAP packing operations – reclaiming 80+ manual hours per month with a 3-month payback period.

Client

Our client is a leading American music devices manufacturer. With a high-volume warehouse operation, the company manages thousands of outbound shipments daily.

Challenge

The primary obstacle to the client’s digital transformation was a persistent bottleneck within their Warehouse Outbound Delivery process. Despite having a modern SAP landscape, certain specialized warehouse operations lacked the necessary technical infrastructure for end-to-end automation:

• Technical Gaps in Standard Integration:
  The core challenge centered on the absence of a standard API for specific packing operations within the SAP environment.
• Manual Execution Bottleneck:
  Warehouse staff had to manually execute packing operations within the SAP Web UI. This repetitive, screen-based work created a significant efficiency gap, slowing down the transition from "order picked" to "order shipped".

Solution

We engineered a specialized automation solution using SAP Build Process Automation to act as an intelligent "digital bridge." This approach allowed us to bypass the API limitation by automating the interaction with the SAP Web UI directly.

• Digital UI Emulation:
  The bot replicates the actions of a human operator within the SAP Web UI. It identifies pending outbound deliveries, navigates the packing screens, and executes the necessary steps to finalize the shipping units.
• Clean Core Integration:
  By leveraging SAP Build’s RPA capabilities, we provided a solution that required zero changes to the underlying SAP source code. The bot interacts with the existing interface, ensuring that all standard business logic and security protocols remain intact.
• Real-Time Delivery Synchronization:
  The automation processing packing requests as soon as they are triggered in the system. 

Technology Stack

 The RPA solution is built using SAP Build Process Automation, selected for its native integration with the SAP ecosystem and its ability to orchestrate complex UI-based tasks. 

Results

The deployment of the automated packing assistant transformed the warehouse’s operational capacity:

• 80+ Manual Hours Reclaimed Monthly
• 3-Month Payback Period