Automated Quality Inspection Planning

See how we bridged CAD and SAP to automate inspection plan creation for a UAE-based engineering group – achieving 120% ROI in the first year and a 5.4-month payback period despite complex cross-platform integration.

Client

Our client is an engineering conglomerate based in the UAE. The company operates advanced manufacturing facilities dedicated to high-tolerance engineering, ensuring strict adherence to global quality standards.

Challenge

The core challenge was the technical bottleneck between the design engineering phase and the quality assurance execution. The process of translating complex engineering drawings into actionable inspection plans was heavily manual and fragmented:

• Manual Enrichment of Dimensional Data:
  Engineers had to manually extract critical dimensions and tolerances from technical drawings and CAD models. This data then had to be enriched with human-defined inspection parameters.
• High-Volume MIC Data Entry:
  Each component required the creation of numerous Master Inspection Characteristics (MICs) within SAP. Manually uploading this data and assigning material inspection plans was a significant administrative burden. 

Solution

We implemented a sophisticated multi-bot RPA solution using Automation Anywhere to orchestrate a seamless interaction between the engineering and quality departments.

• CAD Data Extraction:
  The primary bot interacts with the CAD software to automatically export dimensional data, tolerances, and geometric specifications.
• MIC Creation & Mapping:
  The solution parses the extracted engineering data and automatically generates the corresponding Master Inspection Characteristics (MICs) in SAP. It applies pre-defined business logic to ensure that the correct inspection methods and sampling procedures are assigned based on the material type.
• Inspection Plan Assignment:
  The bot handles the material assignment within SAP. It links the newly created MICs to the specific inspection plans, ensuring that when a production order is released, the quality team has the correct digital "checklist" ready.

Technology Stack

The solution is built using Automation Anywhere (A360). Automated solution interacts directly with both the CAD software and SAP.

Results

The transformation of the Quality Inspection Planning process delivered high-impact results, proving the value of RPA in technical domains:

• 120% Project ROI: The solution paid for itself within the first year by drastically reducing the engineering hours required for manual repetitive tasks.
• 5.4 Months Payback Period achieved despite the technical complexity of the cross-platform (CAD and SAP) integration.