Cutting Costs with Automation

Some say that dark clouds have silver linings. A few weeks ago I saw one.

Looking forward to getting home, I was disappointed when Delta Flight 692 was late leaving Norfolk, Va. It arrived in Atlanta's Concourse A at the same time my connecting flight was leaving Concourse E. When I deplaned, I asked the gate agent if she could rebook me for the next flight home.

Here is the silver lining: She told me that I had already been rebooked. All I needed to do was go to the service counter and put my old boarding pass under the scanner to get a new confirmation printed.

With skepticism that the process could now be so simple, and amazement that the system could be so proactive, I walked down the concourse. Sure enough, when I put my boarding pass under the scanner, it popped out a piece of paper confirming my new flight home. As I walked toward the service counter, a uniformed agent called out my name. When I answered, he said, “Here's your boarding pass, Mr. Weeks. Have a good flight.” Wow! I thanked him and then wondered, why don't we do so well with automation?

As a frequent flyer for many years, I had expected to stand in line and wait to work with a service agent getting rebooked. Try to calculate how many man-hours Delta must have stopped paying for with this new system. And to top it off, they are making the rebooking process easier for the customer, too. Again, why don't we do so well with automation?

One process we do have automated pretty well is Medicare claims submission, but beyond that, there are a lot of opportunities. Here are a few to consider:

Counting Inventory — This process is the easiest to automate. Today, providers small and large make weekly, physical inventory counts. There is no need. Available software can support perpetual inventory and reduce physical inventories to quarterly at the most.

Receiving and Relieving Inventory — The way to automate this process is by adding bar code readers to the perpetual inventory system. When an order arrives or leaves, it only needs to be scanned to be counted in or out.

Purchasing — Another addition to the perpetual inventory system is setting reorder points so that the inventory software can prompt the placement of the order.

Intake — Some companies have developed software to automate intake rather than taking a telephone call or deciphering a fax. There is at least one commercial application available if you don't have software development capability.