Realisierung von Lean-Administration-Prinzipien durch RPA in der Lieferantenkom munikation im Anlaufmanagement der Automobilindustrie

Abstract

The automotive industry is facing the challenge of constantly adapting its existing models and variants due to new drive technologies and rapidly changing customer demands. As a result, series launches, the transition from product development to series production, are among the central tasks to act as a competitive competitor in the automotive market. The enablement of external suppliers regarding the integration into the company's internal processes is a decisive factor in this series launch phase and results in the requirement to maintain the buyer-supplier relationship through supplier communication. At the same time, the growing competition in the market is leading to the need to design non-value-adding activities in the business processes as efficiently as possible. The manual answering of supplier inquiries in the launch management is one of these wasteful activities in the administrative areas and should be automated. One possibility for automating business processes is Robotic Process Automation (RPA). At the beginning of this work, a distinction should be made between value-adding and wasteful activities in the business processes. Subsequently, supplier communication in the launch management of the automotive industry should be considered as a field of action in which often non-value-adding administrative activities are performed. The primary goal of this work is to identify, through research in the existing literature, which types of waste can be reduced with RPA in supplier communication. Furthermore, the literature should be examined to determine what theoretical strategies or approaches exist for efficiently and successfully implementing RPA in companies. Using the example of supplier communication at BMW Engines in Steyr, it should be examined whether this process is suitable for automation using RPA. The literature review proves that RPA is a technology with great potential to automate business processes in companies and reduce waste in administrative activities. RPA enables rule-based, repetitive tasks to be performed by virtual robots instead of being processed manually. This allows processes to be handled more efficiently, accurately and quickly, and frees up employees from cognitively undemanding work steps. The literature also provides a detailed guide that can contribute to supporting the implementation of RPA solutions in companies. But RPA also has limitations and precise criteria for processes that are necessary for its introduction. When it comes to communicating with suppliers regarding compliance with certain requirements, the technology still lacks the necessary capabilities and flexibility, making RPA systems not, or only conditionally, applicable. But high costs in the implementation and maintenance of the systems in practice can also prove to be a showstopper for automation using RPA.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Veit Kohnhauser (Supervisor)