The Self Automated Company

The Problem

This text does not intend to make theories but to offer actions for efficient business matters. I would like it to be short, as advised by experts, but it’s not. In the real world, big problems do not have short answers. So, thanks in advance for being patient.

We can devise a solution for Business Automation if we realize why it fails. And it will stop failing if we understand what Business Automation is. So, let’s define what Business Automations is, and all our inefficiencies will start to emerge before our eyes. Then, later, we can proceed to the required actions.

Defining Business Automation

Business automation is a “human/equipment engine” that works in real-time. This engine’s operation is predictable, controllable, and changeable, also in real-time. But the expression “human engine” is a bad one! So let’s replace it with the term “company team.” The need that leads to this “company team,” which works predictably, controllably, and changeable in real-time, will define the key factors that are imperative to coexist.

The market competition drives the need for automation. Companies are led to the top because they offer products and services of high quality at a low cost. Companies are also led to the top because they differentiate from the competition. We should point out this “differentiation” because it affects not only the “low cost” and “high quality,” but also the know-how of the company. That is because successful companies know how to do it! They have optimized their critical processes. But let’s continue analyzing the key factors “high quality” and “low cost.” That will lead us to the final and decisive perspective on the critical factors of business automation.

What is needed to produce high-quality products?

Well, a high-quality product should have:

A lot of numbers and descriptions accompany well-defined specifications.
Bill of Materials, which is also a chunk of numbers and descriptions.
List of suppliers accompanied with prices and descriptions.
Production machines standards and regulations that are numbers and descriptions.
We define storage positions as numbers and descriptions.
List of customers accompanied by pricing policies and descriptions
Usage and handling leaflets or booklets as documents.

We refer to all those numbers, prices, descriptions, and documents as “data.”

So, to produce high-quality products, we need first to produce high-quality data. In reality, every first-class product needs a lot of high-quality data during its path to the market. And where are these data produced?

To produce data, the company needs “white collar” workers. The “white collar” workers “consume” – they actually “read” or “hear” - data and then input on forms, documents, or data sheets the product of their effort, i.e., new data! In reality, the increasing ratio of “white-collar” workers to “blue-collar” ones reflects the growing importance of mass data production in our economy. Until here, we have established, I hope, a grounded knowledge that high-quality products need a lot of high-quality data. Let’s now examine the factor “low cost.”

What is needed to keep the cost low?

Well, a high-quality product can be produced at low cost when among others:

First, there is in-time delivery from the suppliers to gain storage space.
Products are delivered as soon as possible to reduce lead times.
Post-production quality tests finish as soon as possible to gain workshop floor time.
Cost estimation for customized products is delivered as soon as possible to production.
The supply chain evolves fast to gain time.
The order-production-delivery chain evolves fast to gain time.
Market research is exhaustive to find lower prices (data) for materials and components with the exact specification.
R&D is innovative enough to devise BOMs (data) using less raw material but with the required properties.

Most of the above lead to time gains, but all of them need more data again.

So, to achieve low cost, it’s necessary to run the show at a higher speed. That is obvious because we have fixed many business costs. A higher speed is required to produce materials and transfer from position to position and for data production and transferring. Naturally, that gains time, and the Activity itself, in any position, is executed faster. To summarizing, we lower the cost because we gain time when data move fast from position to position. Additionally, the on-activities staying time must be measured to be optimized (minimized!).

Understanding Business Automation

From the above, we conclude that:

A Company produces high-quality products at low cost to excel in market competition. We can achieve that when the company consumes large amounts of data, produces large amounts of data, and transfers these data effectively. And all this is done at high speeds. As long as the above are valid, we say that the company is automated. We can align all the blue and white collars in “data production” lines.

These data production lines should be changeable in real-time to stay versatile and adjust to market requests. The changeability in real-time is another crucial measure of the company’s automation.

Last but not least, the factor of successful automation is to run those “data production” lines respecting the company’s reality. There must not be any compromising on the implementation of the actual processes that take place.

To deepen this “company team” understanding, we recapitalize:

People are efficient if they have the correct data at the right time. So, to negotiate with suppliers efficiently, White collars need the correct data at the right time. Blue collars, to handle materials optimally, need the correct data at the right time. So, to handle machines optimally and safely, blue collars need the correct data at the right time. Manufacturing quality products needs a lot of quality data at the right time. Excellent service to customers needs a lot of quality data at the right time.

It is all about high speed, great quality, and low cost “data production”!

This engine must not display time delays, data loss, spare data, and inefficient data moves. This engine has not only to work in a predictable and controllable manner but must also be changeable. Any engine changes should occur in real-time. For the engine to operate at high speeds, uniformity and continuity must be present all over it. Breaking the engine’s continuity, we break the “data production” lines and insert time delays. All these data production lines are inter-departmental, crossing more than one of the company’s departments.

So, we need one continuous all over the company fast “data production” engine.

What we did wrong

Having now a reasoned understanding of company automation, let’s judge our previous efforts toward this target.

What breaks the “data production” lines?

A lot of software applications are running in the company:

Production Management is a separate application.
There is a separate CRM application.
We are hiring some applications as “Software as a Service.”
A separate application supports email Management.
The Document Manager is a different application.

And to support the above list, which shouldn’t consider as exhaustive, a lot of data sheets are used to fill in data.

What lowers speed, bringing thus time delays?

There is no control over when data are stored and forwarded by the users.

Contacts and Businesses correspondence is difficult to trace and follow.

What hurts uniformity and continuity?

We spread all the Email files in directories on user computers.
We store the data in more than one database.
In-company custom applications use other separate databases.
Applications are not process-oriented.

What makes the machine unchangeable in real-time?

Applications are monolithic, having no way to be customized.
Any custom programming has to be implemented by hard-coding standard programming tools.
Applications forms are part of the executable program.
Applications upgrades require client software installation to all users.
Significant system changes are accompanied by business life disturbance and often steps back.
Changes required by business demands require a long time in programming and client software change.
Applications are outsourced and delivered after months of failing to follow requirements.
Thus, any developing team in the company cannot overpass the ever-changing business demand.

What makes the machine uncontrollable?

The running applications do not support the company’s organization.
There is no meaning of business administration in the company’s applications.
User activities are not related to roles in the company.

What compromises actual processes?

We need to plan the processes without compromising on real business life.

To recapitalize our understanding of weak practices, let’s try to put some critical questions. First, is it possible for a company to achieve automation by:

Stop on Friday as non-automated and start on Monday as an automated one?
Are you using an already implemented automation from another company?
Install the automation over one night?
Stop working until we implement the automation?
Are you assigning to a software company to do the automation? How will the know-how be passed?
Letting every department choose their “specialized” software?
Letting some departments hire software as a Service solution?
Are they letting every department manager “draw” its “own” processes in a modern process design tool?
Letting users keep their datasheets for data storage?
They are letting users store and forward data whenever is appropriate for them?

Based on our automation definition and understanding of all those questions, the answer is no!

The Right path to implement Business Automation

According to the Bible, even the mighty God needed six days to create the world. So we must be patient. Our business automation building is a long-lasting transformation process and not a spontaneous company metamorphosis! Here we hypothesize that our company is existent and already in operation, in a non-automated mode. Now let’s define our task force.

The automation task force

A capable manager, who has the role of Chief Process Officer, leads one or more developers. It would be better if the CPO and the team of developers came from within the company. In each company, we use a widely acceptable vocabulary that corresponds to specific meanings. That means that our automation team already knows or feels everyday life in the company. So, all the needed communication to define the processes and the data stays at a minimum. Another good reason to be from within the company is that they would not be considered a threat from their fellow associates.

The automation task need not be the sole job assignment for our team. We can build automation at our pace. So, there is no excuse for small companies, which cannot have the luxury of a dedicated team, not to automate.

If there is no programmer available, it wouldn’t be a problem as soon as a power user has a sound understanding of querying databases. As long as this individual has a solid attitude to learn and build new things, he is the right candidate for the platform we will introduce later. After all, to know how to program is one thing, but to know what to program is another. And our interest is focused on the second.

Here we have to say that the CPO must also have an understanding of data. We must remember that automation is nothing else than fast data production. After all, we can see it as a series of operations where we produce data!

Concluding, people from inside the company know and feel better the processes, unrevealed and un-automated initially. They also know better the company vocabulary and specific meaning of words and expressions. They learn company news faster and more accurately. If we provide them with the proper productive tool and guidance, they will do it better.

The path towards automation

Right away! We believe that we have to evolve business automation by implementing a single process at a time. And why is this needed? Because we can see that this approach assures minor and safer changes in the company’s everyday life. The preferred path is to automate the processes that stay in the periphery of the business and then proceed with the business core processes. The later ones require more diverse data to work so that the early implementation may lead to dysfunctions and failures. This approach assures users get used and trained in less intensive activities before exposing them to more critical ones. The same is valid for the company’s developing team.

Initially, we should develop processes as we already implement them in the company. That assures an acceptance from fellow associates. Then, we can do optimization by redeveloping later when the automation is accepted, and more feedback is available. That is a process that lasts as long as the company exists!

The path to differentiation

Only the creators of things can have complete knowledge of them. So the company differentiation is nothing else but “pure knowledge” about how things are running. So our in-house team can discover the company during its transformation from non-automated to an automated one. And during this process, they rewrite processes while their understanding deepens. That is the factor that leads to “differentiation” and the top of the market.

The proper platform for implementing automation

Now, our team needs an appropriate and productive software platform to implement this high-speed, controllable, and changeable data production engine. Do you remember our promise that this message will not be a theoretical one? Well, here is proof. We mean to offer you something worthwhile. So let’s examine its features.

The Mykosmos/BOS, i.e. “Business Operating System”

What do we mean by “Business Operating System,” and what is its purpose?

Mykosmos is a ready-to-use business infrastructure platform that is designable and programmable in every aspect. It is business-oriented software and not a generic programming tool. As a result, it’s a highly effective software platform, leading to a company’s activities automation.

The heart of Mykosmos/BOS is an application server connected to the company’s database and contains all the business logic. Users are connected to the application server, over the internet, by using thin clients.

More specifically, Mykosmos/BOS technology has the following features:

It contains ready-to-use processes.
A user can assign tasks from the first day of the system installation.
A user can get/send emails.
A user can attach files to forms.
A user can schedule assigned Activities.
It contains a standard database, which is expandable.
It handles all emails and attached files as documents.
It has the Asterisk PBX telephony technology embedded.
It attaches any correspondence to Contacts and Businesses.
It can import all primary business data from datasheets.
The administrator implements the CPO role in the company.
Can design and support the company’s organizational chart.
A developer can customize nearly everything.
Forms are designable.
Forms are not part of the executable file, so client upgrades are not necessary.
It can script processes to follow real business life.
Processes workflows can be changed without the user noticing.
It produces the operations manual of the company.
New processes can be added or modified by trained developers.
We can add new entities or expand existing ones to cover the business needs.
We can record processes relative to Products, Employees, Customers, Vendors, Equipment, and whatever new entity we add to the system.
Every process can start as a child process over an open Activity (task).
We can schedule on a calendar every Activity.
We can optimize a large number of activities against Resources (case of production).
The incoming Emails become documents, and their attachments files also become documents.
We can characterize the incoming email, and new Processes can start on them.
Developers can be trained and reuse all existing code and designs.
It includes a Report Designer.
Enterprise Email Management.
It incorporates Activity-Based Costing (ABC).
Metrics and Targets.
Balanced Scorecards (BSC).

A company does not need a separate ERP, CRM, PPC, Document Management, Email Manager, or whatever typical applications to operate your business correctly.

Its mission is to make its data production, data transfer, and data consumption fully automated. Its minimal support team consists of an ambitious and capable Manager who can play the role of CPO and an open-minded Developer. A team like this can automate fast and efficiently every process in the company. As a result, we can assure you that the developing team’s offered product will soon be overpassing the demand from the various departments. And all of that without any compromise to real business life!