Securing Lasting Growth Through Intelligent Automation
A leading CPG manufacturer eliminated redundant systems and manual data entry by implementing strategic automation, resulting in faster operations, fewer errors, and stronger business performance.
Client background and challenges
The client was a mid-sized CPG manufacturer that had grown through new product launches and acquisitions, leaving it with multiple overlapping systems for orders, inventory, production, and finance.
Teams re-entered the same data into ERPs, spreadsheets, and niche applications, creating bottlenecks, frequent errors, and conflicting reports.
- Order, production, and inventory data lived in disconnected systems, leading to data silos and redundant manual entry across regions and plants.
- Manual data entry introduced delays and inaccuracies in orders, inventory counts, and production reporting, raising operational costs and risk.
- Leadership lacked a single source of truth for performance metrics, making it difficult to optimize productivity, working capital, and service levels.
Strategic automation approach
The team began by mapping critical workflows across order processing, inventory management, production scheduling, and reporting to identify where data was being retyped or reconciled manually.
This analysis informed a strategy to integrate systems, automate repetitive tasks, and standardize data flows without disrupting day-to-day operations.
- An integration layer connected ERPs, planning tools, and warehouse systems, enabling a unified data model and eliminating duplicate entry of orders, SKUs, and BOM information.
- Intelligent automation and RPA robots were deployed to automate data entry, order validation, and invoice generation, significantly reducing processing time and errors.
- Automated data capture and real-time monitoring surfaced production and inventory KPIs on centralized dashboards, giving operations leaders immediate visibility into performance.
Operational and productivity results
Once manual data entry and redundant workflows were automated, the manufacturer experienced major productivity improvements and smoother operations.
Industry benchmarks show that automating manual workflows can cut processing times, reduce data entry errors, and free staff capacity for higher-value work.
- Automation of order and inventory workflows reduced manual data entry volume by well over half, mirroring cases where organizations eliminate up to 98% of manual entry tasks.
- With fewer errors and faster processing, production scheduling became more reliable, contributing to higher overall equipment effectiveness and reduced downtime.
Business impact and performance gains
Strategic automation not only streamlined operations but also improved financial and customer-facing outcomes for the CPG manufacturer.
By consolidating data and automating key processes, the business gained the agility and insight needed to compete in a demanding market.
- Better data accuracy and real-time visibility enabled more intelligent inventory and materials decisions, echoing examples where harmonized data unlocks multi-million-dollar optimization opportunities.
- Productivity improvements, reduced rework, and stronger on-time performance supported higher margins and customer satisfaction, aligning with findings that most CPG manufacturers now view automation as a primary driver of productivity and profit growth.