To reduce mistake, to reduce cost, and to remove repetitive jobs, every company has been trying to make their job automated (and remove human from it). But it is not as easy as some thought to be.
Based on my past experience, these are the 3 S that can help in preparing automation:
- Sanitization – Ensure processes/procedures, tools and data has been “cleanse” to ensure correctness and necessity
- Standardization – This is crucial, because without some common and standard in any procedure and tools, automation would end up like spaghetti, or haystack
- Simplification – Break down complex procedure or systems into smaller chunk, so that it is managable and easier for automation to happen
But the most important and must exist in all the steps (pre, during and post) is COMMUNICATION. The communication need to be across all stake holders as well as contributors (technical and non-technical), and most important should be a combination of top-down approach with feedback loop from the bottom-up. This mean, top management must all agreed on the proposal and improvisation by the people on the ground (they actually know much more than you thought). And lastly, the plan of attack must be flexible and adaptable with agility, with proper controls.
In any automation to be successful, communication is the key!
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