2019 IEEE International Conference on Smart Cloud (SmartCloud)

System Design and Development for Robotic

Process Automation
Yi-Wei Ma Dan-Ping Lin Shiang-Jiun Chen
Department of Electrical Engineering Logistics Engineering College Digital Transformation Institute
National Taiwan University of Science Shanghai Maritime University Institute of Information Industry
and Technology Shanghai, China Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei, Taiwan Corresponding Author: annette@iii.org.tw
yiweimaa@gmail.com dplin@shmtu.edu.cn

Hsiu-Yuan Chu Jiann-Liang Chen

Digital Transformation Institute Department of Electrical Engineering
Institute of Information Industry National Taiwan University of Science
Taipei, Taiwan and Technology
jotw168@gmail.com Taipei, Taiwan
lchen@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Abstract—Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a rapidly RPA has attracted numerous research interest. Various
emerging technological tool. RPA can help people to perform works have established the advantages of using RPA in
complex and repetitive tasks. Like the real-time processing various operations, such as the smoothing of comprehensive
power that is provided by cloud computing, RPA can reduce the purchase-to-pay and order-to-cash processes [8], the strategic
possibility of errors in the performance of such tasks. This work transformation of global business services [9], the setting up
studies development and process design of RPA and proposes a of centers of excellence in organizations [10] and the
method for evaluating the benefits that are provided by RPA, to improvement of audit quality [11]. Other relevant researches
help a company's decision-makers to identify quickly the focus on specific software packages for construction of data,
resources that need to be acquired to facilitate its use.
rules-based processes with deterministic outcomes, or
Keywords—Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Product
comparing existing platforms for implementing RPA [12]. For
Development Process, Waterfall, Agile Methodology example, Aalst et al. [13] elucidated the relationship between
RPA and straight-through processing with reference to the
I. INTRODUCTION frequency of case happening and the types of cases, in which
two cases are recognized as the same type if they are similar
In the enterprise environment, many office operations
and can be handled in the same way. Discussing the effect
depend on manual processing, resulting in inefficiency and
RPA on the modern world, Tripathi [14] deployed robot
high error rates. RPA was proposed in recent years to solve
configurations to perform enterprise automation tasks by
this problem. RPA is the use of software tools to eliminate the
using UiPath programming techniques so as to achieve the
need for the human processing of highly repetitive office
minimum cost and maximum ROI. Similarly, Ying [15]
operations. It offers such advantages as improved efficiency
proposed a guidebook for designing and developing a robot to
and a reduced error rate. However, the development of RPA
emulate the actions of users of implementing office work, in
is not simple, as general software development involves a
which the pioneer software is Blue Prism.
series of plans, exploration requirements, definitions, design,
implementation, testing, operation and post-maintenance. If Even though Leshob et al. [16] presented some principles
the development of a piece of software takes a long time, its for the analysis of business processes that to which RPA can
expected benefits are unlikely to be achieved. Therefore, this be applied, little attention has been paid to the implementation
work is concerned with a process design and the evaluation of RPA under general conditions. RPA can provide a range of
of the advantages that are provided by the development of benefits, but various software packages and platforms require
RPA. A company will be able quickly to determine whether various resource assignments and procedure adjustments.
the resource inputs and expected benefits support its goals Therefore, a more efficient approach to facilitate RPA
using the process design and the benefit evaluation method. implementation and performance assessment is required. This
paper proposes a novel approach that draws on lean
II. BACKGROUND manufacturing in operation management. The proposed
RPA reduces the incidence of human error and improves method integrates the concept of leanness with individual
the efficiency of work execution. It greatly simplifies the waterfall models in RPA to automatically perform tasks. Lean
execution of a functions increasing efficiency and flexibility implementation is used in performance evaluation which
[1-3]. RPA uses computer software to eliminate the need for would automatically adjust the implementation procedure
people to perform repetitive business operations and according to the synchronized evaluation results.
information processing [4, 5]. There are many software tools
for RPA include UiPath, Automation Anywhere and Blue III. PROPOSES RPA RAPID DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION
Prism. Each RPA software package has particular advantages The traditional RPA development process can be divided
and disadvantages, functions and price [6]. Telefonica O2 now into RPA Plan, RPA Demand and Definition, RPA Design,
uses RPA to reserve and transfer user messages during its SIM RPA Implement, RPA Test, RPA Operation and RPA
exchange process [7]. Maintenance, as shown in Fig. 1.

978-1-7281-5506-7/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 187

DOI 10.1109/SmartCloud.2019.00038
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 x RPA Plan initiates planning of the project, and the
pre-assessing and selection of resources and
manpower for execution.
x RPA Demand and Definition set the scope of the
project and the problem to be solved to ensure that the
implementation satisfies the needs of the end-user.
x RPA Design must meet the needs of end-users for
subsequent engineering staff.
x RPA Implement is the service and application
development phase. Figure 2. RPA agile design and implementation

x RPA Test tests the developed services and developed

applications to ensure compliance with plans and risk ( )= (2)
control.
Total ( )=∑ (3)
x RPA Operation supports the operation and service of
the business.
In the process of agile development, failure to break down
x RPA maintenance is responsible for adjusting and the RPA task affects the overall progress and benefit.
revising the missing in the above process. Therefore, in the implementation process, an RPA task must
be divided into sub-projects, which are divided into sub-tasks,
as shown in Fig. 3.

Figure 3. RPA task division

Before and after the use of RPA, a company must evaluate

Figure 1.RPA development process and verify the resources it has invested and the benefits it has
received. For this purpose, this work proposes an RPA cost-
In the traditional development method, a process is long performance ratio (CPR) evaluation system for RPA. Total
and inefficient, and its overall development time (T) is + cost includes labor costs and equipment costs. Benefits are
⋯+ , as shown in Eq. (1). If a results of the development assessed as the labor time saved by using RPA and the
are not as expected, the provided value and benefits will be reduction of the rate of errors.
limited.
RPA Cost-performance Ratio (CPR) =
(4)
(SMT+RRE) / (HR + IE)
( )= (1)
SMT denotes saved manpower time; RRE denotes the
This work introduce the design and implementation of reduction of the rate of errors; HR denotes the investment in
RPA based on agile development with the decentralized human resources and IE denotes the investment in equipment.
method, as shown in Fig. 2. The concept is to disassemble the To analyze SMT, RRE, HR and IE, scoring items are selected
overall RPA workflow into N equal parts, which each from industrial experts, and provided in Table 2. This method
corresponds to an office transaction, for rapid development is consistent with the intuitive evaluation of RPA.
and application. This method reduces the cost of the
TABLE I. EXPERT SCORE SHEET
subsequent abandonment of that fails to meet expectations.
The scope of development can be shrunk or enlarged, and Quantitative
SMT Importance
uncertainty associated with the project development and score
wasted resources can be reduced. Each cycle of manufacture SMT 1.1
separately reflects RPA Plan, RPA Demand and Definition, SMT 1.2
RPA Design, RPA Implement, RPA Test, RPA Operation and … … …
RPA Maintenance. Each cycle takes + ⋯ + time. The Quantitative
RRE Importance
total time (TC) required is the sum of the times of all cycles, Score
as shown in Eq. 3. RRE 1.1
RRE 1.2
… … …

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 Quantitative determine whether a developed RPA program satisfies a
HR Importance company's cost limit.
score
HR 1.1
HR 1.2 REFERENCES
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