Acron Group, a leading mineral fertiliser producer in Russia and globally, has introduced Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) at its production sites in Veliky Novgorod (Acron) and Smolensk region (Dorogobuzh). These technologies are used to automate the processing of critical information submitted in digital and paper formats.
The Group’s IT specialists started the adoption of RPA and OCR, the two indispensable elements of digital transformation and the development of production and business processes, in 2023 and put them into commercial operation earlier this year.
The projects aim to automate the handling of incoming documents, thereby increasing the speed of information processing, reducing response times to incoming information by 95% and freeing up human resources for other priority tasks.
Acron and Dorogobuzh use RPA and OCR at their warehouses to process information contained in paper and digital documents. Their IT departments have also incorporated RPA into the first-line support to promptly address typical queries.
Mikhail Yaskevich, Acron’s Senior Deputy Executive Director and Chief Engineer, said, ‘RPA and OCR help us process inventory documents, simplifying the maintenance of corporate systems and allowing us to keep a single autonomous electronic archive of technical documentation. This project has accelerated document processing by 400%, reduced the time it takes for departments to receive information to just a few minutes and freed up about 20% of valuable employees’ time. With these technologies in place, we have come closer to creating a more efficient and flexible system for prompt information exchange between all departments’.
Denis Guzanov, Head of Acron Digital (LLC IT Office), said, ‘Acron Group is actively introducing artificial intelligence into production and business processes. Besides RPA and OCR, we are developing many other technologies, such as LLM for more complex tasks. We are committed to creating a highly efficient and intelligent environment for our employees and customers’.