Research Article

International Journal of Engineering

Business Management
Raising logistics performance to new levels Volume 16: 1–20
© The Author(s) 2024
through digital transformation Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/18479790241231730
journals.sagepub.com/home/enb

HY Lam1 , Valerie Tang1  and L Wong1

Abstract
In view of the higher demand and customer expectations on the speed and accuracy of e-commerce logistics service as well
as the repetitive and time-consuming nature of manual order processing operation. This paper proposes a robotic process
automation (RPA) model to liberate human resources over time-consuming, inefficient, non-value-added, and repetitive
operational processes occupying workforces. This paper proposed an RPA model that integrates three functional RPA bots
in (1) tracking order status, (2) capturing order data, and (3) verifying order data to increase the efficiency and accuracy of
logistics operation and the order-handling process in small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) logistics company. A case
study was conducted on an SME logistics service providing customers with inbound and outbound operation services. The
result demonstrated that the proposed model significantly improves logistics operations performance against a human
approach concerning key indicators after implementation. Logistics companies could free up the workforce for value-
creating activities in value-added services.

Keywords
Digital transformation, robotic process automation, logistics operation, order picking, performance improvement

Date received: 30 November 2023; accepted: 24 January 2024

Introduction orders will damage the company’s revenues and reputation.

COVID-19 changed consumer buying behavior from tra-
ditional offline shopping to online shopping. Many cus-
tomers use different online platforms to purchase items,
including daily necessities. The demand for e-commerce
increased.1 Also, customers requested companies provide a
high-quality and high-accuracy service in logistics, delivery
service, and after-sales,2 for example, having a same-day or
next-day delivery.3 However, government policies such as
social isolation, home quarantine, and closing public areas
during the pandemic highly disrupt workforce management,
particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs). Therefore, this brings a challenge for SMEs lo-
gistics company in handling a large number of customer
requirements with limited resources.
To maintain the speed and accuracy of the service when
faced with a large volume of orders, it is essential to ensure
the integrity of order handling. Errors in handling customer
These order handling activities are time-consuming and
inefficient, but the company has no choice but to fulfill the
customer’s requirements and keep the customers satisfied.
Also, human errors easily occur in the working process due
to repetitively handling huge amounts of data in a short
time. Furthermore, companies are required to put extra
resources into these business activities, which seriously
impacts SMEs with little capital. However, only a few e-
commerce orders could be preprocessed in order handling
1
Department of Supply Chain and Information Management, The Hang Seng
University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
Corresponding author:
Valerie Tang, Department of Supply Chain and Information Management,
The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, D631, Core D, The Hang Seng
University of Hong Kong, Shatin 00000, Hong Kong.
Email: valerietang@hsu.edu.hk

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en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
2 International Journal of Engineering Business Management
before the customer confirms the orders.4 Therefore, it
formed a bottleneck in the order fulfilment process and
slowed down order picking and delivery.
To address the current challenges, some logistics man-
agers are seeking to transform these non-value-added ac-
tivities into digitization which becomes more efficient and
accurate and frees up the human workforce for handling
other high-value-added activities. In this stage, the concept
of digital transformation is introduced. Digital transfor-
mation (DT) could be summarized as a strategy to improve
business workflow, operations, and performance using
digital technologies.5 There are three common technolo-
gies used in the logistics industry for transforming a
business into a digital-based business, namely, robotic
process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI),
and blockchain.6 Among these, applying RPA is the most
suitable transformation technology for managers to au-
tomate order operations activities in order to increase
efficiency and accuracy. RPA was hailed as the initial step
of the digital transformation in the company. 6 RPA, a
computer software robot, works like humans and per-
forms repetitive, simple, and easy activities between
different information systems.7 Based on past research,
10% to 40% of the potential costs could be saved by
appling RPA.8 Moreover, it can help improve produc-
tivity by freeing employees from routine and repetitive
activities to value-added activities.9 While a successful
RPA implementation could benefit the company, research
on the implementation of RPA in over 20 companies
found that 30%–50% of RPA applications fail due to the
identified wrong attributed business processes.10
Therefore, identifying possible and correct operation
activities for applying RPA also is essential.
In order to address these research gaps in the order
handling process in SME logistics companies facing han-
dling a large amount of e-commerce customer orders, the
contribution of this study is to explore the enhance existing
knowledge on digital transformation and RPA technology
implementation:
(i) Identify the possible logistics business activities that
are suitable for implementing digital transformation.
(ii) Develop RPA bots for an efficient and high-
accuracy approach to replace humans in non-
value-added activities.
(iii) Facilitate digital transformation in logistics
companies.
This paper studies RPA technology and provides oper-
ational insights to help SME logistic companies increase
efficiency and accuracy in daily business activities. Also, an
analysis is conducted to identify suitable areas in logistics
operation activities for applying RPA bots to automate the
process. Moreover, a case study is conducted in a real-world
company to implement developed RPA bots and evaluate
the performance in improving business operation efficiency.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2
conducts a literature review on digital transformation, RPA
technology and Application of RPA in the logistics industry.
Section 3 presents the architecture of the proposed model.
Section 4 presents a case study to perform the developed
RPA and test the performance of RPA bots. Section 5
discusses the results. Section 6 concludes this paper.
Literature review
Current order operational process in
logistics industry
COVID-19 accelerates e-commerce growth, as more
companies expanded their business to B2C e-commerce to
fulfil increased customer demand during the pandemic.11
While this business expansion increased sales in e-
commerce, it added pressure to the logistics company on
the order fulfilment process. Different from traditional lo-
gistics order handling, e-commerce orders have an irregular
order demand, request small quantities but large stock
keeping units, a tiny order fulfilment time, and a short
delivery time window.3 Also, lockdowns and isolation
policies during COVID-19 negatively impact logistics
operations, including delivery, product production and la-
bour input.12 Therefore, it puts pressure on order handling
efficiently and effectively in the logistics companies in order
to provide a timely delivery service to customers, especially
SMEs. The order fulfilment pressure, mainly within the
warehouse or distribution centre, includes inbound, storage
and outbound operations.13 It is important to have an ef-
ficient and accurate handling of the inbound and outbound
processes towards performing a prompt order-picking
process. Without it, the consequence is a delay in receiv-
ing and delivering customer orders, which fails to fulfil
customer requirements and damages the company’s repu-
tation. However, the throughput of employees in SMEs is
fully utilized. They are unable to release extra capabilities to
resolve the new requirements from new types of business in
a short period.14 Therefore, some SMEs in the logistics
industry are seeking new transformation opportunities in
order to enhance their order-handling capability increasing
the efficiency and accuracy of handling customer orders
with different requirements. One possible concept is
transforming their business from a human-oriented opera-
tion to a digital one. Digital transformation has been in-
troduced to the logistics industry.
Digital transformation
In general, Digital Transformation (DT), is the im-
plementation of different digital technologies to improve the
Lam et al.
quality and efficiency of business processes, strengthening
the business performance and the company’s competitiveness
in the fast-changing market.15,16 Vial17 further summarized
and defined digital transformation as a procedure that sig-
nificantly integrates information and communication tech-
nologies to modify the current physical process.
Various digital technologies are providing different
transformation opportunities for companies. Generally
speaking, implementing digital technologies can improve the
current business operation workflow, facilitate customer re-
lationships, and develop a new business model.5 Major serval
digital technologies support digital transformation, including
Cloud-based technology, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Big
Data, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile technology, and Robotic
Process Automation.18,19 Cloud-based technologies help
companies manage available resources, such as connection
platforms with collaboration partners, data storage, and data
analysis.20 Blockchain helps to securely and transparently
store, and transfer collected data.21 The Internet of Things
enables large collection of real-time data.22 Big Data analyzes
data collected on different channels with high generation
speed.23 Artificial Intelligence provides the capability to
analyze large amounts of data.24 Mobile technology offers
real-time operation and decision support through the mobile
application when employees work.25 Robotic Process Au-
tomation automates some repetitive activities.26 Robotic
process automation is used for supporting operations.27,28 In
viewing all the digital technologies, Robotic process auto-
mation is the more appropriate technology targeted for im-
proving the operational capability of the logistics SMEs due
to being easier to use in business activities than other digital
transaction technologies.29
Robotic process automation (RPA)
Robotic process automation (RPA), the developed RPA
mechanical, is named a bot, which works as an agent and
imitates a human to finish specific activities within the
business operation.30 Functionally, it works as an agent,
combining different applications and systems originally
needed to process manual activities.29 For example, inter-
acting with Excel to process data, email systems to send
emails to different clients, and Enterprise Resource Planning
Systems to handle transactions and generate reports.31 Also, it
transits the operation process from manual handling of
business activities to complete business process automa-
tion.32 Activities automated by RPA mainly have charac-
teristics including redundant, repetitive, structured, routine,
and rule-based.33 Not only that, but the current development
of RPA technologies also allows the processing the un-
structured data.34 Currently, many vendors provide RPA
technologies in the RPA market, including UiPath, Auto-
mation Anywhere, Microsoft, Blueprism and Nice, etc., that
provide coding-free RPA bot development services.35
3
There are serval benefits to applying RPA to business
processes towards the company. Developers can create RPA
bots without professional coding and programming
knowledge.6 Operationally, it includes being available to
work 24/7, improving operation efficiency, decreasing
human errors, and reducing the waste of the human
workforce in non-value activities.36 At the managerial level,
one-third of the cost could be saved after implementing RPA
technologies.37 Another advantage of implementing RPA
technologies is that they can avoid human error. Cooper
et al.38 stated that applying RPA technologies in accounting
could improve the accuracy rate from 90% to 99.9%. From
an employee’s point of view, RPA bots release the em-
ployees from repetition and redeploy them to more variable
and problem-solving activities, resulting in increased em-
ployee satisfaction.39,40
These RPA technologies have been discussed in recent
years and implemented in different industries by different
researchers. Mohamed et al.41 implemented RPA technol-
ogy in Human resource management for reducing the
processing time of documents by 10 times more than
manual. Viale and Zouari42 researched three companies that
implemented RPA technologies in procurement manage-
ment and significantly reduced the processing time of non-
productive activities. Carden et al.43 applied RPA in in-
formation management for improving operational efficiency
and reduce cost and process time. Lin et al.44 also re-
searched applying RPA technologies in library manage-
ment. Kedziora and Smolander45 proposed using RPA to
reduce the workforce shortage issues in the healthcare in-
dustry. Houy et al.46 highlighted that public administrations
could implement RPA technologies to improve efficiency.
In the logistics industry, Bu et al.47 pointed out that RPA
technology can be implemented in inventory management,
order management, information management, and customer
relationship management. However, a more significant
amount of research on RPA in logistics is mainly focused on
the managerial perspective and lacks specific RPA bot
development details. For example, Gruzauskas and Raga-
van48 applied RPA for handling documents in the logistics
process; Brzeziński49 suggested the possible automation
process in logistics; Krakau et al.50 considered the success
factor for applying RPA in logistics; Sullivan et al.51 dis-
cussed the influence of the operation process of adopting
RPA in the company from a strategic and managerial de-
ployment view; Lambourdiere et al.52 provided insight into
Implementing RPA in logistics companies in management
viewpoint. Zhang and Huang53 provided a detailed devel-
opment of RPA bots for supporting activities in the logistics
process, but required advanced coding knowledge. Despite
the increasing attention to implementing RPA technologies,
the discussion on the operational perspective and more
systemic approach to developing bots in the logistics in-
dustry still needs to be explored. When transitioning from
4 International Journal of Engineering Business Management
manual to digital, development difficulties, changes in
workflow and operation issues are important considerations
for the company to determine whether to implement new
technology into business activities. Jeeva Padmini et al.10
pointed out that identifying incorrect business processes and
implementing RPA technologies will lead to the automation
failure of the company. Therefore, in order to tackle the
limitation of the current situation, this research study tries to
fill the gap in the operational view on implementation and
suggests a feasible and straightforward approach for a
company to experience the advantages of digitalization in
the business process.
In summary, the pandemic has led to a speedy increase in
the development of e-commerce, and new customer ex-
pectations have been created. Logistics companies, espe-
cially SMEs, transform their business by adopting digital
transformation in order to adapt to the large numbers of
orders and unique requirements of e-commerce businesses.
In order to increase the efficiency and accuracy of the order
fulfilment process, RPA bots are introduced to logistics
SME companies. Although e-commerce, digital transfor-
mation, and RPA generated high attention in the literature,
there is still a research gap regarding the implementation in
an SME logistics company from an operational perspective.
Therefore, an RPA development model is proposed in this
paper that helps the company achieve an efficient and ac-
curate order-handling process. By applying so, it allows
SME logistics companies to free up the workforce for other
value-added activities to optimize business performance.
Methodology
This paper focuses on transferring routine, repetitive, and
time-consuming activities on logistic business activities
currently being handled manually to automate operation
activities by RPA bots to improve efficiency and release the
human workforce to other high-value activities. The ar-
chitecture of the proposed system, namely, the RPA de-
veloping model, consists of three modules, which are shown
in Figure 1, including: (i) Module 1 - Data Collection, (ii)
Module 2 - Bot Development, and (iii) Module 3 - RPA
Performance Evaluation. The details of each module are
explained below.
Data collection
Module one aims to gather the necessary data for the
proposed model and identify the logistics business activities
suitable for implementing RPA bots by analyzing the
current operation flow. There are two primary data sources,
including (a) customers from B2C businesses and (b) clients
from B2B businesses. Data from B2C customers is based on
the order transmitted from e-commerce platforms to the
company database, encompassing information such as order
numbers, item codes, item descriptions, etc. Another data
source came from commercial B2B clients using the
company service. Data mainly comes from shipping doc-
uments, such as airway bills and bills of landing, used for
tracking shipments, The data includes airwaybill numbers,
shipper names, shipment dates, origin and destination,
weight, etc., and is delivered through various communi-
cation platforms. Once the data are saved to the company
database, the data will be processed by the RPA bots created
by Module two to automate the processes.
Also, to access the scope of the RPA application area, a
company workflow study is conducted to identify potential
opportunities for applying RPA technology to enhance oper-
ational efficiency. Data such as the operation time of each
current daily process, the volume of the shipment tracking
daily, and the number of total orders handled daily are collected
to identify the bottlenecks or inefficient tasks in the existing
workflow. The company can prioritize and determine which
areas can implement RPA technology to replace manually
based operations by analyzing these metrics. After selecting
the application area, the existing workflow and documentation
within the workflow may not entirely fit the requirements of
RPA implementation. Re-engineering the existing business
workflow and documentation is an important step in preparing
for future integration with RPA bots, for example, redesigning
a new operation workflow, standardizing document naming,
formatting, etc.
Bot development
The main purpose of developing RPA bots is to automate
logistics activities that free up the workforce in repetitive
and time-consuming activities. This section suggested three
common and key operation processes during the logistics
operation that highlight the availability and usability of RPA
technology in the logistics industry: tracking shipments,
capturing data, and verifying data. In order to develop the
RPA bots, the Automation Anywhere platform is used.
Using the drag-and-drop method and code-free platform,
the company can apply RPA technology to their business
more efficiently and without advanced coding knowledge.
Bot 1: Shipping Status Tracking Bot. In order to track the status
of relevant orders, Bot 1, a Shipping status tracking bot, is
developed. The first activity for the bot is to extract the
relevant order data from the company database, for ex-
ample, airway bill number, order number, etc. The second is
information source accessing, which accesses external order
tracking sources, such as cargo tracking websites, for data
capturing steps. After that, the bot could perform the data-
capturing action by capturing the relevant data associated
with the necessary data from information sources. The bot
also needs to report the cargo arrival status by identifying
specific keywords on the tracking website, such as
Lam et al.
Figure 1. The architecture of the RPA developing model.
“Arrival”, “Delivered”, “Transferred”, “In Progress”, “In
Transit”, etc. If the cargo arrives, the bot will send a no-
tification to the relevant department in the company to
prepare the received shipment. Otherwise, the bot will
continue tracking the order in subsequent periods until it
arrives at the destination. Table 1 provides a structured
overview of the process activities and functionalities of the
order status tracking bot and serves as a development guide
for business developers.
Bot 2: Product list generation bot. In order to capture the
product information in logistics documents and generate a
product list to support the order-picking process, Bot 2, the
Product list generation bot, has been developed. The bot
5
follows a set of conceptual actions shown in Table 2 to
process each logistics document. Initially, the bot needs to
split logistics documents into multiple files in order to
perform further action. The bot will continually open the
logistics documents individually and screen targeted key-
words, for example, “Delivery notes”, “Invoice”, “Packing
list”, etc. The bot will extract data in the order file if it
detects the target keyword cognitively. It is noted that there
may be unnecessary data when extracting semi-structured
data. Therefore, data cleaning is implemented to remove
extraneous data, for example, letters, black space, and
symbols. After that, it is automatically stored in the com-
pany’s internal database, and the screened file will be
closed. A loop is added for running the bot until all the files
6 International Journal of Engineering Business Management

Table 1. Overall features of Bot one and related process activities.

Process activities Action features

Key data extraction Extract the relevant order data from the company database
Information source accessing Access the external sources or information
Data inputting Input the extracted order data to the information source
Data capturing Capture the relevant data associated with the key word from information sources
Data storage Input the captured data/table into the database
Notification Send the arrival notification to operators
Checking Continuously check the relevant data for all relevant order data in the company database

Table 2. Overall features of Bot two and related process activities.

Process activities Action features

File splitting Split the document into multiple individual documents

Keyword identification Capture the keyword in the specific area of the document
Target keyword Determine whether the captured keyword is the specific target keyword
Cognitive extraction Capture the requested data from the documents
Data cleaning Remove the unnecessary data
Data storage Store the captured and cleaned data in the database
Report generation Generate the summary report of the captured data
Screening Continually screen all the split documents until all the split documents are checked

have been scanned. Finally, the bot will generate a summary
report for all the order data. Table 2 lists suggested actions
for RPA bot development and outlines the key steps and
functionalities required for the product list generation bot.
Bot 3: Data verification bot. To achieve high accuracy
checking in all customer orders before delivery, Bot 3, the Data
verification bot. It proposes to compare the data captured by
Bot two to be correct with an unchangeable file before the
order is delivered to the customer. The unchangeable file is
mainly sourced from a reliable and authoritative system or
database within the company that with trusted and reliable
data. The bot will first extract the data from both the immutable
file and the report file created by Bot two and start the data-
matching process. If the data matches, the bot will update the
report and check the next entry until all records are reviewed. If
the data from both sides is mismatched, the bot will notify
operators and request a manual view of the incorrect data.
When all the data is correct, the data is stored in the company
database, and operators can start to move onto outbound
product operations. Table 3 provides a detailed description of
the process activities involved within Bot three to explain the
specific process actions and each feature performed by Bot
three within the overall structure of its operations.
RPA performance evaluation
In this study, RPA is applied to improve the daily operation of a
logistics company. Evaluation of the performance of
developed bots can provide a better comparison for the
company to understand the benefits of RPA technology. In
order to determine the improvement of implementing RPA
technology in logistic activities, it is essential to suggest some
evaluation criteria. This module proposes two evaluation
criteria, namely (i) Accuracy and (ii) Efficiency by comparison
with before and after implementing RPA technology in the
handling of the operational tasks. The list of order is denoted
by the O and indexed by o. The list of the activities is indicated
by A and indexed by a. The list of performers is denoted by X
and indexed by x. M is represented to conduct the operation
manually and RPA represents RPA bots. The accuracy of each
order is represented by the binary variable pxoa ; one represents
correct data processed, and 0 otherwise. The time spent on
performing each activity is represented by Tax.
Accuracy presents the percentage of correct data during
data capturing, extracting, and matching, which the sum of
P x
binary index with respect to the list size, namely poa.
o2O
This accuracy with different settings is captured to as Pax , is
the ratio of the number of orders that are correctly pro-
cessed. It is given in equation (1). The improvement in
accuracy IaP is the percentage difference between the ac-
curacy of the manual laborer PaM and the RPA bot PaRPA in
the activity and is given by the equation (2):
P x
o2O poa
Pax ¼ (1)
jOj
Lam et al. 7

Table 3. Overall features of Bot three and related process activities.

Process activities Action features

Data extraction in files Get the captured data in the report generated by bot 2
Find the value captured by bot 2 in the unchangeable file
Data matching Switch between two different locations for checking
Extract position for data checking
Verification Determine whether the captured data in both locations are the same
Report updating Update the checking result in the database
Next entry Check the next row
Data storage Store the captured and cleaned data in the database
Notification Send the notification to operators
Checking Continually check all the data in the database until all the data are checked

PaRPA  PaM
IaP ¼
PaM
Efficiency gives the operation and cycle time used by
manual and RPA bots for conducting operation activity. The
total time spent performing an activity a is the time spent
x tomers to use its services. Due to the increasing requirement
processing each order toa by performer x in the operation
activity, which named as Tax and evaluated by the equation
(3). The efficiency improvement IaT in performance time
different between manual TaM and RPA bot TaRPA in oper-
ation activity a is analyzed by equation (4):
X To implement the proposed model into the company, it is
Tax ¼ x
toa (3)
o2O
TaRPA  TaM
IaT ¼
TaM
These evaluation criteria provide a simple and effective
means for the company to identify the source of operation
improvement through transforming from manual labor to
RPA bots. The proposed model supports the logistics
company in re-engineering current order fulfilment opera-
tions from human force to a digital approach. By releasing
more human workforce from non-value-added repeat tasks,
the logistics company can invest the released crew in other
complex and value-added tasks. The proposed evaluation
indicators, namely efficiency and accuracy, allow logistics
companies to evaluate the performance of implementing
RPA in an order-handling process more intuitively. The
implementation process of the RPA developing model in a
real-world logistics company is discussed in the next
section.
Case study
In order to validate the performance of the proposed model,
RPA technology is implemented in a medium-sized logistics
company. The logistics company provides different solutions
to its customers, including air freight service, sea freight
(2) service, e-commerce logistics service, and road transportation
service. Also, the company developed a new logistics
business in recent years, which provides an international cold
chain freight transportation service to different customers
with a 24/7 cargo monitoring service to attract more cus-
and demand for logistics service, the company seeks an
operation automation approach to increase the efficiency and
accuracy of handling customer requirements and orders that
release more employees to expand its business.
following the implementation flow shown in Figure 2, can
be derived into four stages, namely, (i) Digital transfor-
mation activities identification, (ii) Business workflow and
documentation reengineering, (iii) RPA bot developing, and
(4)
(iv) Digital transformation bot performance evaluation.
Possible digital transformation activity identification
in the company
This stage aims to study the company’s current inbound and
outbound workflow and identify the issues in the current
workflow to identify possible transformation activities.
After reviewing the inbound and outbound workflow of the
company, the following statements summarize the chal-
lenges that the company is facing in operation that hinder
efficiency and productivity, which can be improved by
implementing RPA bots. The challenges are summarized
and highlighted as follows.
High workload on checking shipment status. Figure 3 shows
the overview of the inbound workflow of the company for
handling goods and highlights the repetitive tasks in the
process. Five parties are involved in the process: Customer
or consignee, Company back office, Company warehouse,
Trucker, and Airline or Cargo terminal. Currently, the
manual check method is used in the company’s back office
by inputting the Airway bill (AWB) number into the cargo
8 International Journal of Engineering Business Management
Figure 2. Implementation flow of the RPA to the company.
tracking website and copying data to the company database
when they receive the shipping order information. Once the
shipment arrived at its destination, the back-office clerk
would capture the latest shipment data on the airline website
and prepare trucker collection record documents for the
company warehouse simultaneously. However, the fre-
quency of checking the shipping status of shipments is high,
and clerks need to monitor statuses multiple times repeti-
tively each day. Consequently, this process creates a high
workload for workers and limits them from focusing on
more value-added tasks. The RPA bot can make the process
quick and easy by capturing all website data to the database
automatically and accurately. Therefore, the first possible
automation process is developing an RPA bot to auto-
matically check the website’s shipping status.
Inefficient of checking picking items and related
documents. The increasing demand for e-orders during the
pandemic pressures the company warehouse outbound
workflow. Due to the delivery commitment promised to
deliver the order to the customer the same day or the next
day, a highly efficient and accurate order-handling process
becomes a critical bottleneck, especially in checking items
and associated documents. Figure 4 shows a goods out-
bound workflow and highlights repetitive tasks. In the
current operation, item counting and data input to the da-
tabase is conducted manually before item outbound. After
picking items, order pickers would review the chosen items
with the picking list and delivery notes to check whether
they are consistent. The information includes item names,
item codes, item quantities, etc. The warehouse is outbound
over 500–800 SKUs daily. Warehouse operators need at
least 2–4 h per day to check all the order data and create the
picking list for picking. Therefore, it brings a heavy
workload for the warehouse operators and occupies many
staff working hours in non-value-added activity, which
leads staff to put less time into value-added tasks. Also, busy
work schedules cause inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent,
and irregular order processing. Operators need to check
these data frequently and repetitively to ensure accuracy,
leading to inefficiency operation. RPA bots could process
this business operation with better timesaving and accuracy.
Therefore, the second possible automation activity occurs in
the company warehouse.
Business workflow and documentation reengineering
To overcome the challenge mentioned above, the company
decided to apply the proposed RPA model and reengineer
the operation workflow and documents to better fit for
implementing RPA technologies.
Workflow reengineering. Overall, applying RPA bots in the
company could increase the efficiency of the operation.
However, the bots should be used correctly in the workflow
to connect automated and manual tasks seamlessly.
Therefore, a reengineering of the current workflow is
needed to ensure the connection is smooth.
The re-engineered inbound workflow mainly simplifies
the shipment status-checking activity. Figure 5 shows the re-
engineered inbound workflow of the company’s back office
with RPA bot. By implementing the RPA bot, workers in the
back office are only required to press the button to run the
RPA bot. The bot will automatically extract the AWB
numbers in the database and regularly collect the data on the
cargo tracking website. After confirming the shipment ar-
rives, the bot will notify and send the necessary data to the
worker for preparing the trucker collection record docu-
ment. In the new workflow, workers no longer need to input
AWB numbers to the cargo website manually, monitor when
Lam et al.
Figure 3. Shipment inbound workflow and repetitive tasks.
the cargo arrives, and capture data on the cargo status
website. The worker can conduct other value-added ac-
tivities with the time saved in the monitoring and tracking
process.
Figure 6 shows the re-engineered outbound workflow
with the implementing RPA bot. Targeting the three primary
bottleneck operations: Creating an item picking list,
checking the picking list with an order list, and updating the
inventory record. These activities were conducted initially
by warehouse clerks and combined into two tasks operated
by bots. RPA bots can create an item-picking list in a
significantly shorter time after the warehouse clerk receives
delivery notes and invoice files. Subsequently, warehouse
operators begin the picking process quickly. After picking,
the warehouse clerk can check and update the inventory
record accurately using the bot. Compared to the original
operation workflow, the automated workflow shortens
operation time significantly. The warehouse clerk no longer
needs to spend significant time manually typing these data
in delivery notes to generate a product list for warehouse
operators to pick items and handles the time-consuming,
cumbersome, and redundant data-checking process. The
efficiency and accuracy could significantly increase because
RPA bots conduct all operations with consistent actions.
9
Documentation reengineering. Reengineering of documents is
conducted in the standard format of all the delivery notes in order
to improve the data-capturing quality for RPA bots. During the
case study, it was found that the existing delivery notes docu-
mentation lacked consistent formatting. When using the product
list generation bot to capture data in delivery notes, the format is
only sufficiently consistent for the human eyes but not for the
machine. The table format of each delivery note is different,
which decreases the accuracy of checking activity due to cap-
turing unnecessary data captured by the bot. Thus, using the RPA
bots leads to an increasing capture error. In order to increase the
capture accuracy, a reengineering of the document is conducted.
Figure 7 shows an example of highlighting the issue in a delivery
note and the result of reengineering. The redesigned delivery
note is standardized as (a) a standard and unchangeable layout
and (b) the total number of SKUs in each delivery note is not
more than 6. Therefore, it can ensure the capture area to be the
same and avoid capturing unnecessary data. Thus, increasing the
accuracy.
RPA bots developing
To develop the RPA bot for handling the process, Auto-
mation Anywhere is selected as the development platform.
10
Figure 4. Goods outbound workflow and repetitive tasks.
In this study, three RPA bots are developed in order to
support business process improvement. Namely, (a) Ship-
ment status capturing and tracking bot, (b) Product list
creating and checking bot, and (c) Data verification bot.
Shipment status tracking bot. The shipment status tracking
bot captures the latest shipment data from the cargo tracking
website and stores the captured data in the company da-
tabase. The data mainly includes two types of data. The first
is the latest shipment data like port, status, prices, weight,
flight, and milestones. The second is tracking data such as
station, checkpoint, temperature, volt, and event time. In
order to operate the bot, three main bot actions are involved
in the case: Opens the excel by the “Open” action, remarks
the checking time by the “Log to file” action, and captures
the necessary data shown above by the “Recorder: Capture”
action. After that, a notification will be sent to clerks for
further actions, such as preparing trucking collection doc-
uments. Figure 8 shows the detailed process flow of the
developed bot with the business operation process.
Picking list generation bot. The generation bot aims to identify
and select the delivery notes to the document sent from the
International Journal of Engineering Business Management
back office and captures the data for picking list creation in
order to support the order picking operation. Once the back
office confirms orders, they create documents and send them
to the warehouse. Relevant shipping documents are in-
cluded in the report file: invoices, delivery notes, and
transmittal sheets. In this case study, only delivery notes are
considered to demonstrate a proof of concept. First, the bot
would split the original file into individual shipping doc-
uments. In the case of delivery notes, the bot will capture the
delivery note number, item code, item size, item qty, and
item-unit. Upon completion of capturing, the bot would
close the file and move on to the following shipping doc-
ument. This loop action repeats until all the documents are
processed. Once the data is captured, the bot will start
creating the picking list for warehouse workers to pick up
the customer-requested items. “Replace,” “Trim,” and
“Split” actions were included in the bot for replacing and
trimming the unnecessary data, such as small letters,
symbols, and space. Afterwards, the bots store the final data
in the database to finish the process. At the same time,
warehouse workers will prepare equipment for pickings,
such as forklifts and pallet trucks. Figure 9 shows the de-
tailed workflow of the product list generation bot.
Lam et al.
Figure 5. Reengineered inbound workflow.
Data verification bot. The data verification bot aims to verify
the consistency of captured data by the second bot with the
original picking list in order to speed up the order data
checking activities. Once finished picking, warehouse op-
erators will review the selected items with the picking list
before packing. Then, workers pack items into pallets based
on different delivery locations. Before delivery, the clerk
needs to ensure items are recorded and updated in the in-
ventory system before outbound. By using the bot, the
checking time can be shortened. Since there is a lack of
primary keys to identify the data row in the database, item
code and location are combined to help the bot determine
the correct data row using excel formula action. Second, the
bot would check the delivery note number in the same row.
Then, the bot would verify the item quantity until all the data
were checked using a loop action. Finally, the bot would
report the “Incorrect” in the extracted database when data in
11
the same row are inconsistent. Therefore, the warehouse
clerk is only required to recheck the incorrect data. After
that, the warehouse operators can prepare delivery, and the
warehouse clerk can contact the logistic parties. Figure 10
shows the workflow of the verification bot.
Result and discussion
Comparison between the manual and RPA bot
in efficiency
To determine the performance of the three developed bots
in supporting business operations, comparison testing is
conducted to evaluate the performance before and after
adopting RPA bots and manual methods based on effi-
ciency and accuracy. RPA bots are executed on an Intel
Core i5 processor machine, and manual entry is collected
12 International Journal of Engineering Business Management

Figure 6. Reengineered outbound workflow.

Figure 7. An example of unstandardized delivery notes and the result of reengineering.

Lam et al.
Figure 8. The operation flow of shipment status capturing and tracking bot.
Figure 9. Operation flow of product list generation bot.
with three individual operators performing the manual
data entry tasks. After comparison, it is found that the
processing time of each operation process could be
significantly shortened.
First, the shipment status tracking bot could significantly
reduce the operation time on tracking shipment status. In the
existing manual operation, the back-office clerk needs to
update the data record to the database once there is any
shipment status update on the cargoes website. The oper-
ation process repeats several times daily until the shipment
13
arrives. Originally, the clerk may use 4 min to check and
record data for one airway bill. However, applying the RPA
bot, only 1 min is used to check and record. 84% of process
time is reduced for checking. Also, an evaluation is con-
ducted and predicted on checking and documenting the
shipment status for 20/50/100/1000 airway bills. The result
shows that an average of 88% of the time is reduced using an
RPA bot compared with a manual. Figure 11 compares
checking the shipment status between the manual and the
RPA bot.
14
Figure 10. The operation flow of data verification bot.
Figure 11. Comparison of manual and RPA bot on tracking shipment status.
Furthermore, the picking list generation bot could
accelerate order picking activity. In the current opera-
tion, the generation time of picking list creation highly
affects the starting time of the order-picking process.
Warehouse operators start the order-picking process
once they receive the picking list from the warehouse
clerk. Therefore, the faster the picking list is generated,
the earlier the item-picking process can start. Using the
RPA bot, 91.6% of the generation time is diminished
from 1.5 min to 7.6 s for one delivery note compared
with the manual. An experiment is adopted to test and
forecast the processing time with 10/50/100/1000
International Journal of Engineering Business Management
delivery notes. The result shows that an average of 92%
of process time could be decreased by using RPA.
Figure 12 shows the comparison result of the manual
work and picking list generation bot.
Finally, the data verification bot could reduce the
delay between order packing and delivery. In the ex-
isting operation, the order is available to be outbound
once the warehouse clerk checks that all the data is
correct and consistent. To confirm that all the data is
accurate, the warehouse clerk needs to use at least 30 s
to check each row of data currently. After applying the
RPA bot, the verification time was significantly reduced
Lam et al. 15

Figure 12. Comparison of manual and RPA bot on product list generation.

Figure 13. Comparison of manual and RPA bot on verifying captured data.

to 2 s. When verifying 20/50/100/1000 item rows
testing, only 6 min were spent by the RPA bot to finish
verifying 100 item rows in the process. An average of
89.9% of process time was reduced compared to
manually checking. Figure 13 show the result of the
data verification bot.
Comparison of reliability/accuracy between manual
and bots
A data entry test is conducted to measure the reliability
and accuracy of manual and RPA bots. During the test,
it was found that some clerical errors easily occurred.
For example, an item number named
“LOU0420W012017..”. When employees input data
into the database, it is necessary to consider the
combination of different letters and symbols. Thus,
repeatedly checking during typing is needed in order to
ensure the accuracy of data. Moreover, the more data
processed, the probability of human error increases due
to the repetitive and tedious task. RPA bots can avoid
this problem. The bot will directly extract the data from
the selected captured area and store it in the database.
The result of accuracy is shown in Table 4. The result
showed that the accuracy is significantly increased by
implementing RPA bots in the operation activities.
16
Table 4. Comparison of manual and RPA bots in terms of accuracy.
Amount
Method 1 set delivery note (%) 25 set delivery notes (%)
Manual entry 100 68.53
RPA bot 100 100
*Accuracy: Correctly records the data value inside the capturing area.
Academic and managerial implications
From the academic implications, with the higher customer
requirements for logistic service, providing timely and
accurate order handling not only relies on manual but also
on digital technologies to increase efficiency and precision.
The past research has been focused on the managerial
perspective. However, the operational perspective on
comprehensively implementing RPA technology in logis-
tics operations on both inbound and outboard processes is
still limited. This study contributes to the existing knowl-
edge by filling a research gap in implementing an RPA
technology in SME logistics companies from an operational
perspective. It provides insights into applying RPA tech-
nology in logistics operations, particularly in the order
fulfilment processes. This finding can serve as one of the
possible future developments in digital transformation and
automation in the logistics industry. Also, this study pro-
vides an example for showcasing an implementation
framework of RPA technology in logistics operations.
Through the implementation, this study encourages re-
searchers to explore and contribute to the potential op-
portunity of RPA technology. It helps to foster research and
development of RPA technology in different domains and
industries to enhance its capabilities and effectiveness of
RPA technology.
From the managerial implications, the efficiency and ac-
curacy has been significantly increased after implementing
three RPA bots into the operations. The performance of RPA
bots in terms of the operation time has been improved between
84% and 94% compared with manual work in three different
operational activities. Also, the workflow of operations is
streamlined. Using a shipment status tracking bot in the in-
bound process, the operation tasks decrease from nine tasks to
six tasks, and three operation tasks are simplified. The bot
automatically opened and collected the shipping status on the
cargo tracking website by the settled period. Also, reviewing
the outbound operation, four tasks have been reduced, and the
total tasks have decreased from 12 to nine. The bots will
generate the product list and validate the data by following the
developed steps. It needs to highlight that all the reduced tasks
are time-consuming, highly repetitive, easy to conduct human
errors, and non-value added but require continual monitoring.
International Journal of Engineering Business Management
50 set delivery notes (%) 100 set delivery notes (%)
76.21 81.40
100 100
After applying the RPA bots to the new workflow, the em-
ployees are no longer fully contributing to these redundant
activities. By using highly efficient and high-accuracy RPA
bots in non-value-added tracking, capturing and checking
activities, the company can redeploy the idle workforce into
other value-added tasks to increase employee utilization and
productivity in creating company value.
Conclusion
Due to the ongoing pandemic situation, the shipping pattern
of customers changed from offline to e-commerce. In order
to provide a high-quality logistics service to the customer,
the logistics service providers need to redeploy more human
resources to keep tracking and monitoring the logistics
operation tasks. This leads to human resource being mis-
allocated on time-consuming, repetitive, and non-value-
added tasks. In order to maintain a high-quality logistics
service using less workforce, digital transformation is in-
troduced to address the problem more efficiently and ef-
fectively. Hence, this paper proposes an RPA model to
improve the efficiency of logistics operation tasks. It de-
veloped three RPA bots and implemented them into three
different logistics operational bottleneck tasks in both the
back-office and warehouse for real-time monitoring of the
shipment status, high-speed generating product list, and
high-accuracy data checking for performing efficient and
accurate shipment monitoring and order picking operation.
Once the model applies, the company will instantly benefit
from the RPA performance. This study contributes to
transforming the logistic industry from manual-based to
digital-oriented, which (1) performs the daily tasks of lo-
gistics operation in a more efficient, accurate, and cost-
effective way, (2) suggests an easily developed approach for
the company to reallocate the human resources to better
value-added activities rather than non-value-added activi-
ties, and (3) encourages more logistics to apply digital
technologies in these operation tasks to boost digitization in
the industry and increase supply chain resilience. Also, a
case study is conducted to evaluate the proposed model’s
performance. Our study reveals that implementing RPA bots
significantly increases efficiency and accuracy compared
with the manual. Also, the workflow of inbound and
Lam et al.
outbound has been further simplified, saving operations
time for the company. However, there are two limitations of
this study. Firstly, this study only considers a set of delivery
notes documents, and data can restrict the evaluation of
results. To achieve more accuracy and reliability of the
proposed model, further research should be conducted into
the long-term performance evaluation of RPA bots, and
more diverse data is needed. Secondly, the layout of design
of the document is not the primary focus of this study,
further research should be done on designing the optimal
layout with respect to the state-of-the-art RPA technology,
for example, field placement, font types, and table
structures.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with re-
spect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This
project was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong
Kong, University Grants Committee [UGC/FDS14/E04/21 and
840002]. In addition, This research was also supported by the
Research Matching Grant Scheme (RMGS) under Project (Digital
Transformation in Warehouse Management using MES, RPA and
AI). Also, this project is also supported partially by the Big Data
Intelligence Centre in The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.
ORCID iDs
HY Lam  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5858-1894
Valerie Tang  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4528-1091
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Appendix

RPA bot 1 – Shipment status tracking bot: Pseudo code

Load {InputFile}
Load {ResultFile}
Load {Website} = {Cargo Tracking Website}
├ Init {Header_1}= [^00 AWB#^00 ,^00 Port^00 ,^00 Status^00 ,^00 Pieces^00 ,^00 Weight^00 ,^00 Flight^00 ,^00 Milestone^00 ]
Init {Header_2}= ├ [00 AWB#^00 ,^00 Station^00 ,^00 Check Point^00 ,^00 Temp^00 ,^00 Volt^00 ,^00 Event Time^00 ,^00 Action^00 }
Init {Capture_date_1}
Append {Header_1} to {ResultFile}
Open {Website (Website)}
Loop over {AWB}in {InputFile}:
Init {Row}
Access {Tab of AWB} on {Website}
For {Data} in {Header_1}
{Capture_data_1} = Capture (Website, Data, AWB)
Append {Capture_data_1} to {Row}
Append {Row}to {ResultFile}
End Loop
Init {Capture_data_2}
Append {Header_2} to {ResultFile}
Open {Website (Website)}
Loop over {AWB} in {InputFile}:
Init {Row}
Access {Tab of AWB} on {Website}
For {Data} in {Header_2}
{Capture_data_2} = Capture (Website, Data, AWB)
Append {Capture_data_2} to {Row}
Append {Row} to {ResultFile}
End Loop
Close {Website}
Close {Input File}
Close {Result File}

RPA bot 2 – Picking list generation bot: Pseudo code

Load {ResultFile}
Load {OrderFile}
Load {OrderFolder}
Init {Header}├ =[^00 DeliveryNote#^00 ,^00 ItemLocation^00 ,^00 ItemCode^00 ,^00 ItemQuantity^00 ,^00 ItemUnit^00 ]
Init {extension}
Append {Header} to {ResultFile}
Open {OrderFile}

(continued)
20 International Journal of Engineering Business Management

(continued)
Init {number}=1
Loop over {Page} in {OrderFile}:
Save {Page} to order_{number}.{extension} to {OrderFolder}
{number} += 1
End Loop
Loop over {file} in the {OrderFolder}:
If Capture({file},“Title”) =^00 Delivery Note^00 then
Init {Row}=[┤]
Loop over {header} in {Header}
{Capture_data} = Capture({file}, {header})
Append {Capture_data} to {Row}
End Loop
Append {Row} to {ResultFile}
Close {file}
else
Close {file}
End Loop
Close {ResultFile}

RPA bot 3 – Data verification bot: Pseudo code

Load {ResultFile}
Load {PickingListFile}
├ Init {Header_1 }=[^00 ItemLocation^00 ,^00 ItemCode^00 ,^00 ItemQuantity^00 ,^00 ItemUnit^00 ]
├ Init {Header_2 }=[^00 Location^00 , “Code”, “Quantity”, “Unit”]
Open {ResultFile}
Init {number}=0
Loop over {Row} in {ResultFile}:
{number}+=1
If {Row}[{ItemLocation}] ≠ Merge (PickingListFile[{number}] [^00 Warehouse^00 ],
PickingListFile[{number}][^00 Location^00 ] ) then
Print ([“No”]) in {Column,^00 F^00 } in {ResultFile}
continue to next loop
header = “DeliveryNote#”
If Row[{header}] ≠ PickingListFile[{number}][{header}] then
Print (“No”) in {Column,^00 F^00 } in {ResultFile}
continue to next loop
For header in Header
header2=merge([^00 item^00 ],{header})
If Row[{header}] ≠ PickingListFile[{number}][{header2}] then
Print (“No”) in {Column,^00 F^00 } in {ResultFile}
continue to next loop
Print (“Yes”) in {Column,^00 F^00 } in {ResultFile}
End Loop