An AI technology to make asset collection for military command faster and more accurate

Summary:

The implementation of automation and AI has enhanced decision-making and optimized the military workforce.

Client: 

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is a federal executive branch department responsible for overseeing and coordinating all government agencies and functions related to national security and the United States Armed Forces.

Problem Statement: 

One military command, responsible for the day-to-day operations of an installation, needs to track hundreds of thousands of facilities and nearly $400 billion in assets through its property management systems. Accurately recording this property is a massive and crucial task for military decision-making.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) requires commands to report and manage over 50 data elements for each asset, making organizations responsible for millions of data points with minimal room for error.

A DoD property command sought to streamline these processes to reduce the administrative burden on the workforce and provide military leadership with the precise information needed for informed decision-making.

Results: 

• The military sped up its physical inventory process, saving over 150,000 workforce hours in the first nine months.
• Optimization of the military’s workforce and better decision-making among its leadership.
• The automated system also halved the correction time.

AI Solution Overview:

The EY team ensured consistency across all stages of the inventory documentation process by implementing an automated management solution. Utilizing a combination of robotic process automation (RPA), optical character recognition (OCR) technology, Power BI, and Pega Business Process Management (BPM) software, they developed an easily configurable, user-friendly portable solution. This solution provided a seamless experience, allowing users to view data, access the application, edit information, and upload photos or scan documentation to asset records via mobile devices. The Pega application enforced data input standardization through built-in validation, preventing users from moving forward without completing all required fields accurately.

With the property record data collection process streamlined, RPA and OCR technologies facilitated the effective use of this data by the DoD’s leadership. An RPA bot took the approved data from the BPM software to update property records in an enterprise resource planning tool, the central repository of property records. This automated process enabled the rapid generation of reports that accurately reflected field data. Additionally, when the DoD’s leadership required supporting documentation for decision-making, bots and OCR technology auto-populated the necessary government forms, eliminating the error-prone manual process.

References: 

1. Enabling better decision-making and optimizing the military workforce. https://www.ey.com/en_us/insights/government-public-sector/enabling-better-decision-making-and-optimizing-the-military-workforce

Industry: Public Services

Vendor: Ernst & Young LLP (EY US)

Client: The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)

Publication Date: 2019