@inproceedings{NguyenBoniniLangenbahnetal.2022, author = {Nguyen, Tuan and Bonini, Marco and Langenbahn, Jasmine and Moser, Sabrina and Schneeweis, Eric and Urru, Augusto and Echelmeyer, Wolfgang}, title = {Automation? Yes … but where to begin?}, booktitle = {2021 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), 13-16 December 2021, Singapore, proceedings}, isbn = {978-1-6654-3771-4}, doi = {10.1109/IEEM50564.2021.9673068}, institution = {ESB Business School}, pages = {7}, year = {2022}, abstract = {According to several surveys and statistics, the great majority of companies previously not accustomed to automation are piloting solutions to automate business processes. Those accustomed to automation also attempt to introduce more of it, focusing on automation-unfriendly processes that remained manual. However, when the decision on what and whether to automate is not trivial for evident reasons, even industry leaders may get stuck on an overwhelming question: where to begin automating? The question remains too often unanswered as state-of-the-art methods fail to consider the whole picture. This paper introduces a holistic approach to the decision-making for investments in automation. The method supports the iterative analysis and evaluation of operative processes, providing tools for a quantitative approach to the decision-making. Thanks to the method, a large pool of processes can be first considered and then filtered out in order to select the one that yields the best value for the automation in the specific context. After introducing the method, a case study is reported for validation before the discussion.}, language = {en} }