Manned or unmanned automated? Digital Employee Types Explained

Two types of RPA robots: manned and unmanned

Manned robot

    What is manned robot

    Manned robot, also known as "human-assisted automation," are robots that require a human to trigger the execution of automated processes through a desktop program, so some people refer to them as "front desk robots.

    Advantages and disadvantages of manned robot

    Benefits: Flexible scheduling of human and robot tasks is possible. When any problem occurs with the robot, the human can intervene at any time to solve the problems encountered in the business in a timely manner.

      Disadvantages: Since human involvement is required, but people have breaks, so the robot cannot run without interruption. In addition, since people and robots operate the same desktop environment, during the robot's business process (manipulating the mouse and keyboard). People can not participate (will affect the mouse and keyboard control), can only wait for the robot's work is completed, and then perform their own work tasks, so the human time is not completely released, which will reduce the workload of employees.

Unattended robot

    What is unattended robot

    Unattended robot, also known as "non-human assisted automation," are robots that completely automate processes without the need for human control, sometimes called "back office robots.

    Unattended robots advantages and disadvantages

      Advantages: The robot truly operates 24/7, making the highest use of the robot's time and completely freeing up human waiting time.

      Disadvantages: Even if the robot has some problems during processing, it can only use some kind of warning to notify the human, and the human cannot directly intervene in the robot's operation, but can only wait for the robot to finish executing the tasks, and then the human can handle those tasks in the queue that cannot be executed by the robot. In addition, processes that can be fully automated must be highly regular, with each step and each type of exception clearly defined, and it is not only a lot of work but also very difficult to convert routine business processes into regularized processes that can be run automatically by robots.

The application of two types of robot operation in life

    It seems that unattended robots are the most advanced form of true automation pursuit, because this model does not require human intervention at all, and human work can be completely left to robots to handle. Does this ever remind you of the future world of robots film images?

    But the real world is always very skeletal, so you can pause for a few minutes and think carefully about the business processes that are actually happening around you and see what percentage of them can be automated.

   In the real world, when existing business processes are not fundamentally adapted, manned robots have a much wider range of applications. This is why in some initial applications of process automation, users believe that simply choosing a Desktop Process Automation (DPA) product is sufficient, and they feel that DPA will meet their processing requirements without the need for more advanced RPA technology.

    The more high-volume, low-complexity business, the more FTE (full-time equivalent) RPA can replace, and the FTE achieved by manned and unmanned robots is different due to the different application scenarios. The FTE achieved by unmanned robots is 2.0~3.5 (the workload of one back-office robot is equal to the workload of 2~3.5 full-time employees), and the FTE achieved by manned The FTE achieved by a guarded robot is 0.4 to 1.2 (the workload of a front office robot is equal to the workload of 0.4 to 1.2 full-time employees).

    Of course, the above two types of robots can be mixed, that is, a company can have both unattended and manned robots, and different types of robots can also work on the same platform to assist and achieve unified management.

The above is the introduction to the types of RPA robots in this article. I believe that after reading this article, readers can choose the right type of robot for their company according to their actual needs.

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