Robotic Process Automation Implementation at Flokk

/ About Flokk

Flokk is the European market leader in the design, development, and production of office furniture. As a house of brands, it includes HAG, RH, Giroflex, BMA, Offecct, RBM, Profim, 9to5 Seating, and Malmstolen. The company started in 2017, though Giroflex, its oldest brand, dates to 1872.

More than 1,800 Flokk employees serve customers in over 80 countries. The company is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and has production lines in Norway, Sweden, Poland, and the United States.

/ Factors driving the business need

Flokk found that some Customer Service processes were time-consuming, high-volume, and required many team members. The processes were already mature, so further manual improvement was not possible.

Flokk considered programmable bots to improve process efficiency. An earlier GGS pilot had already proved that RPA could improve Flokk operations. Flokk asked GGS IT Consulting to analyze and automate further processes with RPA technology.

/ The challenge

The first process selected for automation was sending order-fulfillment date confirmations to Flokk customers.

1. The fulfillment date had to be prepared from internal procedures and Production Planning data.
2. The completed confirmation had to reach the customer within strict deadlines.

A 30-person team performed this work. Each person confirmed more than a dozen orders each day. The work required an estimated 7,200 hours each year.

/ The solution

We used a proven five-stage implementation roadmap.

1. Process identification

The Flokk team used experience from the pilot implementation to identify order-fulfillment date confirmations as the first automation target.

2. Process evaluation

Together with the Customer Service manager and a delegated specialist, we analyzed business assumptions, process steps, and the tools used by Flokk. A series of online workshops reviewed each human task, the ERP system, and potential bot exceptions.

This work produced full process and bot-assumption documentation. Flokk approved this documentation as the basis for further work. The assessment also confirmed that RPA was the right technology. Flokk already used Microsoft solutions in many areas, and the pilot had identified Microsoft Power Automate as the best option.

3. Bot building

After Flokk accepted the concept, GGS planned the work in detail and programmed the bot according to the approved documentation. The bot performed the process in the client’s test environment.

4. User acceptance testing

GGS started controlled bot runs on test data while a Flokk specialist monitored task execution. User acceptance testing identified exceptions before the bot worked with production data. We resolved the identified issues before production deployment.

5. Production activation

Production activation ran in phases. The bot first confirmed orders for one person. After we verified correct operation, we gradually added the remaining team members until the bot reached the planned scale.

/ The effects of the implementation

The implementation created measurable savings and additional benefits:

• More than 80% automation rate. More than 80 of every 100 tasks are automated.
• About 5,400 hours saved each year by the Flokk Customer Service Department.
• Process completion is independent of team availability. Order confirmations can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to schedule.
• Better process quality through logical improvement and unnecessary exception removal.