Fifteen software application robots, designed to perform rapid manual and labor-intensive tasks at the Naval Supply System Command, are undergoing evaluation, development or production as part of the U.S. Navy’s robotic process automation program.
The service branch said Wednesday its RPA governance team cleared six bots to support the supply chain enterprise and is still working on nine similar tools.
Capt. Eugene Cash, commanding officer of the NAVSUP Business Systems Center, said the bots are performing repetitive and manual business data entry tasks to let human users concentrate on more important functions.
The branch’s 10-member RPA governance team, which includes five information technology specialists, partnered with an industry team comprised of 20 contractors to design and develop software.
Allison Holle, the team’s supervisory IT project manager, envisions NAVSUP pursuing an initiative to train citizen developers to set up RPA centers at every command.
“We want to deliver this tool to commands across the enterprise so they can quickly develop automation that support their mission,” Holle said.