How to automate repetitive processes in a company

Short answerTo automate a repetitive process: walk through it step by step with the people who do it, measure how long each step takes and how often it fails, pick the steps that are frequent, rule-based and whose data is already digital, automate them with clear handling of exceptions, run the automated version alongside the manual one until results match, then switch and monitor. Start with one process and expand once it works.

Step 1: write down how the process is done in practice

The manual rarely describes what happens day to day, so sit with the person who does it and note every step, every program, every copy and paste and every "then I check with Marta". Exceptions are where the time goes, so write them down.

Step 2: measure

For each step, note how often it happens, how long it takes and how often it goes wrong. Rough numbers are fine. That turns "it takes forever" into something you can prioritise.

Step 3: choose good candidates

The best steps to automate are:

Frequent: they happen every day or every week.
Rule-based: someone could write down how the decision is made.
Digital: the input already exists as data, email or a file.
Costly when they fail: errors found late or that affect customers.

Steps with unstructured input, such as emails or PDFs in different formats, used to be hard to automate. With AI extraction and classification many are now viable, as long as there's validation and a person as backup.

Step 4: design for exceptions

An automation that handles 90% of cases and silently fails on the rest is worse than none. Decide in advance what happens when data is missing, a rule doesn't fit or a system is down: usually a queue where a person picks it up with all the context.

Step 5: choose the right tool

Platforms like n8n, Make or Power Automate are enough for many automations, especially low-volume ones between well-known tools. Custom code makes sense when volume is high, logic is complex, reliability is critical or the systems have no connectors.

Step 6: run in parallel, compare and switch

Let the automation run alongside the manual process for a while and compare results. When they match, switch. Keep a log of every automatic action so you can always answer "what happened to this order?".

Step 7: monitor and expand

Automations break when the systems around them change. Set up failure alerts, review the exception queue regularly and use what you learn to automate the next step.