Automated incoming orders for plastics manufacturer

The plastics and medical technology manufacturer recently began using AI to analyze incoming orders and automatically transfer relevant data to the company's ERP system via the cloud. The Greiner Group has now begun rolling out the solution to up to 26 locations worldwide in order to process at least 50 percent of around 240,000 previously manually entered orders using AI automation in the future. This will significantly reduce the workload and bring substantial efficiency gains.

Greiner Bio-One International, part of the globally active Greiner Group, was facing a major challenge: as order volumes increased, the manual processing of orders received by email as PDFs had recently become increasingly time-consuming. The aim of the international manufacturer of plastic medical technology was therefore to make the entire order processing process more efficient and improve data quality at the same time. With the successful introduction of a new AI solution at the German site in Frickenhausen (Esslingen/Baden-Württemberg), which automates the processing of incoming orders, the long-standing partnership between the Greiner Group and Tietoevry Create has now reached another milestone.

"With Tietoevry Create as a trusted partner, we were able to use AI to benefit our customer service and significantly increase efficiency in order processing. The successful pilot in Germany has shown that this solution will bring great added value for up to 26 Greiner Bio-One locations worldwide," explains Marco Salzberger, Expert Digital Transformation at Greiner Bio-One International GmbH.

AI-based analysis and automated generation of orders

At the heart of the new solution is the "Microsoft Document Intelligence Studio", which intelligently reads incoming PDF orders and transfers the relevant data to the Azure Cloud. With the help of a direct interface to SAP, the orders are automatically created in Greiner Bio-One's ERP system. If the "AI confidence interval" falls below 80 percent, employees can manually check and approve the order before it is finally transferred to the ERP system. This combination of automation and human control ensures maximum accuracy and flexibility. As well as increasing efficiency, this also means a reduction in the workload for employees: They can concentrate more on value-adding activities where human expertise is still indispensable.

"Our long-standing collaboration with Greiner shows how AI technologies offer customized solutions for specific business needs. It's not just about efficiency gains, but also about creating space for creative and strategic work," emphasizes Lukas Keller, Head of Market Germany at Tietoevry Create in Germany.

Chatbot and AI co-pilot solution established in the Greiner Group

Tietoevry Create specializes, among other things, in tailor-made AI and GPT chatbot applications that ensure full data control for companies. In 2023, the digital engineering provider introduced the "Greini" chatbot at Greiner AG to simplify and speed up internal communication between hundreds of employees and various departments. A central "Azure Master Bot" in the Microsoft Teams collaboration tool now facilitates access to virtual agents. "Greini" helps the global team at the plastics and foam manufacturer to find the right communication channel in each case, as various "Power Virtual Agents" are integrated into a central bot. This forwards the respective request to the appropriate virtual agent depending on the topic. Last year, the digital engineering provider also developed an AI-supported "co-pilot" based on existing data and security guidelines from Greiner AG. This generative AI (GenAI) solution has also recently been integrated into the medical technology company's Microsoft Teams environment.