CUSTOMER CASE | EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
Robots help with everyday tasks at LHKK
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LHKK, the Southwest Häme Association of Education Municipalities in Finland, started using software robotics to increase job satisfaction by transferring monotonous tasks to robots. The association aims to be a pioneer in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and plans to provide software robotics as part of their educational program soon.
LHKK strives to provide their students educational services that anticipate future needs and match the skills valued in working life. The use of software robotics is increasing at an accelerating pace and most Finnish organizations already use robotics.
“We want to be a pioneer in robotics. Implementing software robotics in our organization and providing RPA in our educational program is part of our strategy,” says Mika Karppinen, LHKK's Controller.
In the beginning, software robotics was a new topic within the organization, and there was not much knowledge or internal expertise about RPA before.
“We were interested in the opportunities robotics provides and wanted to increase our own understanding and competence," explains Antti Virta, LHKK's educational coordinator.
LHKK set out to map companies specializing in software robotics. In 2020, Sisua Digital was selected as the organization’s first automation partner.
Using software robotics increases job satisfaction and saves working hours
Together LHKK and Sisua Digital built the first robot, which was named as Raisa the robot.
“Our ”firstborn” assists with the student management system. Raisa checks information on the progress of students' studies. When students start their studies, they make a HOKS plan (Personal Competence Development Plan). Raisa checks whether the plan has been made within certain time limits,” says Karppinen.
Raisa the Robot, illustrated by LHKK’s students
“We have also given Raisa a new task: in addition to the daily check-up, Raisa will notify teachers if the plans of soon graduating students are missing. This way, Raisa is involved in the student's journey from the beginning to the end of their studies,” Karppinen continues.
The robot alleviates LHKK’s employees’ daily workload by eliminating these routine checks. Students likewise benefit from the automation.
“Hoks plans have been updated more diligently. Before, updating the plan might have been forgotten or delayed. Now teachers update the plans more often, which is important for the students' legal security and funding that the information is up-to-date,” says Virta.
After completing the first automation project, LHKK wanted to develop a second automation and a new robot was built for the organization: Tunti-Timo.
“Tunti-Timo helps teachers and work teams to keep track of their working hours. Timo provides teachers and teams with working hour reports. With these reports, we can plan the use of resources better,” Virta explains.
Tunti-Timo, illustrated by LHKK’s students
The robot retrieves the working hours recorded by the employees, makes reports of them and saves them to the organization’s Teams channel.
“Tunti-Timo has straightened out the tracking of resources when all data is collected in one place automatically. Our teams are grateful as the reports come consistently and they are up-to-date,” Virta describes.
Using the robot has also increased job satisfaction.
“Before, the reports were collected from different locations and data had to be moved from one location to another. When the robot handles this monotonous repetitive work, our team saves a lot of time for more meaningful work and does not have to spend time transferring data,” adds Virta.
Learning about software robotics is an important part of LHKK's strategy
Developing the automations and co-operation with Sisua Digital has gone smoothly.
“Sisua’s working method has been straightforward and systematic all the time. In the beginning when we started the goal was to learn about robotics as an organization. Co-operation has been transparent and open, and we have been able to learn all the time. We didn't just want to buy a ready-made automation process, as we wanted to be involved and learn while developing the process,” describes Virta.
In addition to automation development, Sisua Digital has organized training for LHKK.
“Sisua has been a professional and reliable partner, and we have got what we wanted,” Virta continues.
LHKK intends to further expand their automations and increase their internal competence so that software robotics can soon be taught in their educational institution.
“First, however, we plan to educate ourselves more so that we can teach our students as well as possible. We have already understood the potential of robotics, but the things that a robot cannot do have likewise materialized. The process needs to be thoroughly analyzed before anything is done. We now have a better understanding of the opportunities and limitations of RPA,” adds Virta.
LHKK also wants to continue to improve employee satisfaction by automating manual routine work.
“We want to make work more meaningful by transferring tedious, repetitive tasks to robots. The robots will act as the employees' daily assistants in the future,” concludes Karppinen.
Author: Paiju Koivula
What has been achieved
Benefits of automation
- Improved job satisfaction
- Working hours are saved
- Student information is up to date
- Increased understanding of robotics
- Resource planning is easier
- Data is consistent and up to date
About the company
LHKK
LHKK organizes secondary vocational training as well as other training such as market-based training or recruitment training. LHKK strives to meet the skills needed in working life by providing work-related educational services that anticipate future needs. The association has an annual student body of about 3,500 and employs about 150 people.
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