ABSTRACT

The role of management for any business enterprise is to maximize their shareholder, decrease the level of labour and maximize profit. In view of this, the implementation and application of automation in the running of the business is a necessity owing to the fact that this era is in the process of technological advancement. In the bid to achieve the objective of this research work, this research will be subdivide into five chapter the first chapter by way of introduction analyzes the concept of automation in business stating the research problems, hypothesis and defining the terms and terminology of the research work. The second chapter reviewed related literature by identifying the concept of automation, type of automation, automation in small business owner etc. the third chapter stresses on the methodology adopted in the research work while the fourth chapter is the analysis of the data. The final chapter summaries, concludes and draws recommendation to assist the reader to understand the need for automation in business organization.  The research limited it scope within the frame work of Maris Supermarket and chi-square was the statistical tools employed in the analysis of data, thus accepting the alternative hypothesis and rejecting the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant impact of automation in business productivity.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     INTRODUCTION

Automation refers to the use of computers and other automated machinery for the execution of business-related tasks. Automated machinery may range from simple sensing devices to robots and other sophisticated equipment. Automation of operations may encompass the automation of a single operation or the automation of an entire factory.

There are many different reasons to automate. Increased productivity is normally the major reason for many companies desiring a competitive advantage. Automation also offers low operational variability. Variability is directly related to quality and productivity. Other reasons to automate include the presence of a hazardous working environment and the high cost of human labor. Some businesses automate processes in order to reduce production time, increase manufacturing flexibility, reduce costs, eliminate human error, or make up for a labor shortage. Decisions associated with automation are usually concerned with some or all of these economic and social considerations.

For small business owners, weighing the pros and cons of automation can be a daunting task. But consultants contend that it is an issue that should not be put off. “We are creating a new ball game,” wrote Perry Pascarella in Industry Week. “Failure to take a strategic look at where the organization wants to go and then capitalizing on the new technologies available will hand death-dealing advantages to competitors raditional and unexpected ones.”

By automating business policies and best practices, removing manual tasks, and eliminating error-prone reentry of information, BPA boosts individual and team efficiency, which enables organizations to deliver results faster and with greater predictability. Automation Better decision making by providing real-time insight into key business metrics and providing proactive alerts and notifications, Business Process Automation gives broader insight into essential business processes critical to your business and provides real-time analytics that enable you to make better decisions faster. Automation also  enhanced operational excellence. Business processes in financial institutions are mission critical, demanding the utmost levels of reliability. Business Process Automation provides a rock-solid foundation that delivers the security, performance, scalability, and reliability demanded by the distributed, mission-critical systems of modern financial businesses.

• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Prior to the invention of computers and machines, the execution of business task is so tedious and most atimes lack coherency and the necessary organizing protocols to enhance service delivery.  Today’s business enterprises are under pressure to provide a more seamless customer experience across multiple channels. Burdened by aging legacy systems and processes, their current channel silos and fragmented customer interactions result in high cost of sales and service, poor productivity, limited flexibility, duplication in maintenance of processes and systems, and, ultimately, presentation of an undifferentiated value proposition to customers.

Business services enterprises face increasing challenges in managing the movement of money to settle transactions. Today’s processes are typically based on disparate, nonintegrated systems, lack integration with customer accounts, provide weak compliance and audit capability, have limited automation of payment transactions, and have high intercountry transaction costs. All of this occurs as payments are being increasingly commoditized in the marketplace.

It is quite pertinent that business organizations are facing sweeping and unprecedented change. Customers today demand personal service whenever and wherever they like, and each business organization’s competition is just a mouse click or a street corner away. Additionally, there are major challenges presented by megamergers, decreasing margins, a stricter regulatory environment, and fierce competition, in some cases coming from nontraditional sources. Financial institutions need solutions to help them seize market opportunities, make smart decisions, and realize maximum value from their technology investments.

• HISTORY OF CASE STUDY

Maris Supermarket is a business organization that deals on varieties of business venture. It started since the last 3 decades ago, and it is located at 171 Ikegbu layout in Owerri Imo State. As a business enterprise, the supermarket has gained recognition as a result of their incessant advertisement and promotion. The super market has employed so many business strategies in the operation of their service delivery and this has gained them increase in productivity. They engage in international and national business transaction and has developed branches in some of the neighboring states. They provide a good working condition for the staffs and workers in the organization and creative room for motivational factors within the organizaiton.

Owning to the increase in productivity and the need to ensure steady and clarity in the discharge of their business, the use of automation was recently introduced in the super market in order to enhance service delivery.

1.3     AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Owing to the rate of technological advancement in our contemporary era, business organizations are faced with so many challenges. Owing to this fact, this research work is aimed at evaluating the role of automation in business organization, and in order to achieve this major objective, the research work will take as its objective to

1. Evaluating the concept of automation,
2. The types of automation and their application in the business sphere so as to identify ways the can enhance the productivity of any business enterprise.
3. To identify ways in which small business owners and managers can implement to role of automation in their business
4. to critically examine the importance of automation in business organization
5. it will also analyze the automation tools and their applications in the business sphere.

1.4     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is factual to note that this research work will be of great importance and help to the business sphere at large. Thus the findings of this research work will

1. Help in the promotion of the productivity of business enterprises
2. Help the business organization to adapt to growing rate technology in the business sphere

• Restore coherency and accountability in most business enterprise.

1. Will art as a reference guide to future researchers in the same field of study
2. 5 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The issue of lack of throughput or productivity, in the business sphere is a problem that this research work has sets of to resolve through the analysis of the uses and role of automation. The lack of predictability of quality and robustness (consistency), of processes or product is a problematic issue within the business organization. To this effect, this research work is faced with the problems of identifying ways in which the use of automation can be of great help is resolving the problems that are facing most business enterprises especially small scale and medium scale business organization.

• SCOPE OF THE STUDY

There are so many ways in which business organization can improve their productivity, but this research works does not in total treat these factors but limits itself to the role of automation in Business organization. For the sake of coherency, clarity, specification and distinctiveness, this research work has taken Maris supermarket as a case study though the findings of this research will validly and vividly be applied to the business organizations at large.

• RESEARCH QUESTION

In the bid to offer solutions to the problems stated above, this research work will seek answers to the following questions: thus

1. Has automation in Maris Supermarket help in reducing operation time and work handling time significantly?
2. To what extent do automation in Maris supermarket pave way for Security Threats/Vulnerability?
3. Is it true that automation help in replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard physical or monotonous work?
4. Does automation in Maris Supermarket improved robustness (consistency), of processes or product.
5. Does automation Improved quality or increased predictability of quality.
6. Is there any significant effect of automation in business productivity
7. Do you this that automation increase throughput or productivity.

• RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

In the analysis of the data collected in this research work, the following hypothesis will be tested, thus:

H0: There is no significant impact between automation in business organization and its productivity.

HA: There is significant impact between automation in business organization and its productivity.