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Why Planning Your Automation Project Is Crucial
You know you should automate.Your competitors are doing it. The labor shortage is strangling you. And yet,you're still hesitating.
The real question isn't whetheryou should automate your business. The real question is how to do it withoutrisking your company's financial health on a project that won't deliverwhat you were promised.
The numbers speak forthemselves: only 12.7% of Quebec businesses have adopted AI for theiroperations according to the Institut de la statistique du Québec. Quebec has anautomation rate of 25%, compared to 55% in the United States and 75% inGermany. The gap in digital transformation is real.
But here's the good news: 62%of companies that take the plunge achieve a return on investment in less than 3years. And some, in less than a year for well-targeted projects.
The difference between thosewho succeed and those who fail? Methodical planning. That's exactly what you'lldiscover in this guide to successfully plan your digital transformation.
The Risks of Poorly Planned Automation
If you simply replicate yourcurrent processes with machines, without optimizing them, you risk automatingwaste.
This mistake is costly. SomeSMEs have invested $200,000 to automate an inefficient process, multiplyingproblems instead of solving them. A poorly designed process that runs faster isstill a poorly designed process.
Without planning, you riskchoosing the wrong technology for your needs, underestimating the change effortrequired, targeting a process that should never have been automated, or worse,demotivating your team with a project that drags on forever.
The Benefits of a Methodical Approach
Conversely, rigorous planningtransforms business automation from a costly risk into a predictableinvestment.
Step 1: Assess Your Needs and Identify Opportunities
Before talking about robots orartificial intelligence, you need to look at what's really happening in yourbusiness.
Map Your Current Processes
Take the time to observe.Really observe. Not what you think is happening, but what's actually happeningday to day.
Follow a customer order fromstart to finish. How many times is the same information entered? Into how manydifferent systems? By how many people?
A company I know had anaccounting tool, an email marketing tool, and a CRM. These three softwareapplications were independent and didn't communicate with each other. When aclient signed a new contract, the same information had to be entered into all threesystems separately. A monumental waste of time.
Identify Low-Value Tasks
Look for repetitive tasks thatno one enjoys doing. Data entry, copy-pasting between systems, manualfollow-ups, generating recurring reports.
These tasks typically havethree characteristics: they follow predictable rules, they repeat often (morethan 100 times per month), and they don't require complex judgment.
Prioritize Based on Business Impact
Not all processes are createdequal. Focus first on those that directly affect your customers or yourrevenue.
A good candidate to start with?Order processing. Imagine transforming PDF or email purchase orders intoautomatic ERP entries. For a company that processes more than 200 orders perweek, the savings can reach 15 to 20 hours of manual data entry. And theerror rate often drops from 8% to less than 0.3%.
Step 2: Define Clear and Measurable Objectives
"I want to automate"is not an objective. "I want to reduce supplier invoice processing timefrom 10 minutes to 2 minutes per invoice" is one.
Establish Success KPIs
Your objectives must bespecific and measurable. How many hours do you want to save per week? Whaterror rate are you targeting? What processing time do you want to achieve?
The most common indicatorsinclude time saved per transaction, error rate before and after, volumeprocessed without human intervention, and end-to-end process time.
Align Objectives with Business Strategy
Your automation project mustserve your business priorities. If your main challenge is growth, focus onprocesses that limit your ability to absorb more volume.
If it's productivity, targettasks that consume the most resources for the value they generate.
Don't launch an automationproject just because it's trendy. Launch it because it addresses a real problemin your business.
Step 3: Calculate ROI and Establish the Budget
This is often where thingsstall. How much does it cost? How much does it generate? And most importantly,how long does it take?
ROI Calculation Method for Automation
The calculation is simpler thanyou think. On one side, the costs: initial investment, annual maintenance,training. On the other, the gains: hours saved multiplied by hourly cost,errors avoided, additional revenue opportunities.
Typical Budgets for Manufacturing SMEs
Investments vary depending onproject complexity and scope.
One important thing is toconsider the investments required after the initial implementation.
Support fees and modificationcosts can be surprises that are better to consider when establishing a projectbudget.
Financing and Pay-for-Performance Options
Good news: you're not alone.Approximately 37% of SMEs access government loans and 37% receive grantsfor their automation and digital transformation projects.
There are alsopay-for-performance models that some providers can offer. The idea is simple:you pay based on the savings achieved and the value created, not on a blindflat fee. This aligns everyone's interests.
Step 4: Choose the Right Technologies and Partners
Not all technologies are equal,and not all are suitable for every need.
RPA, AI, API: Which Technology for Which Need?
RPA (Robotic ProcessAutomation) excels at repetitive tasks based on clear rules: data entry,information extraction, transfers between systems. It's often the best startingpoint for automating administrative production processes.
APIs allow your tools tocommunicate with each other seamlessly. It's like a universal translatorbetween your software. When your CRM can talk to your ERP which can talk toyour accounting tool, you eliminate double entries and the errors that comewith them.
Artificial intelligencecomes into play when rules are no longer enough or when there's variability inthe data to process. For analyzing unstructured documents, predicting trends,or making decisions based on complex patterns.
Beyond the technologies, youalso need to make sure you choose the right one.
An ERP system selection error,for example, can negatively affect a company for several years.
Criteria for Selecting an Automation Partner
Only 30% of companies seekexternal help to plan their automation project, but those who dosignificantly increase their chances of success.
A good partner understands yourindustry and your needs, not just the technology. They ask questions about yourprocesses before talking about solutions. They can show concrete results incompanies similar to yours. And most importantly, they're willing to commit toresults, not just deliverables.
Step 5: Design a Detailed Implementation Plan
You've identified what toautomate, with which technology, and with whom. Now you need to define how.
Create a Realistic Timeline
Successful projects have clearand realistic deadlines. A targeted pilot project can be delivered in 4 to 8weeks. A medium-sized project typically takes 3 to 6 months. Majortransformations span 12 to 18 months, but are divided into phases.
Don't plan everything in onemassive phase. Break it into stages with intermediate deliverables. You'll havequick wins to celebrate and can adjust course along the way.
Define Roles and Responsibilities
Who is the internal projectchampion? Who validates that results meet expectations? Who trains the users?Who manages the relationship with the external partner?
These questions may seemobvious, but the number of projects that derail due to lack of clarity onresponsibilities is impressive.
Plan for Change Management
Your employees resist changenot against you, but because it's human nature to want to preserve habits. Datashows that in most cases, the workforce volume did not decrease afterautomation — it was redirected toward higher-value tasks.
Automation reduces repetitivetasks that no one enjoys and frees up time to do high-value work. Clearlycommunicate that the goal is to allow everyone to focus on what really matters.
Take the time to train yourteams and ensure that new systems are used correctly.
Step 6: Test and Deploy Gradually
This is the step that separatessuccessful projects from failed ones.
The Importance of Pilot Projects
Never deploy at scale withoutfirst testing on a limited scope. A pilot project allows you to validate thatthe solution works in your real context, not just in theory.
Choose a representative butnon-critical process. Test for 2 to 3 months. Measure actual results. Comparewith your initial objectives.
77% of manufacturingautomation projects target production. But quick wins are often found inadministrative tasks: order entry, invoice processing, data synchronization.These projects have ROIs of 4 to 8 months and help fund subsequent phases.
Validation and Adjustments Before Full Deployment
The pilot will reveal thingsyou hadn't anticipated. Exceptions that no one had mentioned. Edge cases thatdon't fit the rules. That's normal.
Take the time to adjust beforeexpanding. A small problem in a pilot process becomes a huge problem at thecompany scale.
Step 7: Measure, Optimize, and Scale
Automation is not a projectwith an end. It's a capability you develop.
Performance Tracking and Adjustments
Once deployed, your automationmust be monitored. Volumes change, processes evolve, exceptions multiply. Planregular reviews to ensure gains are maintained.
Dashboards are your friends.How many transactions are processed automatically? How many exceptions requiremanual intervention? What's the average processing time?
Plan the Next Automation Phases
Companies that succeed in theirdigital transformation don't stop after a single project. They use thelearnings and returns from a first project to fund the next ones.
The question is no longerwhether you will automate, but how quickly you will become an innovativemanufacturer.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in an Automation Project
After supporting numerouscompanies, certain mistakes keep recurring.
Automating withoutoptimizing processes first. This is the number one mistake. The goldenrule: map, simplify, standardize, then automate. Allow 20 to 30% of projecttime for process analysis and optimization before any automation.
Trying to do everything atonce. The temptation to automate everything at once is strong. Resist.Start small, prove the value, then expand.
Neglecting team adoption.The best automation in the world is useless if no one uses it correctly. Investin training and digital transformation support.
Underestimating maintenance.Automation requires upkeep. Systems evolve, formats change, rules are modified.Plan an annual maintenance budget.
Choosing technology beforeunderstanding the need. You don't pick a hammer and then look for nails.You identify what you want to build, then select the right tools.
How Liboiron Supports Your Projects
At Liboiron, we have aconviction: automation shouldn't be a risky gamble.
That's why we work on a simplemodel. We analyze your processes to identify quick wins — those projects withfast ROI that prove the value. We establish a clear technology roadmap withpredictable results. And we support you through implementation, step by step.
Our approach? Automatewithout risk, pay for results.
No large blind flat fee. Noproject that drags on without results. Just concrete, measurable gains, and apartner who has as much interest in making it work as you do.
FAQ
Which process should I start with for automation?
Prioritize based on threecriteria: transaction volume (more than 100 occurrences per month), repetitivetasks with no complex judgment required, and high business impact. Idealprocesses to start with include order entry, supplier invoice processing, CRM-ERPsynchronization, and recurring report generation.
Should we review our processes before automating?
Absolutely. "Automatingwaste" is the number one mistake in failed projects. The golden rule: map,simplify, standardize, then automate. Allow 20 to 30% of project time forprocess analysis and optimization before any automation. An automated inefficientprocess becomes a faster problem, not a solution.
Can we automate ourselves or do we need a partner?
Companies that use a consultantsignificantly increase their success rate. An experienced partner avoids costlymistakes, accelerates deployment, and transfers skills. For simple projectsunder $30,000, no-code solutions like n8n or Make may suffice. Beyond that,technical expertise and support become cost-effective.
