Alexander Schulze, Head of the Purchasing Business Service Organisation, and his team have launched the first self-defined PowerAutomate process with AI. This has even been recognized as a Hero Case by Microsoft.

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Do you also spend a lot of time navigating through folder structures to find the right file locations? Are you bored of sorting your mailbox? Artificial intelligence (AI) could be the solution. Alexander Schulze thought so too and set about making these unpopular tasks in Global Business Services Purchasing obsolete - with the help of automation and artificial intelligence. We spoke to him about his favourite project.

Mr Schulze, many people are afraid that AI could do their job in the future. You, on the other hand, seem like a highly motivated ambassador for artificial intelligence? How come you are so passionate about promoting the use of AI at FORVIA HELLA?

Alexander Schulze: I'm an industrial engineer by training and I've actually always been interested in automation, optimisation and digitalisation. When AI appeared on the scene a few years ago, I took the initiative to learn more about it. I don't see AI as a threat, but as a building block in automation processes. I wanted to understand what AI can do and how we can use it profitably as a company.

You have already achieved this: you recently implemented an AI-supported process in your department, which was even recognized as a Hero Case by Microsoft. How did that come about?

Alexander Schulze: With the title 'Hero Case', the Microsoft honours the development achievements of companies with Microsoft products that go above and beyond the norm. The title is accompanied by recognition and support from Microsoft for further process developments for technical and content-related challenges. Other use cases at FORVIA HELLA are based on standard tools in which AI is integrated. However, we have improved one of FORVIA HELLA's own processes using AI without using a preconfigured tool. With our AI process, we at FORVIA HELLA are already much further ahead than other companies. To put it this way: we are already surfing while others are still standing around on the beach wondering what a surfboard is (laughs). We are very proud of that here in the team.

That sounds really impressive. What exactly is this AI-based process?

Alexander Schulze: We independently optimised and automated the process for querying supplier capacities, i.e. capacity queries for increased component requirements, with the help of AI: The old process was very cumbersome: enquiry files had to be sorted manually by supplier and project, the summarised requirements sent to the suppliers in separate emails, with reminders and escalations also being sent manually by email. The suppliers' responses were checked individually and then manually entered into the enquiry file.

We have "customised" various tools for our purposes for the new process. Now MS Flow' automatically sorts enquiry files by supplier and project, consolidates requirements and sends emails to suppliers. MS Flow monitors feedback and sends automatic reminders. The AI we use, 'MS AI Builder', in turn reads and evaluates the emails with the help of ChatGPT and sends the results to one of our employees for review via Teams Chat. The feedback is currently still being checked manually, as we are not yet able to judge how "good" the AI's assessment is. Full automation is already planned afterwards.

That sounds like a customised solution. To what extent can AI also help other employees at FORVIA HELLA in their daily work?

Alexander Schulze: Phew, I can think of many use cases. In the classic sense, automation and AI can be used to quickly perform numerous routine tasks, such as sorting mailboxes or analysing documents. And there will be many more use cases in the short term. I firmly believe that we need many more colleagues who have the necessary expertise to create, use and further develop AI applications. That would take us a considerable step forward and, in my view, would ultimately also give us a competitive advantage.

And how could each individual take concrete action?

Alexander Schulze: A first step could be to familiarise yourself with the possibilities of the Microsoft Power Platform, which has recently been made available to every employee at FORVIA HELLA. To be honest, the platform requires some specialised knowledge, but the benefits are immense: processes can be automated before the AI even takes over other tasks. We also started this way. Artificial intelligence is best integrated into lean, automated processes. I can therefore only encourage all FORVIA HELLA employees to identify applications for automation and to design processes according to LEAN in order to become "AI ready".

Thank you very much for the interview, Mr Schulze.

About the Microsoft Power Platform:
The Microsoft Power Platform is a suite of applications, services and connectors as well as a data platform that enables quick and easy development of customised business solutions. It consists of four main components: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and Copilot Studio (not yet available at FORVIA). The platform is available to all FORVIA employees.