HACMAN RPA reduces processing time, saves money

May 31, 2022

by Patrick Morgan

GSA’s Heartland Acquisition Center began using robotic process automation Jan. 28, 2022, to process requisitions instead of having humans enter the data. According to Acquisition Operations Branch Chief Stephen Kinsella, the name HACMAN is in reference to the video game Pac-Man. 

“The bot just gobbles up the WIP orders,” Kinsella said. “WIPs are work-in-progress orders that come in from customers that don’t have a contract solution.”

Through this process, the bot automates the order input and saves labor hours. It saves 15 minutes of manual human labor per requisition.

“Over the last four months HACMAN has processed 11,531 requisitions. This, in turn, has saved 2,883 manual labor hours, as well as $350,758 in labor costs,” Kinsella said. 

Prior to implementation of the HACMAN bot, it took 12 people nearly seven years to complete the same actions that a bot can complete in four and a half months.

Kinsella stressed that the focus should not only be on the bot saving money. It’s also driving growth within the program.

“Prior to the bot, we had to do this process manually and were limited by the number of workers available to perform the task,” Kinsella said. “Now that we have a bot, we can grow as much as possible and customers can send all the orders our way because we can handle them.”

“In addition to saving time, customers will also get their orders faster,” Kinsella said.

The bot numbers and impact are representative of Region 6, but this process would have applicability in other regions throughout GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service as well, according to data presented.