Technical Articles

July 7, 2023 2 minute read

AI-driven paper-free Bill of Lading(Logistics & Transportation) document processing with Document Information Extraction in SAP BTP

Introduction

Paper-based Bill of Lading, in Transportation and Logistics industry, that depends on manual data entry is error-prone, time-consuming, and expensive.

Bill of lading is a critical trade document issued by a carrier to a shipper with all the shipment related details. Even the slightest of incorrect information in this document could lead to massive transportation problems, wasting a lot of time and money.

Automate the extraction of relevant information from Bill of lading with SAP AI Business Service –Document Information Extraction, ensuring more accurate document processing in significantly less time with reduced processing costs.

1. Problem Statement

2. Solution

3. Benefits

4. Implementation

Use Machine Learning with DOX AI Service to process Bill of Lading document

Document Information Extraction Service(SAP AI Business Service in SAP Business Technology Platform) extracts structured information from documents using machine learning. The service supports extraction from some standard document types out of the box; namely invoices, payment advices, and purchase orders.

Schema Configuration and Template features can be used to extract information from custom documents that are different from the supported standard document types.

Prerequisite:

Get access to the Document Information Extraction Trial UI in SAP BTP Trial as described in the tutorial Use Trial to Set Up Account for Document Information Extraction and Go to Application.

1. Create Custom Schema for Bill of Lading

Create%20new%20schema%20for%20BOL

Create new schema for BOL

Add%20header%2C%20line%20item%20fields%20and%20activate%20schema.

Add header, line item fields and activate schema.

2. Create Custom Template for Bill of Lading

Create%20Template

Create Template

Activate%20Template

Activate Template

Upload%20Bill%20of%20Lading%20document

Upload Bill of Lading document

Review%20Header%20and%20Item%20fields

Review Header and Item fields

Edit%20Extraction%20Results

Edit Extraction Results

Extraction%20Results

Extraction Results

Associate%20the%20document%20with%20the%20template

Associate the document with the template

Activate%20Template

Activate Template

Use%20this%20template%20and%20upload%20another%20sample%20Bill%20of%20lading%20document

Use this template and upload another sample Bill of lading document

Check%20the%20information%20extracted%20from%20the%20document%20using%20the%20schema%20and%20template%20created

Check the information extracted from the document using the schema and template created

Conclusion

Similarly, Document Information Extraction can be utilised for extracting structured information from other custom document types like resumes, identity documents, legal documents etc. which are not supported out of the box.