How Bayer GBS Uses UiPath to Cut Procurement Errors by 70%

Bayer GBS exists to make the broader Bayer enterprise run more efficiently. Spanning finance, HR, IT, and procurement across dozens of countries, the GBS division handles an enormous volume of transactional work—work that, if done manually, consumes senior resources and introduces error at scale. In procurement alone, peak periods like January and November generate 900 purchase requests per day, each requiring validation, vendor lookup, and data entry across multiple SAP systems.

Before automation, procurement staff logged into SAP manually, validated purchase requests against company rules, looked up vendor codes by hand—often following up with the person who raised the request—and then created the purchase order from scratch. About 30% of all purchase requests bypassed any automation entirely, and 36% of those were for amounts under €5,000. That meant senior employees routinely spent time on small-value transactions that added no strategic value. Errors were common: mismatched vendor details and incorrect pricing created rework loops and slowed procurement cycles.

The solution Meritxell Corbeto González’s team built puts a UiPath robot at the front of the PR-to-PO workflow. When a purchase request arrives, the robot logs into SAP automatically, validates it against compliance rules, assigns vendor details, and generates the purchase order—all without human intervention. Generative AI handles exceptions such as missing vendor data or pricing anomalies that would previously have required manual resolution. The entire process, from request validation to order creation, is now self-contained and auditable.

The most striking result is the error reduction. Manual errors fell by 70% and vendor/pricing discrepancies dropped 60%—two categories that previously created the most rework and compliance risk. Purchase order creation time fell from 10 minutes to 3. A team of eight delivered the full implementation in one year, with UAT sign-off from subject matter experts across the business.

With the automation proven in Brazil, Germany, and the United States, Bayer GBS has blueprinted an expansion to 19 additional countries across South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The team’s next target is getting processing time to under one minute per request. For a company with Bayer’s scale and regulatory obligations, the operational and compliance dividends of this kind of automation compound quickly as it rolls out globally.