Songpa-gu Robot Staff 'Cheokcheok' Assigned for Dedicated Self-Quarantine Officials

From July this year, RPA system introduced for COVID-19 tasks saves about 1,800 hours... Digital transformation of administrative work greatly boosts productivity and employee satisfaction

Robot Process Automation System

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Songpa-gu (Mayor Park Seong-su) announced plans to expand the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) system, introduced last year, to administrative tasks, accelerating digital work innovation.

Robotic employees (RPA) refer to technology where software robots automatically perform simple and repetitive tasks previously done by humans. While this technology is widely used in the private sector, it is still in the early stages of adoption in public institutions. In September last year, Songpa-gu became the first autonomous district in Seoul to introduce RPA in administrative work, significantly reducing the processing time for civil service tasks.

In particular, since July this year, the district has started applying the RPA system to COVID-19 response administrative tasks. By simplifying simple administrative tasks through AI-based smart processing, the working method has been innovated to allow employees to focus on tasks for residents.

As the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases continues to rise, increasing the workload, RPA was applied to four health center tasks: ▲printing COVID-19 epidemiological investigation reports ▲preparing hygiene kit delivery lists ▲collecting self-quarantine monitoring results ▲assigning dedicated public officials for self-quarantine, achieving a significant reduction in working hours.

Compared to when employees manually compiled simple civil service processing results, annual working hours were reduced by nearly 70%, and the system was recognized for its perfect accuracy in task processing. Additionally, employee job satisfaction greatly improved as they were able to focus on their core duties during the saved time.

Park Seong-su, Mayor of Songpa-gu, said, “The introduction of the RPA system has increased employees’ sense of achievement and satisfaction with their work, as well as productivity,” adding, “We plan to continue identifying additional tasks to prepare for non-face-to-face work environments such as the expansion of remote work, gradually expanding these efforts to accelerate digital transformation through work innovation.”