WHAT IS AUTOMATION?

WHAT IS AUTOMATION?

Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization provided human operators with machinery to assist them with the muscular requirements of work, automation greatly decreases the need for human sensory and mental requirements as well. Automation plays an increasingly important role in the world economy and in daily experience.

Automation has had a notable impact in a wide range of industries beyond manufacturing (where it began). Once-ubiquitous telephone operators have been replaced largely by automated telephone switchboards and answering machines. Medical processes such as primary screening in electrocardiography or radiography and laboratory analysis of human genes, sera, cells, and tissues are carried out at much greater speed and accuracy by automated systems. Automated teller machines have reduced the need for bank visits to obtain cash and carry out transactions. In general, automation has been responsible for the shift in the world economy from industrial jobs to service jobs in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Advantages:

§  Replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard physical or monotonous work.

§  Replacing humans in tasks done in dangerous environments (i.e. fire, space, volcanoes, nuclear facilities, underwater, etc.)

§  Performing tasks that are beyond human capabilities of size, weight, speed, endurance, etc.

§  Economy improvement: Automation may improve in economy of enterprises, society or most of humanity.

Disadvantages:

§  Unemployment rate increases due to machines replacing humans and putting those humans out of their jobs.

§  Technical Limitation: Current technology is unable to automate all the desired tasks.

§  Security Threats/Vulnerability: An automated system may have limited level of intelligence, hence it is most likely susceptible to commit error.

§  Unpredictable development costs: The research and development cost of automating a process may exceed the cost saved by the automation itself.

High initial cost: The automation of a new product or plant requires a huge initial investment in comparison with the unit cost of the product, although the cost of automation is spread in many product batches.