Management 201 (Business)

Table of Contents

Automation1

Need of Automation2

Types of Automation3

Closed Loop Machines3

Open Loop Machines3

Numerically Controlled Machines4

Industrial Robots4

Flexible Manufacturing systems4

Computed Aided Manufacturing4

Role of Automation5

Types of Automation Systems5

Fixed Automation5

Programmable Automation5

Flexible Automation6

Advantages of Automation6

Disadvantages of Automation8

The Bottom Line10

References11

Management 201 (Business)

Automation

In the fast-paced world of today, there is hardly anybody who is not heard of automation in the industry. It has been there in the industry world all along forever, but it has been only since the late 1960s and early 1970s that people started to work out the benefits of automation and started recognizing the effect it was having on their standard life (nptel.iitm.ac.in).

In layman's terms automation is when the machines take over from humans. In fact in the in progression of how the organizations work automation has a very specific and beneficial use.

Automation is the sum of two words: Auto + Matos. Auto means self and "matos" means moving (science.jrank.org). Automation is; therefore, mechanism for systems that "move by itself". This is just the general description; however, it affects the various aspects of industry in various ways.

Automation is a part of our daily life; we cannot imagine life without the machines to help us. It has made our lives easier. A few common examples of automation in our daily life are (Niebel & Freivalds 1999):

Automatic bill payments: When you are out of town and need to pay the bill, the automated bill system takes care of it.

Automatic sprinklers can water your plants if you forget to do so in the morning.

You can operate your microwave form your office using automated and Wi-Fi- timers.

These are just few examples you can think of much more ways automation has affected our lives.

Automation is different from mechanization. While mechanization provides human workers with machinery to assist with the physical requirements of their work, automation, on the other hand, reduces the need of human operators in terms of sensory and mental requirements. Both processes and systems can be automated.

Automation has seen a major overhaul since 1960s and this change has been bought with the use of computers (Harrington 2002). Before computers automated machines were limited by the amount of feedback data they could collect and interpret. They had few alternatives to work with. However, when an automated machine is working under the control of a computer, the options open up. Computers can analyze a number of responses on the basis of sensory inputs and give a number of responses that the machine should make.

In the following paper, we will be discussing the need, types, advantages and disadvantages of automation.

Need of Automation

The need of automation arose from the fact that many companies were facing a gap between demand and supply. Many companies were facing a hug demand of items and were not able to meet the rising demand; they turned towards automation for increased productivity.

There was also a problem of consistent productivity since every worker has a separate output and; therefore, the overall consistency of productivity was also affected greatly (Groover 1996). With automation, companies were able to ...