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Currently, for manufacturing companies, the purpose of automation has shifted from increasing productivity and reducing costs, to broader issues, such as increasing quality and flexibility in the manufacturing process.

The old focus on using automation simply to increase productivity and reduce costs was seen to be short-sighted, because it is also necessary to provide a skilled workforce who can make repairs and manage the machinery. Moreover, the initial costs of automation were high and often could not be recovered by the time entirely new manufacturing processes replaced the old. (Japan's "robot junkyards" were once world famous in the manufacturing industry.)

Automation is now often applied primarily to increase quality in the manufacturing process, where automation can increase quality substantially. For example, automobile and truck pistons used to be installed into engines manually. This is rapidly being transitioned to automated machine installation, because the error rate for manual installment was around 1-1.5%, but has been reduced to 0.00001% with automation. Hazardous operations, such as oil refining, the manufacturing of industrial chemicals, and all forms of metal working, were always early contenders for automation.

Another major shift in automation is the increased emphasis on flexibility and convertibility in the manufacturing process. Manufacturers are increasingly demanding the ability to easily switch from manufacturing Product A to manufacturing Product B without having to completely rebuild the production lines.

Automation Tools

Different types of automation tools exists:

• Simulation
• DCS - Distributed Control System
• PLC - Programmable Logic Controller
• PAC - Programmable automation controller
• ANN - Artificial neural network
• HMI - Human Machine Interface
• SCADA - Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
• BMS - Batch Management System
• MES - Manufacturing Execution System
• LIMS - Laboratory Information Management System

A list of automation tools used in the IT field (past and present):

• AutoTester
• WinRunner
• QA Load
• QA Run by Compuware
• TestPartner by Compuware
• SilkTest
• TestPro
• Rational Robot