Automation & Efficiency
By: Laith H. Alzahrani
Tags: Robots, Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Management, Technology

Most of the time when the term “Automation” comes to mind you think of a bunch of robot arms operating on an industrial line in some factory. The reality is automation is everywhere and it is silently invading our lives in a way that made us adapt to it without even knowing.

Automation played a great role in boosting efficiency which in return allowed the internal processes of any growing organization to become fast and accurate since a computer is running every single that takes so much time from an employee.

With the rise of automation technologies, the dependency grew and allowed people to think of ways to make it dominate or almost 100% cover the work process.

In the past 8 years, my single distinguished skill was to advise and convert a whole work-flow from a traditional way to an automated way. The process that I followed was to understand the result of each given task for an employee, break it down into smaller parts and understand where the computer fits in to automate some of the processes like automatically adjusting the solar panel toward the sun or regulate a specific valve based on an input.

The whole automation science came from understanding the engineering behind everything. In engineering, you will study that there are two types of control systems an open-loop system or a closed-loop. The open-loop system is where there is an input and an output and you as a person plays the rule of a controller and the actuator, a real-life example would be that if you adjust the air conditioning system based on the sensed temperature in the room.

Closed-loop systems on the other hand helped to minimize the process and bring you ease of life, simply by replacing you with a small microprocessor that receives every second sensing of the temperature of the room where later it actuates the compressor to provide the desired temperature automatically without you even worrying about any process in between.

The future of automation is very bright and the ability to integrate within any process in life became crucial to cut cost and ensure effectiveness, whether it was a piece of software like an ERP (Enterprise Resouce Planning) that manages every single resource within your organization or a complete building.

It will indeed affect jobs, if the technology becomes perfect this would lead to complete control, imagine a complete factory that is completely automated without the need of any technician or an engineer to help manage the process all controlled via a well-constructed AI-Based SCADA (Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition System). Imagine the cost that is saved due to converting to AI-based Automation, but this is considered a threat.

This threat can be overcome by simply developing our education system to coup up with the ways that we can work hand in hand with automation doing all of the time-wasting time processes.

Automation became a crucial part of any organization that wishes to grow and ensure economical stability in this era. In the past few years, automation took over simple tasks without us even knowing that ensures performance and cost-efficiency.

By,

Laith Hussein Alzahrani

Mechatronics, Robotics & Automation Engineer

laith@esmrt.com