Automation, which is also called roboticization, or industrial automation, or numerical control, refers to the use of control systems such as computers to control industrial machinery and processes, replacing human operators.[1]
Automation evolved from three interrelated trends in technology: the development of powered machinery for production operations; the introduction of powered equipment to move materials and work pieces during the manufacturing process; and the perfecting of control systems to regulate production, handling, and distribution.[2]
In its ideal form, automation implies elimination of all manual labor and the introduction of automatic controls, assuring accuracy and quality beyond human skills.[3]
There are principles required for a gadget to be considered as automated. One of the building blocks of automation is it should be a Power Source through which an action is produced. There are many sources of power available. One of which is electricity. Actions produced on the other hand have also two types: (1) processing and (2) transfer and positioning. First off is processing, which is literally processing an item into another. Such action entails the use of energy from a source. While on the other type of action (positioning and transferring), a product is brought to another area and in the process, uses energy. The transferred product is then left for the interpretation and use of humans. (e.g. video display units, printers)
Second principle of an automate system is that it serves as feedback control. Feedback controls are widely used in modern automated systems. A feedback control system consists of five basic components: (1) input, (2) process being controlled, (3) output, (4) sensing elements, and (5) controller and actuating devices. [4]
In the last principle, it states that an automated system has a programmed action to do and that its output is also definite. The system is pre-programmed to perform a certain process and a specific output is derived from it. The actions are repeatedly performed with continuous usage of the system.
Advantages commonly attributed to automation include higher production rates and increased productivity, more efficient use of materials, better product quality, improved safety, shorter workweeks for labor, and reduced factory lead times. Higher output and increased productivity have been two of the biggest reasons in justifying the use of automation. Despite the claims of high quality from good workmanship by humans, automated systems typically perform the manufacturing process with less variability than human workers, resulting in greater control and consistency of product quality. Also, increased process control makes more efficient use of materials, resulting in less scrap.
Automation not only gives flexibility to production, but it also can cut down costly lead times in changing from one production model to another, and it can control inventories to provide a continuous flow of materials without expensive storage requirements or investment in spare parts. Such efficiencies lower production cost and helps explain the growing strength in world markets of the Japanese, who first introduced the practice. Automation has also fostered the development of systems engineering, operations research, and linear programming.[5]
Worker safety is an important reason for automating an industrial operation. Automated systems often remove workers from the workplace, thus safeguarding them against the hazards of the factory environment. That’s why some countries have been promoting the use of robots in their workplace.
Robots, for example, which were designed for jobs like welding, painting or other health-hazardous jobs, can perform such works without injuring anyone’s health. These robots could work in either hot or freezing workplace and still managed to do the job well. In addition to this, the number of workers was decreased that led to lower expenses for salary.
Automation has eliminated much of the worker's boredom and has allowed the worker to change from a machine operator to a machine supervisor.[6]
Automation helps to keep a company’s cost down. In a business, automation is being used to type out all the paycheck on the payday. If automation is not present, there would be a need for more people in the payroll department to type all the paychecks out. It would be very expensive because the company will have to pay all those people who worked on typing the paychecks.
In larger companies, tracking cash flows and tax payments would be easier and faster. Everything is stored in a computer and all they need to do is retrieve the documents and print them all out if they need hard copies.
Banking and financial institutions have embraced automation in their operations—principally through computer technology—to facilitate the processing of large volumes of documents and financial transactions. The sorting of checks is done by optical character-recognition systems utilizing the special alphanumeric characters at the bottom of checks. Bank balances are computed and recorded using computer systems installed by virtually all financial institutions. Major banks have established electronic banking systems, including automatic teller machines. Located in places convenient for their customers, these automatic tellers permit users to complete basic transactions without requiring the assistance of bank personnel.[7]
The stock exchanges rely on computer-automated systems to report transactions by ticker tape or closed circuit television. Brokerage houses use a computerized record-keeping system to track their customers' accounts. Monthly statements indicating the status of each account are automatically prepared and mailed to customers. Account executives employ video monitors in their offices, backed by a massive database, to retrieve current information on each stock almost instantaneously while they discuss possible purchases with their clients. Stock certificates are typically issued with machine-readable identifications to facilitate record keeping in sales and exchanges.[8]
Credit card transactions have also become highly automated. Restaurants, retailers, and other organizations are using systems that automatically check the validity of a credit card and the credit standing of the cardholder in a matter of seconds as the customer waits for the transaction to be finalized. Some credit card transactions trigger immediate transfer of funds equal to the amount of the sale from the cardholder's account into the merchant's account.[9]
Computerized systems have been installed in most modern retail stores to speed sales transactions and automatically update inventory records as the stock of each item is reduced. A bar code is an identification symbol consisting of a series of wide and narrow bars attached to each product that can be scanned and recognized by a bar-code reader. At the cash registers, these readers quickly identify the items being purchased. As the sales associate scans across the symbol using a laser beam reader, the product is properly identified and its price is entered into the sales transaction. Simultaneously, a record of the sale is made in the inventory files so that the item can be reordered.[10]
Automation also helps to make products cheaper and more affordable.
Automation of service industries includes an assortment of applications as diverse as the services themselves, which include health care, banking, and other financial services, government, and retail trade.
In a hospital for example, the cashier would have a very hard job in recording all the patients’ bills if he/she will do it manually considering that almost everyday, a patient checks in and out. Aside from being able to do the job faster and easier, the hospital wouldn’t be wasting too much paper.
Also, there are already nurse computer terminals in every floor that helps the nurses monitor their patients. Other than recording the medical status and medicines taken by the patients, some of these systems are used to perform additional functions such as ordering drugs from the hospital pharmacy and calling for orderlies. The system provides an official record of the nursing care given to patients and is used by the nursing staff to give a report at shift-change time. The computer system is connected to the hospital's business office so that proper charges can be made to each patient's account for services rendered and medicines provided.[11] This way, the nurses will not need to run every now and then to the business office and they are able to do their job better.
One of the earliest practical applications of automation was in telephone switching. The first switching machines, invented near the end of the 19th century, were simple mechanical switches that were remotely controlled by the telephone user pushing buttons or turning a dial on the phone. Modern electronic telephone switching systems are based on highly sophisticated digital computers that perform functions such as monitoring thousands of telephone lines, determining which lines require service, storing the digits of each telephone number as it is being dialed, setting up the required connections, sending electrical signals to ring the receiver's phone, monitoring the call during its progress, and disconnecting the phone when the call is completed. These systems also are used to time and bill toll calls and to transmit billing information and other data relative to the business operations of the phone company. In addition to the various functions mentioned, the newest electronic systems automatically transfer calls to alternate numbers, call back the user when busy lines become free, and perform other customer services in response to dialed codes. These systems also perform function tests on their own operations, diagnose problems when they arise, and print out detailed instructions for repairs.[12]
Other applications of automation in communications systems include local area networks, communications satellites, and automated mail-sorting machines. A local area network (LAN) operates like an automated telephone company within a single building or group of buildings. Local area networks are generally capable of transmitting not only voice but also digital data between terminals in the system. Communications satellites have become essential for communicating telephone or video signals across great distances. Such communications would not be possible without the automated guidance systems that place and retain the satellites in predetermined orbits. Automatic mail-sorting machines have been developed for use in many post offices throughout the world to read codes on envelopes and sort the envelopes according to destination.[13]
Communication between employees is already possible without written memos or telephone calls. The use of Yahoo Messenger for instance can be a very efficient way of communicating with others. Two people can even talk to each other if both are using Yahoo Messenger with Voice.
Automation has been applied in various ways in the transportation industries. Applications include airline reservation systems, automatic pilots in aircraft and locomotives, and urban mass-transit systems. The airlines use computerized reservation systems to continuously monitor the status of all flights. With these systems, ticket agents at widely dispersed locations can obtain information about the availability of seats on any flight in a matter of seconds. The reservation systems compare requests for space with the status of each flight, grant space when available, and automatically update the reservation status files. Passengers can even receive their seat assignments well in advance of flight departures.[14]
Almost all commercial aircrafts are equipped with instruments called automatic pilots. Under normal flying conditions, these systems guide an airplane over a predetermined route by detecting changes in the aircraft's orientation and heading from gyroscopes and similar instruments and by providing appropriate control signals to the plane's steering mechanism. Automatic navigation systems and instrument landing systems operate by using radio signals from ground signal or warning that provide the aircraft with course directions for guidance.[15]
In Journalism alone, automation has given a big effect on how a newspaper is made. It has made the designing of the newspaper much easier and faster.
Using a combination of keyboard and mouse, the page elements—text, pictures, head-
line, and adverts—are located to the required layout by defining their space on the grid with
fine-line boxes into which the items are called by their appropriate catchline. . . By ‘drag-
ging’ with the mouse, the boxes can be altered endlessly in shape and size, or even tilted.
Layouts can be changed on screen, headlines re-arranged to a variety of shapes at a touch
Pictures, either colour or mono. . . can be enlarged in image or even adjusted in size by
mouse controls if a change of layout requires it. . . If an illustration that has arrived on the
page is required to be cut out, the mouse control quickly defines the outline and removes the
unwanted part of the picture. . .[16]
In addition, the computer also allows the changing of font styles and font sizes of the letters that are used in writing a certain story. As a result, the appearance of a newspaper becomes pleasing and organized because the design appears to be identical.
The main effect of automation in the field of Journalism is that it simplifies and speeds the editing, page make-up and printing processes as long as the journalist is very familiar with the world of computers. The editing and correction facility of a computer is more user-friendly than that of typewriters. Files and documents stored in the computer are more accessible with just a click unlike those that are still placed inside the drawers.[17]
Automation is also a source of several social issues. It has an impact on employment. Some say that there is decrease in employment while others say automation leads to higher employment.
Many government services are automated by means of computers and computerized databases. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the U.S. government must review and approve the tax returns of millions of taxpayers each year. The detailed checking of returns is a task that has traditionally been done by large staffs of professional auditors on a sampled basis. In 1985 the IRS began using a computerized system to automate the auditing procedure for the 1984 returns. This system is programmed to perform the complex tax calculations on each return being audited. As tax laws change, the system is reprogrammed to do the calculations for the year. The computerized auditing system has permitted a substantial increase in the work load of the IRS auditing department without a corresponding increase in staffing.[18]
Just recently, the government was able to pass a law or ordinance saying that the elections to come are going to be done through automation—making the voting process until the canvassing computerized. Some automated jobs have accurate and true results, but with the case of the elections here in out country, it is quite impossible for automation to be successful in acquiring accurate and true results.
A main disadvantage often associated with automation is worker displacement. Despite the social benefits that might result from retraining displaced workers for other jobs, in almost all cases the worker whose job has been taken over by a machine undergoes a period of emotional stress. In addition to displacement from work, the worker may be displaced geographically. In order to find other work, an individual may have to relocate, which is another source of stress and higher expenses for their part.
Other disadvantages of automated equipment include the high capital expenditure required to invest in automation because an automated system can cost millions of dollars to design, fabricate, and install. A higher level of maintenance is needed for these than with a manually operated machine, and a generally lower degree of flexibility in terms of the possible products as compared with a manual system because even flexible automation is less flexible than humans, the most versatile machines of all.[19]
Also there are potential risks that automation technology will ultimately overpower rather than serve humankind. The risks include the possibility that workers will become slaves to automated machines, that the privacy of humans will be invaded by vast computer data networks, that human error in the management of technology will somehow endanger civilization, and that society will become dependent on automation for its economic well-being.
These dangers aside, automation technology, if used wisely and effectively, can yield substantial opportunities for the future. There is an opportunity to relieve humans from repetitive, hazardous, and unpleasant labor in all forms. And there is an opportunity for future automation technologies to provide a growing social and economic environment in which humans can enjoy a higher standard of living and a better way of life.[20]
Automation not only affects individual lives but it affects the society as a whole. With automation, labor input is reduced leaving all the work on machines, gadgets, etc. It has been a question whether workers employed in a company or a factory filled with machinery and the likes are really skilled or not. Yes, they know how to operate the machine but their work ends there. They rely much on what the machine does. The machine does much of the workload. The issue is focused on the education and training of the workers. With the wide use of automation with its wide variety of actions, humans become more and more futile when it comes to production. With less input, an action is performed which is sometimes beneficial, sometimes not.
The use of automated systems seems to be the most practical thing to do nowadays. Its convenience is used in many different ways and in many different aspects and areas of everyday life. For example, in radio stations before automation came into the picture they used manual consoles to segue music, mix, play, and air them. Now, they use computers installed digital mixers and consoles and program them to play and do the rest of the job. It is sometimes unmanned less the program needs a disc jockey for some talking. If we analyze it, we may say that radio stations are turning to be practical. Instead of hiring other personnel to operate a complicated console the disc jockey can be multi-tasking and man the computer at the same time. Plus, they get rid much of those dead airs because a computer is rather accurate in switching plays. It is program to perform such and only such anyway so less error can occur. But
at times when there are power interruption and internal defect within the computer it’s sometimes harder to recover.
Automation is also vital in the journalism field. It has made lay-outing, printing and other facets of this field easier. Its usage has become a norm and/or standard especially in the printing press where mass production is not possible when manually done especially that work is time restricted and publication is on a daily basis. Machinery is important and very critical to these kinds and areas of work.
For a final say, automation is efficient in saving time, effort and labor input in the part of humans but then it inflicts laziness because of too much reliance on automated machinery. It may be good to have something do all the work for you but it paralyses our skills as humans and makes us futile. It’s good that these tools are present but it is not right to abuse its usage and rely to it so much. Its benefits maybe sufficing but its aftereffects are threatening.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Britannica 2006 (Automation)
Giles, Vic, and F. W. Hodgson. Creative Newspaper Design, 2nd ed. England: Focal Press, 1996.
www.wikipedia.com
this was my paper i passed on my broadcast communication 100 subject when i was in 2nd year college
Automation evolved from three interrelated trends in technology: the development of powered machinery for production operations; the introduction of powered equipment to move materials and work pieces during the manufacturing process; and the perfecting of control systems to regulate production, handling, and distribution.[2]
In its ideal form, automation implies elimination of all manual labor and the introduction of automatic controls, assuring accuracy and quality beyond human skills.[3]
There are principles required for a gadget to be considered as automated. One of the building blocks of automation is it should be a Power Source through which an action is produced. There are many sources of power available. One of which is electricity. Actions produced on the other hand have also two types: (1) processing and (2) transfer and positioning. First off is processing, which is literally processing an item into another. Such action entails the use of energy from a source. While on the other type of action (positioning and transferring), a product is brought to another area and in the process, uses energy. The transferred product is then left for the interpretation and use of humans. (e.g. video display units, printers)
Second principle of an automate system is that it serves as feedback control. Feedback controls are widely used in modern automated systems. A feedback control system consists of five basic components: (1) input, (2) process being controlled, (3) output, (4) sensing elements, and (5) controller and actuating devices. [4]
In the last principle, it states that an automated system has a programmed action to do and that its output is also definite. The system is pre-programmed to perform a certain process and a specific output is derived from it. The actions are repeatedly performed with continuous usage of the system.
Advantages commonly attributed to automation include higher production rates and increased productivity, more efficient use of materials, better product quality, improved safety, shorter workweeks for labor, and reduced factory lead times. Higher output and increased productivity have been two of the biggest reasons in justifying the use of automation. Despite the claims of high quality from good workmanship by humans, automated systems typically perform the manufacturing process with less variability than human workers, resulting in greater control and consistency of product quality. Also, increased process control makes more efficient use of materials, resulting in less scrap.
Automation not only gives flexibility to production, but it also can cut down costly lead times in changing from one production model to another, and it can control inventories to provide a continuous flow of materials without expensive storage requirements or investment in spare parts. Such efficiencies lower production cost and helps explain the growing strength in world markets of the Japanese, who first introduced the practice. Automation has also fostered the development of systems engineering, operations research, and linear programming.[5]
Worker safety is an important reason for automating an industrial operation. Automated systems often remove workers from the workplace, thus safeguarding them against the hazards of the factory environment. That’s why some countries have been promoting the use of robots in their workplace.
Robots, for example, which were designed for jobs like welding, painting or other health-hazardous jobs, can perform such works without injuring anyone’s health. These robots could work in either hot or freezing workplace and still managed to do the job well. In addition to this, the number of workers was decreased that led to lower expenses for salary.
Automation has eliminated much of the worker's boredom and has allowed the worker to change from a machine operator to a machine supervisor.[6]
Automation helps to keep a company’s cost down. In a business, automation is being used to type out all the paycheck on the payday. If automation is not present, there would be a need for more people in the payroll department to type all the paychecks out. It would be very expensive because the company will have to pay all those people who worked on typing the paychecks.
In larger companies, tracking cash flows and tax payments would be easier and faster. Everything is stored in a computer and all they need to do is retrieve the documents and print them all out if they need hard copies.
Banking and financial institutions have embraced automation in their operations—principally through computer technology—to facilitate the processing of large volumes of documents and financial transactions. The sorting of checks is done by optical character-recognition systems utilizing the special alphanumeric characters at the bottom of checks. Bank balances are computed and recorded using computer systems installed by virtually all financial institutions. Major banks have established electronic banking systems, including automatic teller machines. Located in places convenient for their customers, these automatic tellers permit users to complete basic transactions without requiring the assistance of bank personnel.[7]
The stock exchanges rely on computer-automated systems to report transactions by ticker tape or closed circuit television. Brokerage houses use a computerized record-keeping system to track their customers' accounts. Monthly statements indicating the status of each account are automatically prepared and mailed to customers. Account executives employ video monitors in their offices, backed by a massive database, to retrieve current information on each stock almost instantaneously while they discuss possible purchases with their clients. Stock certificates are typically issued with machine-readable identifications to facilitate record keeping in sales and exchanges.[8]
Credit card transactions have also become highly automated. Restaurants, retailers, and other organizations are using systems that automatically check the validity of a credit card and the credit standing of the cardholder in a matter of seconds as the customer waits for the transaction to be finalized. Some credit card transactions trigger immediate transfer of funds equal to the amount of the sale from the cardholder's account into the merchant's account.[9]
Computerized systems have been installed in most modern retail stores to speed sales transactions and automatically update inventory records as the stock of each item is reduced. A bar code is an identification symbol consisting of a series of wide and narrow bars attached to each product that can be scanned and recognized by a bar-code reader. At the cash registers, these readers quickly identify the items being purchased. As the sales associate scans across the symbol using a laser beam reader, the product is properly identified and its price is entered into the sales transaction. Simultaneously, a record of the sale is made in the inventory files so that the item can be reordered.[10]
Automation also helps to make products cheaper and more affordable.
Automation of service industries includes an assortment of applications as diverse as the services themselves, which include health care, banking, and other financial services, government, and retail trade.
In a hospital for example, the cashier would have a very hard job in recording all the patients’ bills if he/she will do it manually considering that almost everyday, a patient checks in and out. Aside from being able to do the job faster and easier, the hospital wouldn’t be wasting too much paper.
Also, there are already nurse computer terminals in every floor that helps the nurses monitor their patients. Other than recording the medical status and medicines taken by the patients, some of these systems are used to perform additional functions such as ordering drugs from the hospital pharmacy and calling for orderlies. The system provides an official record of the nursing care given to patients and is used by the nursing staff to give a report at shift-change time. The computer system is connected to the hospital's business office so that proper charges can be made to each patient's account for services rendered and medicines provided.[11] This way, the nurses will not need to run every now and then to the business office and they are able to do their job better.
One of the earliest practical applications of automation was in telephone switching. The first switching machines, invented near the end of the 19th century, were simple mechanical switches that were remotely controlled by the telephone user pushing buttons or turning a dial on the phone. Modern electronic telephone switching systems are based on highly sophisticated digital computers that perform functions such as monitoring thousands of telephone lines, determining which lines require service, storing the digits of each telephone number as it is being dialed, setting up the required connections, sending electrical signals to ring the receiver's phone, monitoring the call during its progress, and disconnecting the phone when the call is completed. These systems also are used to time and bill toll calls and to transmit billing information and other data relative to the business operations of the phone company. In addition to the various functions mentioned, the newest electronic systems automatically transfer calls to alternate numbers, call back the user when busy lines become free, and perform other customer services in response to dialed codes. These systems also perform function tests on their own operations, diagnose problems when they arise, and print out detailed instructions for repairs.[12]
Other applications of automation in communications systems include local area networks, communications satellites, and automated mail-sorting machines. A local area network (LAN) operates like an automated telephone company within a single building or group of buildings. Local area networks are generally capable of transmitting not only voice but also digital data between terminals in the system. Communications satellites have become essential for communicating telephone or video signals across great distances. Such communications would not be possible without the automated guidance systems that place and retain the satellites in predetermined orbits. Automatic mail-sorting machines have been developed for use in many post offices throughout the world to read codes on envelopes and sort the envelopes according to destination.[13]
Communication between employees is already possible without written memos or telephone calls. The use of Yahoo Messenger for instance can be a very efficient way of communicating with others. Two people can even talk to each other if both are using Yahoo Messenger with Voice.
Automation has been applied in various ways in the transportation industries. Applications include airline reservation systems, automatic pilots in aircraft and locomotives, and urban mass-transit systems. The airlines use computerized reservation systems to continuously monitor the status of all flights. With these systems, ticket agents at widely dispersed locations can obtain information about the availability of seats on any flight in a matter of seconds. The reservation systems compare requests for space with the status of each flight, grant space when available, and automatically update the reservation status files. Passengers can even receive their seat assignments well in advance of flight departures.[14]
Almost all commercial aircrafts are equipped with instruments called automatic pilots. Under normal flying conditions, these systems guide an airplane over a predetermined route by detecting changes in the aircraft's orientation and heading from gyroscopes and similar instruments and by providing appropriate control signals to the plane's steering mechanism. Automatic navigation systems and instrument landing systems operate by using radio signals from ground signal or warning that provide the aircraft with course directions for guidance.[15]
In Journalism alone, automation has given a big effect on how a newspaper is made. It has made the designing of the newspaper much easier and faster.
Using a combination of keyboard and mouse, the page elements—text, pictures, head-
line, and adverts—are located to the required layout by defining their space on the grid with
fine-line boxes into which the items are called by their appropriate catchline. . . By ‘drag-
ging’ with the mouse, the boxes can be altered endlessly in shape and size, or even tilted.
Layouts can be changed on screen, headlines re-arranged to a variety of shapes at a touch
Pictures, either colour or mono. . . can be enlarged in image or even adjusted in size by
mouse controls if a change of layout requires it. . . If an illustration that has arrived on the
page is required to be cut out, the mouse control quickly defines the outline and removes the
unwanted part of the picture. . .[16]
In addition, the computer also allows the changing of font styles and font sizes of the letters that are used in writing a certain story. As a result, the appearance of a newspaper becomes pleasing and organized because the design appears to be identical.
The main effect of automation in the field of Journalism is that it simplifies and speeds the editing, page make-up and printing processes as long as the journalist is very familiar with the world of computers. The editing and correction facility of a computer is more user-friendly than that of typewriters. Files and documents stored in the computer are more accessible with just a click unlike those that are still placed inside the drawers.[17]
Automation is also a source of several social issues. It has an impact on employment. Some say that there is decrease in employment while others say automation leads to higher employment.
Many government services are automated by means of computers and computerized databases. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the U.S. government must review and approve the tax returns of millions of taxpayers each year. The detailed checking of returns is a task that has traditionally been done by large staffs of professional auditors on a sampled basis. In 1985 the IRS began using a computerized system to automate the auditing procedure for the 1984 returns. This system is programmed to perform the complex tax calculations on each return being audited. As tax laws change, the system is reprogrammed to do the calculations for the year. The computerized auditing system has permitted a substantial increase in the work load of the IRS auditing department without a corresponding increase in staffing.[18]
Just recently, the government was able to pass a law or ordinance saying that the elections to come are going to be done through automation—making the voting process until the canvassing computerized. Some automated jobs have accurate and true results, but with the case of the elections here in out country, it is quite impossible for automation to be successful in acquiring accurate and true results.
A main disadvantage often associated with automation is worker displacement. Despite the social benefits that might result from retraining displaced workers for other jobs, in almost all cases the worker whose job has been taken over by a machine undergoes a period of emotional stress. In addition to displacement from work, the worker may be displaced geographically. In order to find other work, an individual may have to relocate, which is another source of stress and higher expenses for their part.
Other disadvantages of automated equipment include the high capital expenditure required to invest in automation because an automated system can cost millions of dollars to design, fabricate, and install. A higher level of maintenance is needed for these than with a manually operated machine, and a generally lower degree of flexibility in terms of the possible products as compared with a manual system because even flexible automation is less flexible than humans, the most versatile machines of all.[19]
Also there are potential risks that automation technology will ultimately overpower rather than serve humankind. The risks include the possibility that workers will become slaves to automated machines, that the privacy of humans will be invaded by vast computer data networks, that human error in the management of technology will somehow endanger civilization, and that society will become dependent on automation for its economic well-being.
These dangers aside, automation technology, if used wisely and effectively, can yield substantial opportunities for the future. There is an opportunity to relieve humans from repetitive, hazardous, and unpleasant labor in all forms. And there is an opportunity for future automation technologies to provide a growing social and economic environment in which humans can enjoy a higher standard of living and a better way of life.[20]
Automation not only affects individual lives but it affects the society as a whole. With automation, labor input is reduced leaving all the work on machines, gadgets, etc. It has been a question whether workers employed in a company or a factory filled with machinery and the likes are really skilled or not. Yes, they know how to operate the machine but their work ends there. They rely much on what the machine does. The machine does much of the workload. The issue is focused on the education and training of the workers. With the wide use of automation with its wide variety of actions, humans become more and more futile when it comes to production. With less input, an action is performed which is sometimes beneficial, sometimes not.
The use of automated systems seems to be the most practical thing to do nowadays. Its convenience is used in many different ways and in many different aspects and areas of everyday life. For example, in radio stations before automation came into the picture they used manual consoles to segue music, mix, play, and air them. Now, they use computers installed digital mixers and consoles and program them to play and do the rest of the job. It is sometimes unmanned less the program needs a disc jockey for some talking. If we analyze it, we may say that radio stations are turning to be practical. Instead of hiring other personnel to operate a complicated console the disc jockey can be multi-tasking and man the computer at the same time. Plus, they get rid much of those dead airs because a computer is rather accurate in switching plays. It is program to perform such and only such anyway so less error can occur. But
at times when there are power interruption and internal defect within the computer it’s sometimes harder to recover.
Automation is also vital in the journalism field. It has made lay-outing, printing and other facets of this field easier. Its usage has become a norm and/or standard especially in the printing press where mass production is not possible when manually done especially that work is time restricted and publication is on a daily basis. Machinery is important and very critical to these kinds and areas of work.
For a final say, automation is efficient in saving time, effort and labor input in the part of humans but then it inflicts laziness because of too much reliance on automated machinery. It may be good to have something do all the work for you but it paralyses our skills as humans and makes us futile. It’s good that these tools are present but it is not right to abuse its usage and rely to it so much. Its benefits maybe sufficing but its aftereffects are threatening.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Britannica 2006 (Automation)
Giles, Vic, and F. W. Hodgson. Creative Newspaper Design, 2nd ed. England: Focal Press, 1996.
www.wikipedia.com
this was my paper i passed on my broadcast communication 100 subject when i was in 2nd year college
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