ABSTRACT
'Automation' is automatic operation; it is basically concerned with automatic 'goods' production or manufacturing. Steps towards automation constitute a history of increasing manufacturing efficiency and labour productivity; three steps have been followed: introduction of tools, mechanisation and automation. Automation has developed greatly since the war, being accelerated by the invention of numerical control in 1952. 'Automation' may be considered as the abbreviation of 'automatisation' or 'automatic operation'; alternatively, automation is a combination of Greek automatos and Latin '-/on'. Automation implies processes adopting automatic production methods or full automatic production in factories. Mechanical automation and process automation are concerned with direct production processes which convert raw materials into products; i.e. the 'flow of materials'. Automated factories were first introduced in 1961 in a North Carolina factory of the Western Electric Company for making carbon resistors. The most obvious effect of automation is that it increases the labour productivity and reduces the production cost. The introduction of automatic inspection devices improves quality.
