ABSTRACT
Industrial companies exist to make money. The many societal benefits they provide (e.g., jobs, new technology, economic growth) are actually by-products of their primary function, which is to manufacture goods that can be sold at a profit in order to make money for their investors. Companies that in the long run continue to provide an adequate return on stockholder investment tend to survive; those that fail to do so eventually disappear. This somewhat simplistic view underscores the importance of profitable manufacturing operations, and it is ultimately the need to maximize profit that provides the motivation for a company to buy process measurement and control systems.
