ABSTRACT
Periods of slow growth and recession in 1990 and 2008 forced industry to cut costs and reorganize. There were cutbacks, layoffs and delayed purchases for capital equipment. This reduction of personnel usually pressures the surviving departments to increase automation and become more efficient. The financial staff analyzes operations more closely and offers areas that might be improved. These economic factors along with technological advances in electronics and control hardware allowed plant automation changes in the 1990s that were not possible before and are expected to produce similar changes in the near future.
