Automation

Computer is main part of Automation.

Charles Babbage (1822) invented the first computer

but due to lack of funding he could not build it as per his design until 1991.

Also Alan Turing invented computer science (1936).

He is known as founding father of Artificial Intelligence

as well as he is known as founding father of modern Cognitive Science.

Further the ENIAC (1945) was the first electronic general purpose digital

computer.

It is the short name of Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC).

As a matter of fact it was huge in dimension

and it filled a room.

Then the first PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) came in the world in 1968.

As a result General Motors (GM) designed a specification for a

‘Standard Machine Controller’ and distributed it to vendors for a quote.

To list some of the major elements of the specification included:

– it should use solid state components,

-it should be modular,

-and it should be expandable.

Thus GM chose Allen-Bradley to design that ‘Standard Machine Controller’.

Not to mention people sometime call

Odo Josef Struger

from Allen-Bradley as the

“father of the programmable logic controller”.

Since he was involved in the invention of the

Allen‑Bradley programmable logic controller

and is credited with inventing the PLC.

Automation with PLC

Richard E. Morley (December 1, 1932 – October 17, 2017) was an

American mechanical engineer.

As a matter of fact Richard E. Morley is

also considered as one of the

“fathers” of the programmable logic controller (PLC).

Since he was involved with the production of the

first PLC for General Motors,

the Modicon,

at Bedford and Associates in 1968.

Digitalization

Digitalization got its start as far back as 1679

when Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

developed the first-ever binary system.

For this purpose he authored a well-crafted book known as the

Explanation of Binary Systems in 1703.

He wrote this book to help people understand the binary system.

In general Digitalization essentially began with the advent of

computers in the 1950s.

Since then, the non-stop march of Digitalization has transformed nearly

everything into computer-friendly 1s and 0s.

Digitalization has changed the way we work,

communicate,

shop,

bank,

and even how we relax and

entertain ourselves.

In the same way Digitalization is causing a trend of Automation

within the world today.

But what exactly is Automation?

What are the different dimensions of it?

Also what does it mean to you as an organization?

In fact I am going to take you for a ride

to find answers to all these questions.

My name is P K Saxena.

At the present time I am the CTO of Sofcon Systems India Pvt. Ltd.

Sofcon Systems India is an Automation Solution provider company.

Eric Kimberling is my guide for this ride.

He is CEO of Third Stage consulting company.

It is an independent consulting firm.

And it helps clients throughout the world with their

Digital Transformation journeys.

Organizations have been talking about Automation for several decades.

They have been looking at ways to be more efficient,

to be more productive,

to be more profitable

and to be more effective.

I hope will you not agree with me?

That Automation word is being used in a very broad sense.

What exactly does Automation mean in today’s time frame?

I want to throw some light during this joy ride.

History of Automation

In the first place let us first look at history

and also look at

how Automation has evolved in recent years.

And then let us look at how digital technologies have evolved in recent years.

Therefore we travel many decades back to the era

when organizations adopted computers for the first time.

At that time the main focus of organization was on very

simple data collection

as well as simple data capture.

They used to gather data electronically

and bring it to central location

for further processing.

At the same time this data had been previously stored on paper

or on spreadsheets.

In the 1970s and in the 1980s,

organizations were starting to capture data within computer systems

for the first time.

They wanted to get centralized visibility of their operations and

also they wanted to see their financial results.

Henceforth let us do fast forward to the 2020s.

Automation and digital technologies are certainly doing

what they have been doing always

which is visualizing operations

and financial results

in central location.

But now they are also adding other layers of benefits such as

streamlining workflow

and is making sure

that business processes are

as efficient

as possible.

They are also focused on providing

more insights into

what is happening within the organization.

So that in other words,

Automation is also providing deeper insights into

what exactly is happening rather

than

just providing top line numbers.

Presently we are seeing that

in some cases organizations are completely automating

their low skill high volume types

of business processes.

It is important to realize

that Automation over the years has really evolved

from just simply providing

digitization of data

to now providing

-more efficiency,

– more top line revenue results,

-and more insights

as well as deeper understanding of business operations.

Software Automation

The core and fundamental foundation of Automation is

Software Automation.

This is a continuation of a trend

that started decades ago

which is the computerization of back office processes.

Things like ERP systems capture data

related to financial information

or inventory levels or

stock locations in a warehouse.

But in addition to just capturing data,

Software Automation is also making workflows easier.

It is tying together end-to-end business processes

across an entire operation in an industry.

This is really one of the big benefits of

Enterprise Resource Planning or

ERP systems or

Customer Relationship Management or

Sales Systems

or Supply Chain tools.

As a matter of fact all these sorts of technologies tie together

business processes across different functions

and

disciplines within an organization.

In fact there are other technologies

and other forms of Automation

that can take your organization even further ahead.

Robotics and Sensors

Another technology and form of Automation

that is really evolving in the last several years is the concept of

Robotics and Sensors.

Probably the easiest way to think about

Robotics and Sensors

is to think about a

manufacturing shop floor.

Robots are automating many of business processes

and

production processes.

In particular these robots are physically moving products around

and also are assembling those products.

Likewise you also have robots in warehouses.

Where they are moving inventory from location to location.

As well as they are moving it to the staging area

so that it can be shipped to customers.

These are examples of how many organizations are using Robots in their

manufacturing departments.

On the positive side it is not just the robots that are being automated,

it is the data that those robots are capturing such as

–data about inventory locations,

-about work in progress status,

–quality issues,

–productivity metrics.

All these sorts of information are being captured within robotics

and that data is then being pushed back to computer systems or

– in the Software Automation

that I already discussed in this article.

After that when we think about Automation,

it is not just the core back office software

that is being automated.

But also it has physical automation using physical robots

as well as using all the sensors

that go along with that.

Robotic Process Automation

Coupled with Software Automation and Robotics,

we have a third type of Automation which is

Robotic Process Automation.

Despite the name Robotic,

there is not a physical Robot involved in

Robotic Process Automation

but it is a function within a software system

that acts like a Robot.

In fact it is some kind of Software

that does the work automatically

what a human might have historically done.

For example if you have any sort of transaction

that does not require a lot of skill,

as well as does not require a lot of human intelligence to do

but it is a high volume type of activity

that can become very efficient

as an organization grows,

then Robotic Process Automation

can be a way to automate those processes.

Example of RPA

For instance a good example of Robotic Process Automation would be

purchase order processing.

So that when you go to procure any sort of product

or service

you typically issue a purchase order.

In this case when you receive delivery of item

that you have purchased and

then you ultimately issue payment.

In fact when you have that purchase order,

then you are going to get invoiced by the supplier.

You need to double check

and you need to do a match to make sure

that you have a purchase order

that reflects what is being invoiced

so that you have actually received delivery of what you are being invoiced for.

In brief that is considered the three-way match and

-so that Robotic Process Automation can automate that and

-actually it can do that for you

and kick out the exceptions.

So that humans are not having to process every single purchase order

and invoice

that goes to that purchase order.

In essence Robotic Process Automation is doing that for them

but in cases where there is a problem

or an exception

or the RPA technology senses

that there might be an anomaly,

it will kick that out to humans

so that the humans can focus on the exceptions rather

than transacting all the manual processes

that go along with that.

AI, Machine Learning and Intelligent Automation

In addition another type of Automation

that takes RPA technology one step further is going

to be technologies like

–AI,

–Machine Learning and

–Intelligent Automation.

Likewise these are technologies that not only automate business processes and

-do the business processes for you but

-they are actually looking to the future

and trying to predict

and learn from data.

In essence learn the patterns

and start to understand

what is happening within an operation

or a business process.

As a matter of fact I do not want to get too much in depth

and also do not want to distinguish between these three things-

–AI,

–Machine Learning and

–Intelligent Automation.

Still I will state that

AI is a form of Intelligent Automation

and

Machine Learning is a type of technology

that supports AI.

Machine Learning

In fact Machine Learning is at the core fundamental route of really looking at

data and learning what is happening with the data

and it is not really programmed necessarily

to do things in advance.

Thus the Machine Learning is just learning

what the patterns are

and starting to anticipate

what will happen with future data sets.

While Artificial Intelligence is really the way

that you end up using that

Machine Learning to apply algorithms

to predict future decision making.

Hence these are all the Automation technologies,

I have described them here.

Moreover out of all the different Automation technologies,

last one is the most advanced one

and this is where the world is headed.

At last most organizations have some level of Software Automation.

While many of them are now evolving

and are building on their capabilities to get to

Robotic Process Automation.

As well as few others are progressing towards adopting

AI,

Machine Learning

and Intelligent Automation.

In fact this is the full bucket of

Automation dimension

or layer of Automation

that is important for you to understand

as you look at

your digital strategy for the future.

Impacts to Humans

All in all, we get many questions for all the different types of Automation:

To begin with what does this mean to us as humans?

As well as what does this mean to potential displacement of jobs?

Will we have jobs in the future with all these types of Automation happening?

Hence to be fair, those are the few questions which have been lingering

in our society for decades.

Now that ever since the introduction of computers

in the early stages of Robotics,

people have wondered

whether new technology will displace humans to the point

that we are no better off

than we were before the technology.

Although this is a question for which

I do not have a very good answer.

However when  I look at history and

also look at how technology has evolved

and how it has changed

and how it has affected people’s jobs,

then I can comment

that technology

and automation in general

is absolutely going to disrupt our lives.

Conclusion

Summing up, I can say

that it is going to change our lives.

To rephrase, what we find through history is that these types of technology

and automation are really creating opportunities for people

not to do more mundane tasks

but it is allowing them to do more strategic tasks

and to do things

that are more enjoyable

and require a more advanced skill set.

That is to say it offers a great opportunity for people to learn,

to develop

and to make life better.

The key here is how we help people through that transition.

While it may be true

this transition will not happen naturally.

So that the key to understanding automation is also understanding

what the impact is to your organization

and to humans

while understanding how you are going to help your humans

and your employees through that entire transformation.

On the whole I hope this article has provided you some understanding of

what Automation is

and how it will impact your organization.

To sum up you can read articles on my LinkedIn profile at

https://www.linkedin.com/in/prabhat-kumar-saxena-3b8ab79/recent-activity/posts/ .

To that end you can also read my blog post at

https://digitalprabhat.co.in/marketing-stuff-that-i-didnt-learn-in-fms/.

                                            Digital Prabhat                

Resource: Eric Kimberling-What is Automation? /

                Third Stage Consulting Group

                www.thirdstage-consulting.com