Industrial Control From A to Z

Chapter 0. INTRODUCTION

0.1 AUTOMATE, EMIGRATE, LEGISLATE, OR
EVAPORATE
"Automate, emigrate, legislate or evaporate." This was a choice many manufacturers.
Some manufacturers tried to lower prices by reducing manufacturing costs. They either automated or emigrated.
Many countries legislated trade barriers to keep high quality, low cost products out. Manufacturers who did nothing
... disappeared, often despite their own government's protective trade barriers.
Many consumers still choose imports over domestic products, but some North American manufacturers are now
trying more thoughtful measures to meet the challenge.
Automation is a technique that can be used to reduce costs and/or to improve quality. Automation can increase
manufacturing speed, while reducing cost. Automation can lead to products having consistent quality, perhaps even
consistently good quality. Some manufacturers who automated survived. Others didn't. The ones who survived
were those who used automation to improve quality. It often happened that improving quality led to reduced costs.

0.2 THE ENVIRONMENT FOR AUTOMATION
Automation, the subject of this textbook, is not a magic solution to financial problems. It is, however, a valuable
tool that can be used to improve product quality. Improving product quality, in turn, results in lower costs.
Producing inexpensive, high quality products is a good policy for any company.
But where do you start?
Simply considering an automation program can force an organization to face problems it might not otherwise face: What automation and control technology is available? Are employees ready and willing to use new technology? What technology should we use? Should the current manufacturing process be improved before automation? Should the product be improved before spending millions of dollars acquiring equipment to build it?
Automating before answering the above questions would be foolish. The following chapters describe the available
technology so that the reader will be prepared to select appropriate automation technology. The answers to the last
two questions above are usually "yes," and this book introduces techniques to improve processes and products, but
each individual organization must find its own improvements.

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Industrial Control