TERM PAPER

Automation in Operations Management

Operations Management

Srinidhi Rangarajan 1PB11MBA34 3rd SEM M.B.A PESIT

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Abstract

This paper consists of a brief discussion on automation in operations management. This paper tries to study how automation is implemented in the modern world and whether it is of any use or not in helping the various sectors it is being implemented in. This paper contains: Introduction to operations management Introduction to Automation Literature study More on automation Applications

Key words: Automation Operations management Automation tools Applications

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Introduction

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Operations management is an area of management concerned with overseeing, designing, controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods and/or services. It involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as few resources as needed, and effective in terms of meeting customer requirements. It is concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labour, and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and/or services). The relationship of operations management to senior management in commercial contexts can be compared to the relationship of line officers to highest-level senior officers in military science. The highest-level officers shape the strategy and revise it over time, while the line officers make tactical decisions in support of carrying out the strategy. In business as in military affairs, the boundaries between levels are not always distinct; tactical information dynamically informs strategy, and individual people often move between roles over time. According to the U.S. Department of Education, operations management is the field concerned with managing and directing the physical and/or technical functions of a firm or organization, particularly those relating to development, production, and manufacturing. Operations management programs typically include instruction in principles of general management, manufacturing and production systems, plant management, equipment maintenance management, production control, industrial labour relations and skilled trades supervision, strategic manufacturing policy, systems analysis, productivity analysis and cost control, and materials planning Management, including operations management, is like engineering in that it blends art with applied science. People skills, creativity, rational analysis, and knowledge of technology are all required for success.

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AUTOMATION

Automation is the use of machines, control systems and information technologies to optimize productivity in the production of goods and delivery of services. The correct incentive for applying automation is to increase productivity, and/or quality beyond that possible with current human labour levels so as to realize economies of scale, and/or realize predictable quality levels. The incorrect application of automation, which occurs most often, is an effort to eliminate or replace human labour. Simply put, whereas correct application of automation can net as much as 3 to 4 times original output with no increase in current human labour costs, incorrect application of automation can only save a fraction of current labour level costs. In the scope of industrialisation, automation is a step beyond mechanisation. Whereas mechanisation provides human operators with machinery to assist them with the muscular requirements of work, automation greatly decreases the need for human sensory and mental requirements while increasing load capacity, speed, and repeatability. Automation plays an increasingly important role in the world economy and in daily experience. Automation has had a notable impact in a wide range of industries beyond manufacturing (where it began). Once-ubiquitous telephone operators have been replaced largely by automated telephone switchboards and answering machines. Medical processes such as primary screening in electrocardiography or radiography and laboratory analysis of human genes, sera, cells, and tissues are carried out at much greater speed and accuracy by automated systems. Automated teller machines have reduced the need for bank visits to obtain cash and carry out transactions. In general, automation has been responsible for the shift in the world economy from industrial jobs to service jobs in the 20th and 21st centuries. The term automation, inspired by the earlier word automatic (coming from automaton), was not widely used before 1947, when General Motors established the automation department. At that time automation technologies were electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic. Between 1957 and 1964 factory output nearly doubled while the number of blue collar workers started to decline.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
A Short history on Automation Growth
Automation has a few key segments. In the 1970's, the original DCS was developed in the 1970's by a team of engineers at Honeywell, and the first PLC was the brainchild of inventor Dick Morley and others. Several innovative startups developed HMI software for PLCs and indusrial I/O. Innovative sensors and actuators came from some key companies. In a fragmented business, most innovators get stuck at growth plateuas and get bought out. But some continue to generate independent growth and success Trace the roots of all significant automation business segments and you'll find key people and innovations. Industrial instrumentation and controls has always been a hotbed of new products improved sensors, amplifiers, displays, recorders, control elements, valves, actuators and other widgets and gismos. But the markets are relatively small, specialized and fragmented, and it's rare that any significant volume results directly from individual products. This model of business is greatly seen in technical sales as well

Many automation companies were founded with innovative developments for niche applications. The target customers were usually local end-users who provided the opportunity to test new ideas, usually because of specific unmet needs. The successful startups expanded their products and markets beyond initially narrow applications and geographies, depending on the real value of the innovation, and also whether or not the founder was able to hire suitable management, sales & marketing leaders to grow the company beyond the initial entrepreneurial stages. Since automation is such a fragmented business, all the larger (multi-billion $) companies are mostly a conglomeration of products and services; each product segment generates relatively small volume, but lumped together they form sizable businesses. Companies such as Ametek and Spectris have grown primarily through acquisition of small, innovative, niche product companies where growth is self-limited either through lack of capital for new products and or global sales & market expansion. Indeed, these industrial mini-conglomerates thrive through astute and shrewd accumulation of innovative niche players. But few acquirers can come up with follow-through developments that match the original founder's innovations. And so the larger companies are usually satisfied with managed product extensions and expansions - with few, really innovative breakthroughs.

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Innovative start ups which remain independent Omron in Japan is a standout. The company was founded in 1933 and has grown to be the largest industrial automation company in Japan. The unusual thing about Omron is that alone among any multi-billion corporations it devotes a significant amount of attention to its ethical, social and philosophical positions. This unusual ethos can be traced to the founder, an engineer Dr. Kazuma Tateisi, who has written a significant book The Eternal Venture Spirit. His innovative yet practical entrepreneurial philosophy continues in the corporate culture of this significant company. The company continues to stimulate significant innovation and a plethora of new products, and has grown to several billion $ worldwide, targeting a doubling in revenues by the end of this decade Another innovative start up National Instruments, headquartered in Austin, Texas, has about 4,000 employees, 2006 revenue of $660M, trading on NASDAQ with market-cap of over $ 2B. The company was co-founded in 1976 by Dr. James Truchard, while he was still at University of Texas, Austin. In 1986, Jim Truchard and Jeff Kodosky (who is also still at NI) invented LabVIEW graphical development software. The intuitive graphical environment of LabVIEW revolutionized the way engineers and scientists work, much like the spreadsheet provided a new way for financial professionals to do their jobs. The company is expected to grow well past the $ 1-billion benchmark and continue its independent growth and success. Future growth in automation Extrapolating automation history forward is an interesting challenge. In the past, growth inflection points have developed from new products and leadership (DCS, PLC, sensors, software). Today, growth is coming from global expansion and services, but that is only incremental, and not by any means a surge A new surge of growth will come through new technology (perhaps nanotech sensors, or wireless), production at the lowest cost for global distribution, and fast time-to-market (not impeded by standards committees and antiquated management conservatism). The managers, innovators and visionaries who recognize the possibilities will become the new leaders of tomorrow.

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More on Automation
The main advantages of automation are:

Increased throughput or productivity. Improved quality or increased predictability of quality. Improved robustness (consistency), of processes or product.

The following methods are often employed to improve productivity, quality, or robustness.

Install automation in operations to reduce cycle time. Install automation where a high degree of accuracy is required. Replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard physical or monotonous work.[3] Replacing humans in tasks done in dangerous environments (i.e. fire, space, volcanoes, nuclear facilities, underwater, etc.)

Performing tasks that are beyond human capabilities of size, weight, speed, endurance, etc.

Economy improvement: Automation may improve in economy of enterprises, society or most of humanity. For example, when an enterprise invests in automation, technology recovers its investment; or when a state or country increases its income due to automation like Germany or Japan in the 20th Century..

The main disadvantages of automation are:

Security Threats/Vulnerability: An automated system may have a limited level of intelligence, and is therefore more susceptible to committing errors outside of its immediate scope of knowledge (e.g., it is typically unable to apply the rules of simple logic to general propositions).

Unpredictable/excessive development costs: The research and development cost of automating a process may exceed the cost saved by the automation itself.

High initial cost: The automation of a new product or plant typically requires a very large initial investment in comparison with the unit cost of the product, although the cost of automation may be spread among many products and over time.

In manufacturing, the purpose of automation has shifted to issues broader than productivity, cost, and time.

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Reliability and precision The old focus on using automation simply to increase productivity and reduce costs was seen to be short-sighted, because it is also necessary to provide a skilled workforce who can make repairs and manage the machinery. Moreover, the initial costs of automation were high and often could not be recovered by the time entirely new manufacturing processes replaced the old. (Japan's "robot junkyards" were once world famous in the manufacturing industry.) Automation is now often applied primarily to increase quality in the manufacturing process, where automation can increase quality substantially. For example, internal combustion engine pistons used to be installed manually. This is rapidly being transitioned to automated machine installation, because the error rate for manual installment was around 1-1.5%, but has been reduced to 0.00001% with automation. Health and environment The costs of automation to the environment are different depending on the technology, product or engine automated. There are automated engines that consume more energy resources from the Earth in comparison with previous engines and those that do the opposite too. Hazardous operations, such as oil refining, the manufacturing of industrial chemicals, and all forms of metal working, were always early contenders for automation. Convertibility and turnaround time Another major shift in automation is the increased demand for flexibility and convertibility in manufacturing processes. Manufacturers are increasingly demanding the ability to easily switch from manufacturing Product A to manufacturing Product B without having to completely rebuild the production lines. Flexibility and distributed processes have led to the introduction of Automated Guided Vehicles with Natural Features Navigation. Digital electronics helped too. Former analogue-based instrumentation was replaced by digital equivalents which can be more accurate and flexible, and offer greater scope for more sophisticated configuration, parameterization and operation. This was accompanied by the field bus revolution which provided a networked (i.e. a single cable) means of communicating between control systems and field level instrumentation, eliminating hardwiring..

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Automation tools
Engineers can now have numerical control over automated devices. The result has been a rapidly expanding range of applications and human activities. Computer-aided technologies (or CAx) now serve the basis for mathematical and organizational tools used to create complex systems. Notable examples of CAx include Computer-aided design (CAD software) and Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM software). The improved design, analysis, and manufacture of products enabled by CAx has been beneficial for industry Information technology, together with industrial machinery and processes, can assist in the design, implementation, and monitoring of control systems. One example of an industrial control system is a programmable logic controller (PLC). PLCs are specialized hardened computers which are frequently used to synchronize the flow of inputs from (physical) sensors and events with the flow of outputs to actuators and events. An automated online assistant on a website, with an avatar for enhanced humancomputer interaction. Human-machine interfaces (HMI) or computer human interfaces (CHI), formerly known as man-machine interfaces, are usually employed to communicate with PLCs and other computers. Service personnel who monitor and control through HMIs can be called by different names. In industrial process and manufacturing environments, they are called operators or something similar. In boiler houses and central utilities departments they are called stationary engineers. Different types of automation tools that exist:

ANN - Artificial neural network BPM - Bonita Open Solution DCS - Distributed Control System HMI - Human Machine Interface SCADA - Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition PLC - Programmable Logic Controller PAC - Programmable automation controller Instrumentation Motion control Robotics

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Applications Automated video surveillance

The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) started the research and development of automated visual surveillance and monitoring (VSAM) program, between 1997 and 1999, and airborne video surveillance (AVS) programs, from 1998 to 2002. Currently, there is a major effort underway in the vision community to develop a fully automated tracking surveillance system. Automated video surveillance monitors people and vehicles in real time within a busy environment. Existing automated surveillance systems are based on the environment they are primarily designed to observe, i.e., indoor, outdoor or airborne, the amount of sensors that the automated system can handle and the mobility of sensor, i.e., stationary camera vs. mobile camera. The purpose of a surveillance system is to record properties and trajectories of objects in a given area, generate warnings or notify designated authority in case of occurrence of particular events.

Automated highway systems

As demands for safety and mobility have grown and technological possibilities have multiplied, interest in automation has grown. Seeking to accelerate the development and introduction of fully automated vehicles and highways, the United States Congress authorized more than $650 million over six years for intelligent transport systems (ITS) and demonstration projects in the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). Congress legislated in ISTEA that the Secretary of Transportation shall develop an automated highway and vehicle prototype from which future fully automated intelligent vehicle-highway systems can be developed. Such development shall include research in human factors to ensure the success of the man-machine relationship. The goal of this program is to have the first fully automated highway roadway or an automated test track in operation by 1997. This system shall accommodate installation of equipment in new and existing motor vehicles."

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Automated manufacturing
Automated manufacturing refers to the application of automation to produce things in the factory way. Most of the advantages of the automation technology has its influence in the manufacture processes. The main advantages of automated manufacturing are higher consistency and quality, reduced lead times, simplified production, reduced handling, improved work flow, and increased worker morale when a good implementation of the automation is made.

Home automation
Home automation (also called domotics) designates an emerging practice of increased automation of household appliances and features in residential dwellings, particularly through electronic means that allow for things impracticable, overly expensive or simply not possible in recent past decades.

Industrial automation
Industrial automation deals with the optimization of energy-efficient drive systems by precise measurement and control technologies. Nowadays energy efficiency in industrial processes are becoming more and more relevant. Semiconductor companies like Infineon Technologies are offering 8-bit microcontroller applications for example found in motor controls, general purpose pumps, fans, and e-bikes to reduce energy consumption and thus increase efficiency. One of Infineon`s 8-bit product line found in industrial automation is the XC800 family.

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References

1) Google.com 2) Wikipedia 3) Scribd.com 4) Oppapers.com 5) A few operations management text books

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