Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation

Automation is slowly becoming a necessity. Industries around the world are increasingly becoming dependent on automation. In this article, we will understand what automation technology is and what the advantages and disadvantages of using it are. We will try to understand the factors that are influencing the popularity of automation and how it will grow in the future. 

Table of Contents:

• What is Automation?
• Types of Automation
• Advantages of Automation
  • 1. Reduced labor and operational costs
  • 2. Increased Workplace Security
  • 3. Round the Clock Coverage
  • 4. Faster Processing Time
  • 5. Increased Security
  • 6. Enhanced scalability
  • 7. Consistent Output Quality
• Disadvantages of Automation
  • 1. Cost Incurred
  • 2. Reliance on Electricity
  • 3. Huge Capital Expenditure
  • 4. Replacement of Human Workers
  • 5. Limited Flexibility
  • 6. Maintenance Complexity
• Future of Automation
• Conclusion

What is Automation?

Automation is a technology that transfers monotonous tasks from humans to machines. While human intervention is minimized in automation, it is still required in development, maintenance, deployment, and monitoring. Automation helps increase the efficiency of a system by taking on all the time-consuming and repetitive tasks. These tasks may include emailing, data entry, scheduling, cleaning, or something as simple as opening a door at a particular time.

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Types of Automation

Automation technology can be achieved anywhere as long as you pass on repetitive, time-consuming tasks to the machines. Designing and creating a proper system to water your garden plants by connecting the water supply, the hose, and the tap also involves automation technology. It is everywhere. Let us understand the four main types of automation one by one. 

Automation in Workplace

Whether you work in the machinery or, a software industry, or a grocery store, automation technology can make your work faster and more efficient. Businesses use workplace automation to fulfill tasks that cost a lot and is time-consuming.

For example: In a large corporation that receives more than a thousand applications may use tools that can read through job applications quickly by searching for specific keywords and identifying the best candidates

Automation in Manufacturing Industries

In manufacturing industries, robotics and software are used to automate production tasks. The goal is to increase productivity and accuracy in the production process, reducing manual labor. Automation in industries like coal mines, chemical industries, nuclear plants, handling heavy machinery and many more saves human lives and prevents them from chronic pain.

For example: In a coal mine, autonomous drilling equipment operates in unstable ground conditions or areas with toxic gases. These devices reach places where humans can’t go. 

Automation in Warehouses

Warehouse automation is concerned with automating the movement of goods and inventory inside the warehouse, into the warehouse and out to the customers’ houses. 

For example: A human worker can load the package onto an autonomous mobile robot. They are then responsible for moving the inventory to the shipping area and updating the status. This enhances speed, efficiency, and accuracy. 

Automation in Testing

Automation in Testing happens by making the steps of manual testing of the software fully automatic. This allows machines to execute these tests without human intervention and speeds up the feedback cycle. It helps the developers check the quality of software against the requirements of the users and clients. 

For example: When a team is developing an e-commerce site, they typically have testers do manual verification of hundreds of steps, like logging in and checkout, each time a change is made. Automation Testing will complete this in seconds, saving a lot of time and energy.

Automation in Homes

Automation in homes has become very common today, which makes daily tasks easier and more efficient. 

For example, homeowners can now use voice commands to switch lights and appliances on or off with ease. Automation in homes is also used to automatically activate the safety measures, such as preventing gas leaks from a stove or closing the door as it senses you leaving the house. 

Advantages of Automation

Automation has various advantages, so modern industries and even modern people are adapting to it more and more.

1. Reduced labor and operational costs

When code or robots handle repetitive tasks, you just don’t need as many people doing that specific work. Automated systems run with incredible precision, which minimizes human errors. This leads to reduced downtime and waste of energy and resources and saves on salaries and training costs. 

2. Increased Workplace Security

Automation protects humans by removing the need for them to explore dangerous terrains that might cost them their lives. A huge number of manual laborers suffer from chronic pain as a side effect of their work and continuous exposure to unhealthy environments.

3. Round the Clock Coverage

Automated robots can work 24*7 with only needing electricity, unlike humans who need rest, food, water and various other resources that increase the time and decrease the output since humans can’t work when resting, whereas a machine can. 

4. Faster Processing Time

They can perform computations ten times faster than humans. They can process huge amounts of information within seconds, whereas humans might take weeks. They can retain as much data as needed. It can range anywhere from a few megabytes to hundreds of terabytes and more. They can visit various solutions to the same problem in milliseconds, where a human might take hours or even days.  

5. Increased Security

Machines can have multiple layers of security that are immune to bribery or emotional influence. Even if the security is breached, the attacker will leave a digital footprint that can be followed to find the culprit. They have a monitoring system that sends alerts whenever suspicious activity is detected. 

6. Enhanced scalability

As businesses or operations grow, the requirement to manage people increases. Finding employees with the same skillset might be difficult, and training them will take time. Automation is faster and works exactly as the particular organization demands. They can control the behavior with the help of code. This increases efficiency, modularity, and scalability.

7. Consistent Output Quality 

Machines follow their code programming religiously, whereas humans have infinite factors affecting their decisions. Factors like emotions, mood, knowledge, wisdom, what kind of day it is, and many more. Using an automated machine with source code, it is guaranteed to give consistent output every time. This cannot be said about the output produced by humans.

Disadvantages of Automation

There are some disadvantages to automation that you should keep in mind when adapting to it.

1. Cost Incurred

The automated, intelligent machine costs a huge sum of money. This means not everyone will be able to adopt the automation technology. For small-scale businesses and startups, human employees work better given their limited resources.,

2. Reliance on Electricity

Technology means electricity. If there is no electricity, no automation technology will work. It is as simple as that. This becomes a big issue in villages and less developed areas where reliable electricity can be a challenge.

3. Lack of Huge Capital Fund

Automating is no easy task in a big organization and, therefore, can be daunting. Many companies hold off on automating because they lack the resources. Automation often means a lack of funding or a lack of personnel to integrate, train, or maintain a new automation solution. In order to have an effective automation solution, organizations will have to invest a significant amount of money at the start. While automation can ultimately save them significant money in the future, the initial investment is usually difficult to acquire.

4. Replacement of Human Workers

The most significant disadvantage of automation is human labor displacement. When computer systems perform jobs more quickly and efficiently than humans, most companies let go of their human workforce. This decreases the job opportunities for the human workforce. This is affecting the mental health of the working class.

5. Limited Flexibility

Automated systems are programmed to follow a set of rules set out for them. This makes them less flexible to new situations, unlike humans, who easily adapt to the changing circumstances. Humans can improvise according to the environment and requirement. This is something automated technology simply lacks. They will need to be reprogrammed or reconfigured, which is a time-consuming and expensive process.

6. Maintenance Complexity 

Even after initial installation, automation systems require ongoing maintenance. When you have a sophisticated robot or specialized automation software that has some issues, it is not something you can fix easily using a manual toolbox. You will have to hire special technicians with specialized expertise to troubleshoot, maintain, and repair it. This adds a separate challenge beyond the initial purchase cost.

Future of Automation

In the coming future, automation technology integrated with Natural Language Processing (NLP), Generative AI, Intelligent document processing (IDP), and many more will become the most sought-after technologies. It is likely that many companies will adopt Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI into their business, especially where jobs require human engagement. Given the growing number of businesses providing generative AI, businesses face the challenge of carefully evaluating these automation technologies. They will have to establish options that will deliver consistent value and that will contribute towards the goal of the company and not just a passing trend. 

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Conclusion

In this article, we covered how automation has simplified the tasks in various domains and increased efficiency, production value, and output and increased the speed with which outputs are produced. The main focus of the blog was the advantages and disadvantages of Automation technology. We took a glimpse of what the future of automation is going to look like. After extensive research, it is evident that to prepare for the future, you must upskill in automation technology to stay relevant as a developer. Automation has surely made our lives easier, but we must keep our minds open and not become completely dependent on automation technology. 

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