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Automation And The Assembly Line Essay

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Automation has taken many forms in the past century with new technologies being introduced and great innovations being made. Automation was first established in 1913 with the assembly line: “The introduction of the assembly line at Ford Motor Company in 1913 is often cited as one of the first forms of automation” (Dias, 2014). While this type of automation is very different from what we experience today, it is a great example of just how time saving it can be to add automation to a production process. The introduction of the assembly line resulted in Ford cutting the time it takes to produce a car from 12 hours down to only 1.5 hours. Automation has come a long way since then and takes a very different form today. Automation now refers to “machinery that has sensing and control devices that enable it to operate automatically” (Stevenson, 2015, p. 245). It takes many forms and often surrounds us in our everyday lives in things that we have come to take for granted, such as ATMs, automatic faucets, and Redbox dvd rental machines. Just as it did with the Ford Motor Company over a century ago, the use of automation has helped companies make great strides in increasing efficiency and reducing the time that is needed to produce goods. There are many advantages to using automation over human labor. Automation removes the mistakes in production caused by human error, and therefore eliminates the waste and costs associated with these mistakes. One huge advantage automation offers

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