Description
As I write this Foreword for the new Springer Hand-book of Automation, the 2008 United States presidential elections are still in full swing. Not a day seems to go by without a candidate or newscaster opining on the impact of cheaper, offshore labor on the US economy. Similar debates are taking place in other developed countries around the globe.
Some argue that off-shoring jobs leads to higher unemployment and should be prohibited. Indeed some regions have passed legislation prohibiting their local agencies from moving work to lower cost locations.
Proponents argue off-shoring leads to lower unemployment. In their view freeing up of the labor force from lower skilled jobs allows more people to enter higher value jobs which are typically higher paying. This boosts incomes and in turn overall domestic consumption.
Then, what about automation? Is the displacement or augmentation of human labor with an automated ma-chine bad for our economies, too? If so, let’s ban it!
So, let’s imagine a world in which automation didn’t exist. . . .
To begin I wouldn’t be writing this Foreword on my laptop computer since the highly sophisticated automa-tion necessary to manufacture semiconductors wouldn’t exist. That’s okay I’ll just use my old typewriter. Oops, the numerical controlled machines required to manu-facture the typewriter’s precision parts wouldn’t exist. What about pencil and paper? Perhaps, but could I af-ford them given that there would be no sensors and controls needed to manufacture them in high volume?
IBM has been a leader and pioneer in many automation fields, both as a user and a provider of automation solutions. Beyond productivity and cost-effectiveness, automation also enables us to effectively monitor process quality, reveal to us opportunities for improvement and innovation, and assure product and service depend-ability and service-availability. Such techniques and numerous examples to advance with automation, as users and providers, are included in this Springer Hand-book of Automation.
The expanding complexity and magnitude of high-priority society’s problems, global needs and competition forcefully challenge organizations and companies. To succeed, they need to understand detailed knowledge of many of the topics included in this Springer Handbook of Automation. Beyond an extensive reference re-source providing the expert answers and solutions, readers and learners will be enriched from inspiration to innovate and create powerful applications for specific needs and challenges.
The best example I know is one I have witnessed first hand at IBM. Designing, developing, and J. manufacturing state-of-the art micro-processors have been a fundamental driver of our success in large computer and storage systems. Thirty years ago the manufacturing process for these microprocessors was fairly manual and not very capital intense. Today we manufacture microprocessors in a new state-of-the-art US$ 3 billion facility in East Fishkill, New York. This fabrication site contains the world’s most advanced logistics and material handling system including real-time process control and fully automated workflow. The result is a completely touchless process that in turn allows us to produce the high quality, error free, and extremely fast microprocessors required for today’s high end computing systems.
In addition to chapters devoted to a variety of indus-try and service automation topics, this Springer Hand-book of Automation includes useful, well-organized information and examples on theory, tools, and their integration for successful, measurable results.
Automation is often viewed as impacting only the tangible world of physical products and facilities. For-tunately, this is completely wrong! Automation has also dramatically improved the way we develop software at IBM. Many years ago writing software was much like writing a report with each individual approaching the task quite differently and manually writing each line of code. Today, IBM’s process for developing software is extremely automated with libraries of previously writ-ten code accessible to all of our programmers. Thus, once one person develops a program that performs a particular function, it is quickly shared and reused around the globe. This also allows us to pass a project to and from one team to the next so we can speed up cy-