The History of Automation

If one is asked the question, when did automation start, it will be logical to think that it began with the industrial revolution in the 18th century. However, it was actually much earlier in the Mayan age, 4000 years ago, when they built aqueducts to transport water. The ancient Greeks too built automatons propelled by compressed air, steam and hydraulics (1). These were self-operating machines, able to perform basic tasks.

automation

/ɔːtəˈmeɪʃ(ə)n/ {noun}

the use or introduction of automatic equipment in a manufacturing or other process or facility.

The term Automation, however, was first heard of in the automobile industry in the mid 1900s. This is when the assembly line was born and mechanical devices were invented and used to speed up the manufacture of vehicles. All early progress in automation was in the manufacturing sector and these could be segregated into three types (2) –

Fixed or Hard Automation – one that cannot be easily changed and requires high level of initial investment. Example: automobile assembly line.
Programmable Automation – one where the production equipment can be changed. Example: numerical control machine tools. The disadvantage of this type is that the production line has to be taken down for reprogramming, resulting in idle time and productivity loss.
Flexible Automation – this takes programmable automation to the next level. Here the reprogramming is done offline, leading to continuous production.

Process Automation as we know it today, followed much later towards the middle of the 20th century after access to computers became broad based and most organisations had started on the computerisation journey. Simply put, the automation of tasks began with the Mayans, extended through the assembly line at Ford Automobiles and is now at the stage where Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms have given it an altogether new meaning.

Digital process automation platforms have evolved from the legacy application packages (as they were known then) through the MRP (material resource planning), ERP (enterprise resource planning) and BPM (business process management) systems to the shape and form they are in, currently.

Why automation?

The reasons for automating tasks and processes haven’t changed from the ancient to the modern times. Today’s businesses automate to achieve a variety of outcomes by –

taking over repetitive, menial tasks from people and thereby

Improve productivity & efficiency
Improve cost effectiveness
Reduce human error
Streamline operations

With the advent of AI, more and more complex, end-to-end processes are being automated successfully. Some of the common use cases are Customer Acquisition & Onboarding, Customer Servicing, Invoice Processing, Sales Incentive Calculation and many more.

Today’s age is known as the information age and it is driven by data. Data growth statistics in 2020 tell us that big data is growing at an unprecedented rate. The majority of the world’s data has come about in only the past two years as indicated by available statistics. Meanwhile, machine-generated data will account for 40% of internet data this year (3). This is going to make data intensive tasks, a prime candidate for automation.

Based on the type of task or process being automated and certain other parameters, the level of automation can be determined (4) –

Rule based Automation – Basic

Repetitive tasks
Data is in structured format
Outcomes are transactional and visible

Knowledge based Automation – Advanced

Complex tasks with activities across multiple systems
Data is both structured and unstructured
Outcomes are predefined

Intelligent Automation is the next level of advanced automation wherein AI, ML, NLP and Predictive Analytics come into play to build workflows that are self-learning and develop cognitive decision-making skills.

In conclusion, it is obvious that Automation came about whenever humans needed assistance in their tasks or the tasks became impossible to perform through people alone. Throughout its history, automation has added value to the human race by creating new ways of doing the same work, albeit in a better and or faster manner.

We explore the different types of Process Automation types and tools in another blog.

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