5 Industrial Applications of Automation

By Embedded Advisor | Friday, November 15, 2019

Automation is contributing majorly to the advancement of industrial computing facilities, enhancing industrial outputs.

FREMONT, CA: The impact of automation has been felt across accounting, supply chain, customer services and business intelligence already. However, the most significant area of industrial automation scores above the rest when it comes to functionality. Industrial computing has seen numerous phases of evolution, and in the current one, automation is playing the leading role. Integrating industrial processes and automating them enables companies to gain a competitive advantage in the era of digitalization. The potential of industrial automation can be understood from the following list of applications.

• The Integration of Operations and IT

Industrial automation is bringing together the previously segregated areas of industrial operations and IT. With automation, operational processes are being interspersed with information technology in diverse ways. As a result, industrial processes are seeing rapidly accelerated digitalization, enabling real-time functionalities. Industrial robots with computing abilities are the most exciting prospects currently.

• Responsive Manufacturing

Manufacturing processes involve a complex set of tasks that take place in a sequential and standardized manner. Automation in industrial computing is helping manufacturing companies replace legacy models of production with advanced models. The advanced models, backed by automation, are highly advantageous since they make manufacturing processes more responsive to computing systems. The automated computing systems synchronize manufacturing, making it less prone to losses. Coupled with IoT, automated computing systems deliver the best mechanisms to manufacturing units.

• Automated Alerts and Better Coordination

Managing industrial facilities involves a lot of computing and communication. Computing systems have always held the duty of forming networks across industrial facilities. These networks are vital for operators to transform processed operational data and coordinate tasks. With automation, industries are now able to remodel industrial data processing and communication in real-time, without the involvement of staff members. Automated computing units are empowered to manage and monitor data flow across control systems seamlessly. The features of automated alerts are also a boon of automation in industrial computing.

Apart from the above, industrial computing has also been able to enhance its contribution towards making industries safer with the help of automation. A string of advanced technologies is combining with automation to strengthen monitoring, evaluation and enforcement of safety and regulatory norms.