Industrial development, which seemed to stall with the Covid outbreak from late 2019 until now, has kept running and changing constantly thanks to the support of automation. Let's discover why with SBiz.vn!
What is automation?
Automation is a major branch of Control and Automation Engineering. It is the field of researching, designing and using automated systems such as production lines, machinery and equipment; designing and controlling robots; and managing, maintaining and operating production lines through electronic devices.
Control and Automation Engineering
Nowadays, when people mention automation, they immediately think of controlling machinery and equipment through a network. Although it is a new field, it makes people's lives easier and, above all, helps the economy and industry keep growing.
Most groups and businesses today have brought automation into their work processes to easily control and manage each stage. At the height of the Covid pandemic, many companies operating manually had to shut down, and production stalled because of quarantine orders and contact restrictions. Running the business through systems and networks is the optimal solution.
A brief history
The development timeline of automation can be summarized as follows:
1745: Edmund Lee applied a feedback control mechanism to the fantail of a windmill.
1785: Oliver Evans used a centrifugal governor in automated flour milling.
1920: James Clerk Maxwell developed the electronic amplifier.
1930: Switches and colored indicator light panels for machinery were used in production.
1940: Aircraft monitoring and control systems were applied in wartime.
1959: Texaco's Port Arthur chemical plant was the first to use digital control.
Industry developing strongly
From around 1740, scientists and researchers began looking for ways to operate some objects remotely. Today, while the Covid pandemic has hit industry hard, the economies of most countries that apply automation in production have not been shaken.
Human intervention in production no longer plays the key role; instead, data and information are stored and extracted from machinery into a network. Operators can manage, monitor and control everything without going to the workshop.
Applications of automation
Automation is applied in countless areas of life. A typical example is the American manufacturer Harley-Davidson's production unit in Vietnam. In Asia, Vietnam and Myanmar are currently the only two countries with automatic prototyping machines and have been honored to be chosen to produce the frames of this motorcycle.
Harley-Davidson production line
At Vietnam Precision Industrial Company, the lines producing the frames - CNC lines, welding lines and powder coating lines - are all computer-controlled. When you step into the production workshop, the first thing you see is the robot system arranged along the running line.
Most machines in the workshop are applications of automation; operators only need to check input materials, control the process and inspect the final products. The whole production process, such as processing raw materials and casting frames..., is carried out by robots and machines.
The benefits of automation with ERP and IoT
Not only applied in production, automation has also become the optimal solution for purchasing and selling, HR management... In all these areas, ERP and IoT are the two solutions most businesses choose.
IoT can be understood as a network of information and data used for monitoring, control and operation. ERP is a multi-functional application used to link all the activities of any business, with the ability to analyze and predict work results.
Production continues to run at the height of the pandemic
The perfect combination of SmartBiz IoT and SmartBiz ERP has produced a production asset management and maintenance solution. Using it can maximize labor productivity, deliver high economic returns and solve most of the shortcomings of manual operation.
With these solutions, facility owners or business leaders can run operations and monitor work remotely. In addition, the solutions' analytical figures are completely accurate. Businesses can promptly find ways to improve their final results and quickly keep up with the trend of smart factories.
Automation is gradually dominating every area of life. It plays an important role in industry, especially while the pandemic is spreading and person-to-person contact needs to be limited. Choose the right solution for your business by contacting Sbiz.vn now!