Control Engineering

David Chappell

Successful automation implementations
January 17, 2008

Continuing some thoughts from yesterday ("We need to protect stupid people from doing dumb things"), automation engineers are right that their tools often are sharp and come without handles. This does not mean that handles and protective sheaths can’t be created and made available, though. 

Unfortunately, in today’s environment creating these handles and sheaths requires additional effort and cost. Even where some equipment suppliers do provide a form of protection and allow modular automation that can provide access to the pieces and parts, each solution is always very different from all others, and end users find themselves confused and frustrated.

The most successfully implemented systems I’ve seen provide easy ways to gain access to the inner workings of the automation that can be used by operations to deal with any “No-Go” situation. With these systems operations no longer have to create their own custom and costly approaches but can use what comes with the automated solution. These useable solutions have to, and successfully do, provide this level of access with safeguards.

Assuming that all who would use them are capable and qualified would be foolish; yes, Virginia, there are stupid people out there that need to be protected from themselves, and those around them need protection also. But the vast majority of users are capable of using the sharp tools, with proper protection and training. Making these tools selectively available improves productivity and reduces cost for the end users.

We need to help smart people do the right things, and still protect the not-as-smart people from doing dumb things. To see the details of how Make2Pack is accomplishing this please join in our discussions; if you’re interested in how, just ask me, Dave Chappell.

Posted by David Chappell on January 17, 2008 | Comments (0)