Automation

What is Automation?

The use of machinery and control systems to carry out production tasks with little or no direct human intervention. Automation raises precision, speed and consistency and can remove employees from dangerous work, but it requires large capital investment, maintenance, training and cybersecurity, and it may cause redundancies. Installing it does not automatically increase profit.

This definition is part of the Operations Management chapter in Cambridge O Level Business Studies.

Concepts related to Automation

• capital intensity
• Redundancy
• consistency
• fixed cost