Throughout October, we’ll bring you a series of concise articles that cover the past, present, and future of automation within small to medium sized enterprises. This week, we share some insight on how automation has become what it is today and reasons why you may consider how to introduce automation into your business.
So, what exactly is automation? Defined as being the technique of making an apparatus, process or system operate automatically, automation is simply just a technological device designed to reduce human inputs in completing a process. Many of us probably associate automation with far-flung ideas Steven Spielberg brought to life in his hit Back to the Future trilogy. Remember the time-traveling DeLorean, intuitive hoverboards and that shoe that moulded to fit your foot size? Even though some of them don’t exist yet (Nike did create these awesome kicks), automation itself is still everywhere you look. It’s become such a big part of our day to day lives, that at times we tend to forget it’s everywhere around us.
So where has automation come from? What are the positives and negatives? And why should you be thinking about how to incorporate it into your business?