NAUKA Quality of Automation

Abstract: As manufacturing and logistics processes have a signifi-cant impact on the quality of products and services, the quality of the automation involved should be considered as well. To this end, a list of quality criteria for automating systems is proposed, consi-sting of qualitative exclusive, qualitative gradual and of quantitative criteria. It is shown that qualitative characteristics are much more important than quantitative ones. Provided that they fulfill the exc-lusive criteria, automating systems may then be compared on the basis of the gradual and quantitative ones. Since quality of automa-tion also depends on the quality of the corresponding engineering processes, some criteria are compiled to evaluate the quality of au-tomating, and critical points of technological regress in the design and development processes of automation systems are identified. Finally, the quality of automation as such is addressed and several requirements for it mentioned. It is indicated that automation may not always be useful, and that it can turn out harmful to society