The main advantages of automation are:
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Replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard physical or monotonous work.
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Replacing humans in tasks done in dangerous environments (i.e. fire, space, volcanoes, nuclear facilities, underwater, etc.)
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Performing tasks that are beyond human capabilities of size, weight, speed, endurance, etc.
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Economy improvement: Automation may improve in economy of enterprises, society or most of humanity.
For example, when an enterprise invests in automation, technology recovers its investment; or when a state or country increases its income due to automation like Germany or Japan in the 20th Century.
The main disadvantages of automation are:
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Technology limits. Current technology is unable to automate all the desired tasks.
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Unpredictable development costs. The research and development cost of automating a process may exceed the cost saved by the automation itself.
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High initial cost. The automation of a new product or plant requires a huge initial investment in comparison with the unit cost of the product, although the cost of automation is spread in many product batches.