AUTOMATED PROCESS CONTROL IN IMPROVING PERFORMANCE LEVEL

Productivity

Process

Process Change Policy Change

Resource Time
s

Manpower Material Idle Time Real Time

Machines

Activity Yield Activity Unyielded

 According to Business Dictionary, ‘’Process control are activities involved in ensuring a process is
predictable, stable, and consistently operating at the target level of performance with only normal
variations’’. Factors to consider will be the process, the stability of the process, the targeted level and
performance which is based on frequency of occurrence and its variations that is not volatility of the
process. The understanding of the sequence of interdependent and/or linked procedures form the core
of the process control; non-volatility of the process to attain a marked threshold within the system that
is the process to an unavoidable change in the output. So, in trying to measure or evaluate the
automated process control as it relates to technology, we will also consider policy and process change.

Chuanyong, et. al (2016), in their analyzing of the ‘potential of whole process control of heavy
metals emissions from coal-fired power plants in China’ writes:

Recently, more and more poisoning accidents associated with toxic heavy metals have been
reported throughout China, coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) sector is regarded as one of the
most important source categories of anthropogenic atmospheric releases of heavy metals due
to tremendous annual coal consumption (about 1785.3 Mt in 2012). In this paper, with the
concept of whole process control, the co-benefit or synergistic removal efficiencies of different
control measures used in CFPPs of China are evaluated, the combination of coal washing before
burning plus post combustion cleaning of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) + electrostatic
precipitator/fabric filters (ESP/FFs) + wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) configuration is
identified to be the best available control technology for heavy metals abatement of CFPPs at
present and in the near future. (p. 343)

Just the application of control technology, the resultant effect was the drastic drop in poisoning accident
among the workers. In their journal on six sigma level, Bonnie, et. al (2017) reveals how there was a
drastic reduction of lost samples in our laboratory, a highly automated nonanalytic process was
adopted. Automated systems or control processes can be trusted and depended upon to not only be
one time but also to be rigid in variations and stability which settle the issue of consistency. Quality
improvement framework can be structured into the controlled process to be efficient and also maintain
product or services quality. With no emphasis on six sigma and lean principle, automated process
control system gives room to minimal response time with minor error margins to consider. For an
automated system, the baseline benefit will include a reduced cycle time and an increment in the
readiness of operations which will pan into the financial benefit of a reduced total labor hours.

In considering the flow of the activities, resources (manpower, machines and materials) are
properly and effectively utilized. The automated process will allow for reduced number of manpower
required at each station and a minute amount of wasted material from the entire process, the total
labor time will be reduced that is a reduction in the idle time thereby resulting in an activity yield. In
performance measurement, to improve a process for a better output, its either a policy change or a
process change is made which is not considerably automated or manual. Project managers have
analyzed that policy change is most effective and cheaper to effect in the process control than process
change will may require inclusion of other activity station(s) which will then require additional
machine(s), manpower and in turn generate more waste from the process. Also for an automated
process, since the technology is updated after a while, there is little or no room for continues staff
training rather there is staff adherence to required procedure in operating the automated process.
 Mica, R. and David, B. (1999) implied that technology-centered automation which is the
capacities of the technology is a function of automation design decisions. (p. 2). For any automated
system to be at optimal, monitoring is paramount and unfortunately, monitoring cannot be done by an
automated system but by humans and they are most often inapt for such responsibility and the process
is mingled with operator performance issues in properly taken ownership of the automated system and
control when required. (Mica, R. and David, B. 1999).

In trying to conclude and bring this whole analysis to a point, the automation of process control
is to identify and improve the root causes of inefficiency and increasing the overall productivity of the
entire process which is comprised of activities at different stations. So, why depend on and entirely
human process which has a high probability of high errors than on an automated process which is
mostly but not all dependent on technology and its automated system but a drastically reduced human
manpower that will affect the output and the quality thereof. Automation with human input will bring
about a most excellent overall performance during normal operations, as to be compared to a fully
manual control system. We should also bear in mind that in manufacturing or service sectors or
industries, not all process can be fully automated and their will always be the intervention of humans in
the process but automation cannot eliminate human’s involvement in these processes but only reduce
their (humans) input in the scheme of the process. Processes such as monitoring, improvement,
strategizing, evaluation and recommendation can only be handled by human due to their intuitive way
of reasoning which machines’ output is only restricted to the programmed input by the operator.

In improving performance levels of an entire process, automation is recommended and be sure

that cycle time and idle time will be gained (by reduction), waste materials will reduce and output is sure
to increase thereby recording increase in the level of productivity of the company or organization. But
one needs to be sure also about how policy and process change can improve productivity without
necessarily automating the process much further.
References

Chrysanthy, H.; Donald, A. M.; Christopher, B. T.; Kayla; D. K.; Robert, S.F. and Jitendrakumar, R. M
(2106) “Using Lean Six Sigma Methodology to Improve a Mass Immunizations process at the United
States Naval Academy”, ‘Military Medicine Journal’, Vol. 181 Issue. 6 pp. 582-588 [Online]
http://militarymedicine.amsus.org Accessed: 23 October, 2017

Chuanyong, Z; Hezhong, T.; Ke, C.; Kaiyun, L.; Kun, W.; Shenbing, H.; Jiajia, G and Junrui, Z. (2016)
“Potential of Whole Process Control of Heavy Metals Emission from Coal-fired Power Plants in China”,
‘Journal for Cleaner Prodcution’, Vol. 114, pp. 342-351 [Online] http://www.sciencedirect.com Accessed:
23 October, 2017

Ganesh, U. B. and Attarde, P. M. (2016) “Application of Six Sigma Technique for Commercial
Construction Project – A Review”, ‘International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology’, Vol.
03 Issue. 06 [online] https://www.irjet.net Accessed: 23 October, 2017

Mica, R. E. and David, B. K. (1999) “Level of Automation Effect on Performance, Situation Awareness and
Workload in a Dynamic Control Task”, ‘Department of Industrial Engineering Journal’, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp.
462-492 [Online] https://www.researchgate.net Accessed: 23 October, 2017