Reasons for Avoiding an Automation Program at this Time

The speaker makes the statement that much of the present work in automation seems to be a matter of fashion rather than of hard, common sense thinking. It is charged that projects like the NBS "Tinkertoy", and some of the applications of printed circuits are unjustified economically, or from the point of view of the needs of national defense. It appears to the speaker that a great deal of effort is spent in automating the trivial and the inexpensive. He emphasizes that there are great dangers in designing equipment to use the modular approach, Where the intention is to service the equipment by replacing complete sub-assemblies rather than the individual component parts. The thesis is presented that electronics is too young an industry to be put in a straight jacket of standardized assemblies at this date. The admonition is made that automation is not new, and that as always it should be applied only where very careful cost studies indicate its desirability.