When Worlds Collide

Historically, the success of automation has relied on two factors. The first is an understanding of the assembly process, first discovered and performed by hand, then captured, studied, and expressed in a technology. The second factor is the standardization of component properties. The standardization of component properties creates a marketplace in which many vendors can create components competitively. The broad availability of inexpensive standardized components makes assembly processes easier to express in concrete terms. For example, once standard building construction components such as bricks and two-by-fours were widely available, it became easier to create detailed building plans.