What Are The Common Myths About Industrial Automation

1st September, 2025.

In this post of the first part, we will see the common myths about industrial automation related to jobs, costs and scalability.

As the name suggests, industrial automation means to automate an industrial process. Be it any process from simple to complex, all of them are processed and executed very easily due to the use of automation in it. But apart from this, there are so many things or myths which people think and makes automation a complex thing to understand. So it is important for them to be clear about these facts and points, which will help them relate better to automation more easily and reliably. This helps to avoid fear, clear confusion and adapt to systems more properly. In this post, we will see about the common myths on industrial automation. We will divide this post into two parts to understand more deeply, and this will be our first part.

Automation will cause job losses :

This is a very common and basic thing that people fear. Let me explain this with a simple example. Imagine a metal sheet cutting line earlier where there were five people assigned for feeding metal sheets, aligning them properly, cutting the sheets, measuring them and then stacking it. Now instead of that, an automated process has come consisting of PLC and HMI which will do this task automatically. So, it is possible that a maximum of three people will now not be required to work on that machine. This is the most common misconception that everyone fears. But let us see the broader picture now. 

Out of those 3 operators, one can now operate the HMI screens, interpret data and manage alarms. For that, he will require to upgrade himself to understanding the automation graphics and logic basically. The second person will become a maintenance guy who comes into picture when there are errors and the working operators now cannot handle the decisions and troubleshoot those failures. For that, even he will require to upgrade himself for learning the skills. The third person can even go higher by becoming a design engineer at a basic level. He can assist the main engineer, as he will have experience of ground level and give real time facts and data about the machine performance. This was just an example, but is being practically implemented in many areas nowadays. This fact shows that everything is about mentality and a positive attitude towards creating jobs and how to handle them. Jobs will not vanish abruptly; yes it will suffer initially on how to migrate them, but they can then be diverted towards working with the automation system in a more advanced way. In a more simple and final way, industrial automation can reduce bugs and increase simplicity, but in case of any error or trouble shooting, manual intervention will always be required. 

Automation systems are expensive to buy :

A misconception among people is that employing 2 or 3 operators is more cost effective than implementing an automation system. If we understand this point, we will find that it will automatically go to the first point we discussed. Automation systems do the basic task of reducing errors and improving efficiency. Human errors are more in place of them. Errors can be costly and if the frequency is too high, then the maintenance cost will be high. Time will be wasted and business will be affected. Instead of that, implementing a one time higher cost to use an automated system will be more effective. And then again, the migrated workers will now be shifted to other jobs as per the first point we discussed.  

Automation costs are also reduced nowadays due to growing competition. This gives more options and flexibility to the client to choose their system. If the IO count is small, then a corresponding smaller level PLC can be used which can still perform complex operations at a low cost. And then integrating the whole areas of PLC level or L1 level to a cloud based system or L3 level improves efficiency and increases business in a very vast way. Datalogging too has become cheaper as low cost gateways and brokers are now available in the market to get the work done. And instead of implementing a SCADA system, you can use an HMI system which is cheaper to use and when you do not require data to be shared with higher level automation or advanced reporting or datalogging to be done. If your labor costs are reduced, downtime is reduced and product quality is increased, then the business will increase automatically and your scenario of employing additional workers will automatically be eliminated. This also shows that industrial automation is not only for big companies, but even smaller organizations can adapt it. 

Automation systems cannot be scaled :

A customer thinks that once I buy the automation system, it cannot be scaled or expanded. But in fact, automation systems can be scaled and expanded in a very good way. If your PLC is a large-scale one like Siemens S7-1500, Rockwell ControlLogix or Schneider M580, they can be expanded by adding additional remote IO modules which communicate on a soft basis and not hard basis, IO racks and communication cards very easily. Memory cards can be upgraded to accommodate higher memory in them, for writing additional logic. And such larger PLC's are always designed to accommodate a very large number of IO’s and communication cards. Even in smaller PLC’s, you can add expansion modules up to its maximum capacity. And nowadays, they also support advanced communication protocols like MQTT, Ethernet IP and CAN Open, apart from general Modbus protocol. 

If you have bought a SCADA system of 1000 tags, it can be expanded even till 5000 tags depending on the configuration of the vendor. And cloud based dashboards always allow unlimited scalability by paying more. If you are currently using an HMI of 9 inch, and you require a 12-in HMI now, only the panel cut out needs to be done extra and the wiring needs to be rearranged a little. Communication protocols are always the best option to expand, as they always allow more data to be read and written. Just take care of the number of ports that are available in the hardware and configure it accordingly. If one big PLC is controlling six operations and you require a 7th one to be added, then either replace the bigger PLC with a total of 7 small new PLCs, or just add a small PLC for the 7th one and communicate it through soft protocols. This means that automation systems can be easily scaled as per their maximum limit. 

In the next post, we will see more such facts about the myths which are generally thought about industrial automation. Do not fear AI, just change your mentality and look towards a positive attitude in what industrial automation can actually offer to you.