The Application of FMA to Automation Research

Abstract

Process automation is a field of study which is rapidly emerging due to it’s rate of adoption across the world. With the rapid adoption rate, more research energy is being focused within the automation space. Due to the challenges that process automation aims to solve, the use of soft systems methodology (SSM), which focuses on understanding a problem situation, is a suitable approach to understanding the environment in which automation is being researched. Along with SSM, the FMA model (which helps researchers identify area of interest, methodology and framework of ideas) can be generalised enough to be used as a methodology within any automation-orientated research.