摘要:It’s well known that trends worldwide are towards automation. We look for having automatic, or worst case semi-automatic, processes, systems, machines, with the purpose to produce a finished good in the shortest time. Consider we have a semi-automatic system used to obtain air separation. The entire system is ‘supervised’ by a so called DCS (Distributed Control System) with the role to command several vanes with different functions. Human factor interferes with DCS only for digital data input. The system converts digital information in analogical signals in order to control pressure or flow. The issues of interest addressed in the present paper concern losses and gains brought by automation for this particular case of study.