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Who coined the term automation in the automobile industry?
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automation
At the top of the machine is a stack of punched cards that would be fed into the loom to control the weaving pattern. This method of automatically issuing machine instructions was employed by computers well into the 20th century.
The term "automation" was coined in the automobile industry around 1946–1947 to describe the use of automatic devices and controls in mechanized production lines.123
The coinage of the word is attributed to Delmar S. Harder (1892–1973), who was an engineering manager and later a vice president of manufacturing at the Ford Motor Company. During a 1947 staff meeting, Harder suggested creating an "Automation Department" to study the efficient handling of materials, marking one of the first significant uses of the term. Due to his role in implementing these systems and the subsequent publicity, Harder became widely known as the "father of automation".123