As novas tecnologias de automação: desenvolvimento, atributos e implicações de sua adoção em termos de escalas

Resumo

This paper is aimed at characterizing the forms of automation that
led to the development of the microelectronics technical base in modern
capitalist economies. It shows that the microelectronics automation has
clearly distintive attributes compared to the eletromechanical automation.
Those attributes — basically, flexibility and integration — have allowed a
qualitative transformation of the capitalist production throughout the last
quarter of the twentieth century. Thus, the introduction of new forms of
automation has proved to be an element that affects the performance of
firms and industries. Regarding the effects of the microelectronics
automation In the scales of businesses, it is recognized that it opens
opportunities for small firms. However these opportunities should not be
overestimated, since its introduction in the production process demands
Investment and capabilities that not always are at easy reach of small firms.