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title Identifying Your Goal
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Identifying Your Automation Goal

Before selecting FEAST components, clearly define what you want to automate and establish success criteria for your project.

Define the Problem

Start by answering these fundamental questions:

  • What process needs automation? Be specific about the current manual process
  • What are the pain points? Identify inefficiencies, errors, or safety concerns
  • What outcomes do you want? Define measurable improvements you expect
  • What constraints exist? Consider budget, space, time, and regulatory requirements

Establish Requirements

Functional Requirements

  • Input/Output Specifications: What signals, data, or materials go in and out?
  • Processing Requirements: What operations or transformations are needed?
  • Performance Criteria: Speed, accuracy, throughput, and reliability expectations
  • Interface Requirements: How will users interact with the system?

Non-Functional Requirements

  • Environmental Conditions: Temperature, humidity, vibration, electromagnetic interference
  • Safety Requirements: Safety standards, emergency procedures, fail-safe mechanisms
  • Maintenance Needs: Accessibility, diagnostic capabilities, scheduled maintenance
  • Scalability Needs: Future expansion possibilities and growth requirements

Scope Definition

Project Boundaries

Define what is included and excluded from your automation project:

  • In Scope: Specific processes, equipment, and interfaces to be automated
  • Out of Scope: Processes that will remain manual or be addressed in future phases
  • Dependencies: External systems or processes that your automation relies on

Success Metrics

Establish measurable criteria for project success:

  • Performance Metrics: Quantifiable improvements in speed, quality, or efficiency
  • Cost Metrics: Return on investment, operational cost reductions
  • Quality Metrics: Error reduction, consistency improvements
  • Safety Metrics: Incident reduction, compliance improvements

Stakeholder Analysis

Identify everyone affected by your automation project:

  • Primary Users: People who will operate the automated system daily
  • Secondary Users: People who will maintain, configure, or troubleshoot the system
  • Decision Makers: People who approve budget, timeline, and specifications
  • Affected Parties: People whose work will change due to the automation

Risk Assessment

Consider potential challenges and mitigation strategies:

Technical Risks

  • Complexity Risk: Is the automation more complex than your team can handle?
  • Integration Risk: Will the automation integrate properly with existing systems?
  • Performance Risk: Will the system meet performance requirements?

Operational Risks

  • Training Risk: Can users be adequately trained on the new system?
  • Maintenance Risk: Can the system be properly maintained with available resources?
  • Dependency Risk: What happens if the automation fails?

Documentation Template

Create a project charter document that includes:

Project Name: [Your automation project name]

Problem Statement:
[Brief description of the problem being solved]

Success Criteria:

- Metric 1: [Specific, measurable goal]
- Metric 2: [Specific, measurable goal]
- ...

Functional Requirements:

- Requirement 1: [Specific capability needed]
- Requirement 2: [Specific capability needed]
- ...

Constraints:

- Budget: [Available budget and funding source]
- Timeline: [Project deadline and key milestones]
- Technical: [Technical limitations or requirements]
- Regulatory: [Compliance requirements]

Stakeholders:

- Primary Users: [Who will use the system]
- Project Sponsor: [Who approved the project]
- Technical Team: [Who will implement the system]

Next Steps

Once you have clearly defined your automation goal, proceed to Selecting Components to choose the right FEAST components for your specific requirements.