Manpower and Process Control.

The article presents information on the report "Outlook for Computer Process Control," prepared by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The report discusses the effects of computers on employment of office personnel. According to the report, no signs have been found of the long-feared technological unemployment caused by the use of computers. The BLS report covered applications in six process industries. They included: control of ammonia and ethylene processes in chemical plants; basic oxygen and hot strip mill operations in steel mills; catalytic cracking and reforming, and crude distillation units in petroleum refineries; electric generating equipment in power plants; and papermaking machines in paper plants. The study found that improved cost benefit ratios were the chief incentive for installation of process control at all survey plants. These outweighed heavy initial investments in time and money, ranging from $200,000 to $1,5 million, and from 2 to 21 years for individual projects.