[pg-gadfly]

All things automation. Really a chainsaw is automation, and so is a compressor. Automation is a pen. They all remove work and increase efficiency.

There are lots of examples which don't really count though, such as self-checkout, which have exactly the same amount of work left, only who works it is a different person.

[ovi256]

A chainsaw, compressor or pen are examples of mechanisation, not automation. They replace part of the human effort needed for a job, making the remaining human effort even more valuable.

Automation fully replaces human work for a given job. It's a difference in kind.

However, automation may replace only some jobs in a value chain, making the remaining ones even more productive and valuable.

A fully automated value chain is a difference in kind again.

[pg-gadfly]

The word "auto"(oneself), often used with meaning to do by itself.

Automation is a very broad term, which mechanization is a part, but not a requirement of.

Anything that moves work from human to other forces is automation, having a thing do things by itself. An automobile is the automating of our movement.

[eindiran]

There is an interesting distinction used by some economists between "labor-saving"/"captial-augmenting" technology and "labor-augmenting" technology: the former encourages you to decrease headcount, while the latter nets you more units of work completed per unit of labor.

See here for a discussion: https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/18079/labour-s...