Determining the level of automation in the cosmetics industry considering new technology

Research shows that an increment in the levels of automation (LoA) can affect the quality of production, cost efficiency, and performance on a large scale. Increasing the levels of automation (LoA) is essential in this regard and automatization can help overcome the varying problems. This paper develops a new taxonomy to measure and increase the LoA in the cosmetics industry. The proposed taxonomy is presented as a five-dimensional (5-D) matrix. The rows correspond to the LoA considering new technology like Blockchain, Cloud, and Internet of Things (IoT) and the columns conform to Information, Plan, Act, Control, and Decision. This taxonomy can help managers clearly define LoA and according to the main factors in the cosmetics industry increase the current LoA with the use of the current resources. Also, the DYNAMO++ methodology was employed to measure the current LoA of a cosmetics factory and three sets of suggestions were considered to increase the LoA in the factory at issue. These suggestion sets were then compared to each other in terms of key parameters of cost, productivity, quality, and processing time via simulation.