This book accomplishes what it tries to do. It’s a high level introduction to automation. It goes through software, hardware, electrical components, industry terminology and concepts as well as industry makeup (integrators, OEM’s, machine builders, distributors, vendors and end users). For anyone looking for a career in automation or at the beginning of their career I recommend reading this. The material is easy reading, not overly long and a great collection of everything you should know of, if you work in automation.
Some of the industry sections on glass, metals, etc manufacturing were not particularly interesting for me but that’s more to do with my experiences in industry than the quality of writing. Detail on the Life Sciences industry is somewhat absent.
The safety plc section could use further detail, should another revision be done.