The paper manufacturing industry has relied upon human-to-machine interaction for hundreds of years. It was sight, sound, smell, feel, and off-line lab tests that drove control moves in the process. I even heard old-school machine tenders tasting paper samples to determine ash content long before the crucibles came out of the oven. Anyone remember back tenders beating the reel with a stick to find hard and soft spots correlating to caliper profiles? If necessary, the subsequent control moves usually involved a human pushing buttons or turning dials or physically messing with valves and actuators. Decades of personal experience drove hiring and promotion decisions to make sure those operator instincts were finely tuned. Meeting production goals depended upon it.
