Today, more than ever before, dyeing operations are having to contend with the pressures of rising costs. Process streamlining by automation has top priority in all investment decisions. The high-level response to publications and discussions following papers presented at symposia devoted to the automation of batchwise and discontinuous Finishing processes shows quite clearly that further developments in discontinuous dyeing have been neglected for many years and that advances have been made in Isolated sectors only without due regard for overall concepts. The purpose of this feature is to illustrate, by way of a practical example, the concrete steps taken to automate a yarn dyeing operation, to report on the initial experience made following conversion, and discuss the future outlook.