This article examines the development and maintenance of the required level of automation in both mechanical engineering production and the functional systems that comprise them, using the methodology of technology economics. The article analyzes the evolution of automation levels within the paradigm of technological paradigms and industrial revolutions. The purpose of this study is to methodologically examine and substantiate methods for increasing the efficiency and level of automation of technological equipment, processes, production facilities, and enterprises. The methodology for studying technologies and production facilities as an energy information system of transformations makes it possible to substantiate the forms and types of automation in mechanical engineering at the technical and economic level of their structure and interaction types. The article analyzes the content and essence of automation level indicators and assessment methods, and presents and substantiates proposals for a methodology for studying automation efficiency trends. Examples of the relationships between quantitative assessments and the effects of productivity changes and automation significance levels for a new type of technology and changes in process time components are substantiated and provided.
