  We describe an automatic procedure for determining abundances from high
resolution spectra. Such procedures are becoming increasingly important as
large amounts of data are delivered from 8m telescopes and their
high-multiplexing fiber facilities, such as FLAMES on ESO-VLT. The present
procedure is specifically targeted for the analysis of spectra of giants in the
Sgr dSph; however, the procedure may be, in principle, tailored to analyse
stars of any type. Emphasis is placed on the algorithms and on the stability of
the method; the external accuracy rests, ultimately, on the reliability of the
theoretical models (model-atmospheres, synthetic spectra) used to interpret the
data. Comparison of the results of the procedure with the results of a
traditional analysis for 12 Sgr giants shows that abundances accurate at the
level of 0.2 dex, comparable with that of traditional analysis of the same
spectra, may be derived in a fast and efficient way. Such automatic procedures
are not meant to replace the traditional abundance analysis, but as an aid to
extract rapidly a good deal of the information contained in the spectra.
