Brief Outline: Mass Production

I.       Specific innovation of interest: Mass production

Mass production (also known as serial production) is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines. This technology is first introduced by Henry Ford with his method of producing affordable cars. However, the technology does not limited at car production but are applied to various kinds of products. It really changes the way goods are produced since it is an effective method to produce goods in large numbers and lower price.

II.    Rationale for selecting this innovation

Mass production is a revolutionary change. It is the production model that contribute to the world economy by increasing productivity and decrease prices. As mass production are applied more and more, its impacts on economy are remarkable. However, since everything has two sides, by reviewing this particular innovation, I can deeply analyze impacts and the possible future of mass production.

III. Proposed Approach to Development of Paper

1. Executive summary

This review paper provides an understanding about mass production, its history the current situation, how it impacts the world as it is today and the future of mass production. The review paper focuses on impacts of mass production on the world. It also analyzes advantages and disadvantages of mass production. Further analysis suggest the future development of mass production – mass customization.

2. Introduction/ Background

·         Mass production concepts

·         History

-          The invention of mass production

-          Mass production is applied widely

3. Current situation

·         How mass production is applied in different industries

·         Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

-          Provide cheaper products

-          Increase in productivity

    Disadvantages

-          Lack of variety

-          Not responsive to changes in design

·         Need for changes in the old mass production model

4. Discussion & Analysis

Mass production and society

-          Impacts on customers

-          Impacts on workers

5. Taking things toward

·         The future of mass production: Mass customization

-          Introduction

-          Adavantages of mass customization compared with mass production

6. Conclusion

Mass production is a significant revolutionary change in human history since it changes methods of production. However, as the world is changing, the old mass production model should be replaced by mass customization.

7. Reference

ICT and world change

ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is an indispensable factor in the world development. ICT includes mass media, internet, gaming, wireless technologies, interactive communications, information system, cloud computing, knowledge management etc… ICT has gone through massive development from the time it first emerged.

Mass media in the past is a passive means of communication. People got information from televisions or newspapers and accepted these information as the matter of fact. But nowadays, electronic newspapers and social networks enable people to discuss their concerns, get feedbacks from others, not only in their neighborhood, in their countries but from people around the world. Mass media has evolved from a passive means of communication into an interactive, flexible means for people to share and challenge perspectives. One presentation in the class also discuss the future of television. Televisions in the future interact with audiences effectively to satisfy audiences’ needs. Audiences do not passively watch a movie but they can decide its endings. Mass media has evolved from a passive means of communication into an interactive, flexible means for people to share and challenge perspectives.

Internet also observes a impressive development from Internet 1.0 to 2.0 and then 3.0. At the stage of 1.0 and 2.0, people create content and share information on the internet. Electronic newspapers and forums enable people to receive information and share their interests. Social network websites such as Facebook, Twitter remove distances among people so that people can interact everywhere. Internet is now going towards Internet 3.0. As Prof said, Internet 3.0 is the continuation of the earlier stages. At the stage of Internet 3.0, Internet will involve in every single activities. Machines are also interconnected, information is exchanged freely from people to machines and devices in order to satisfy individual needs. As Prof pointed out, some companies such as Google or Amazon have already applied Internet 3.0 to satisfy customers’ needs.

The importance of knowledge management is mentioned one more time in the class. Since people are heading to knowledge economy, the role of knowledge management can not be denied. Companies which wants to survive in the modern economy must transfer knowledge from their experts to employees and also take advantage of their employees’ ideas and knowledge. The efficiency of knowledge management is related to the productivity gain in society. Prof shows graph “Capturing the value of ICT/Knowledge Revolution” which demonstrates the productivity gain of human development stages. According to the graph, ICT/ Knowledge Revolution has not grown its full potential. How to grow full potential is an important question to be answered. One way to gain productivity is improving knowledge management. Moreover, people should apply ICT into solving fundamental issues such as improving education quality, alleviating poverty so that people everywhere have equal opportunities to grow their potential.

“Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated.”

- Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations -

One question raised by the class today is "How ICT/ Knowledge Revolution can improve equality in society?"

Personal ratings: 8/10

All about changes

Brief overview:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent; It is the one that most adaptable to change.”

- Charles Robert Darwin

What can we learn from the quote? The world is changing and never should people get too specialized. People always need to keep responsive and flexible since societies, companies and technology are changing. If you fail to be adaptable, you are likely to get obsolete and falling behind. The world is changing every day as the matter of fact. But what drive these changes? There are many drivers in different aspects that can lead to world changes.

Now let’s look closer to changes. There are two types of changes: Revolutionary and evolutionary changes. In this week class, we focus on revolutionary changes. Revolutionary changes can range from simple innovations such as wheels… to more complex inventions. The most significant difference distinguishes these two kinds of changes is that revolutionary change is more disruptive. It means that disruptive changes change the way things are done permanently. For example, before emails are invented, delivery mails are indispensable in daily lives. But emails change the way people send information forever. As I read in a newspaper recently, United States Postal Service is nearing default as email has emerged and exploded and people no longer want to use postal service anymore.

Changes happen everywhere in every aspect of society. As a result, people must know how to Therefore, change management and change leadership are important skills to be successful in modern markets. People often mistaken between change management and change leadership. In fact, these are two different roles and can be distinguished by many features. Prof and reading materials suggest that change leaders are ones initiate original ideas, set up visions, dare to take risks and inspire other people while change managers are ones focusing on structures and systems in order to regulate changes. Change managers should be meticulous and have abilities to find and fix wrong things and also stabilize the system.

Key take-away points:

• Model “Proactively Managing Change – Understanding the Pessimism-Time Curve”

As we talk deeply about changes, we should mention how individuals manage change. Prof shows us “Proactively Managing Change – Understanding the Pessimism-Time Curve” model, which indicates four stages to proactively manage changes. The first stage is uninformed optimism in which individuals create new ideas and feel optimistic about the future of their ideas. The next two stages are informed pessimism and informed realism. When more information is taken into consideration, many difficulties and obstacles arise and make the ideas impractical. Despite difficulties, individuals should not give up and try to work out the reality.

• Management methods in modern world

In times of disruptive change your expected future is no longer valid.  Leaders need to think and act differently in order to chart a new course for the enterprise.

Doug Berger – The innovators

Now many countries has been changing from industrial economies into post-industrial economies, management method has to adjust to that fundamental change. In industrial economies, companies try to manage their employees to follow orders and work as hard as possible. However, in knowledge economy, the management task is much more difficult because managers have to deal with intellectual properties. Since employees work with more complicate issues, the management method in which employees strictly follow instructions is not effective anymore. In knowledge economies, employers want their employees to contribute new ideas, innovations to companies. Therefore, managers have to give employees incentives and opportunies to creats more values. Companies should empower their employees, give them responsibilities so that they can feel the sense of belonging and contribute more to companies.

Issues for further discussion:

What is the effective way that can motivate people to contribute their best to companies?

Personal rating:

I rate this week lesson 8/10

Sustainability and Innovation Management

During the development, people face trade-offs. In the past, people use surrounding resources to survive. They hunt animals for food, cut tress to have enough land for agriculture. Nowadays, with the emergence of industrial development, people exploit more natural resources, destroy nature to build houses, factories… People are facing trade-offs between economic development and environmental well-being. Do we have to face this trade-off? We can only have either economic development or environmental well being or is there any approach that gives us the best of both worlds? That is the topic we discussed in our TWC class this week.

We are introduced to concepts of linear models and cyclical models. Linear models represent movements of products from the beginning point, which is natural resources, to production, distribution, consumption and to disposal. The model is simple and logical but it is the system in crisis regarding the beginning and ending point. Since the system is linear, the beginning point is not sustainable. We use resources for production but have no solution for the reduction and exhaustion of natural resources. Moreover, the system stops at disposal, which may lead to environmental problems.

If the world continue to use this model as its production model, its next generations may have to face with pollution and natural resources exhaustion. That is the main reason for people to consider more sustainable production and consumption methods. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. To be sustainable, we need to change the linear model into cyclical model, which balances all factors and maximize value without taking all natural resources or turn the world into a place of pollution.

So how can technology help people to achieve sustainability? Technology has enabled people to have alternative energy sources such as solar and wind energy. Although these sources are not sufficient but they still make people more independent of fossil fuel, the traditional energy source. One of the presentations in class is about the production of palm oil. Although palm oil is potential, it still needs more considerations on the cost and efficiency.

As technology have an important part in sustainable development, innovations are more and more essential. The reading “Environment fact sheet: industrial development” puts emphasis on technology innovation stimulation in order to drive progress towards sustainable industrial practices. Innovation refers to the creation of more effective products or ideas that are accepted by markets and society. It means that creative ideas are innovations only when they can be applied. “The R-D-A Translation Process” demonstrates three steps of an innovation. Through researches, people get new ideas and insights about problems and try to translate understandings into practical solutions and finally apply solutions in reality.

The most interesting point in this topic is the concept of “advantages of backwardness.” “Advantages of backwardness” means that countries, companies and individuals can learn from those who went before. They can reuse, reapply technology and innovations which others spent a lot of time and money to think about. Therefore, countries, companies or individuals can shorten their research process and simultaneously can also their own innovations. Moreover, they also avoid making unnecessary mistakes. Therefore, the concept of “Advantages of backwardness” is worth considerations, especially for developing countries so that they have better opportunities to catch up with the rest of the world.

Around topics of this week’s lessons, I have one issue for further discussion. How can developing countries can use the advantages of backwardness effectively to develop as fast as possible? And for this week class, I rate it 8.5 out of 10.

Human Development & Global Dominance

Brief overview/Summary:

Topics of this week’s lesson are global dominance and human development. Dominance means some companies or countries have power over others at one or some fields. There are many dimensions of global dominance; Different companies or countries are dominant in different dimensions. But the most remarkable thing that Prof shows me in this topic is the “Organizational behavior model for identifying innovation leaders and dominant players”, which tells me that all people have opportunities to be better and dominant. The second topic for class is Technology and Human Development.  In my perspective, technology and human development are mutually affected. On one hand, technological innovations can lead to global development (E.g.: world wide web…) On the other hand, world developments motivate people to invent new technology (The change in how people use internet leads to the boom of Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Facebook…).

In this week’s lesson, the first three students had their presentation. They talk about Google; Technology & singularity, transhumanism & immortality; Technology and Genetic Engineering. They are all well prepared and bring new interesting information to me.

Key takeaways:

• It is a changing world

Plough deep while sluggards sleep – Benjamin Franklin

“Organizational behavior model for identifying innovation leaders and dominant players” of Prof really catches my attention. Dominant players are placed at the top of a triangle, showing that they are better and have power over others at one or more fields. However, that fact only shows one part of the story. There are also rising and falling stars indicated in the graph. Rising and falling stars are distinguished by many features, which can show their potential developments. Dominant players, although have more advantages than others, can be a falling star and lose their dominance in the future. History has proven this point by many examples. In conclusion, the most important factor is not whether you are dominant but is the attitude of always changing and refreshing yourself.

• People must overcome adversity to develop

The greater difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests – Epicurus

In the lesson, Prof shows a video called “History of the world in 7 minutes.” The video focuses on human development from 15,000 years ago to present. I was really impressed by the development of ancient people since despite the fact they have limited tools, knowledge and were strongly affected by many diseases, they still survived and became more and more prosperous. The video really shows human’s strong nature, people can never be impeded by severe conditions but always try to discover and invent new things and overcome difficulties. That explains the fascinating human development with many innovations, technology to make the world a better place for humankind.

• No one should get left behind

When discussing human development in class, Prof shows the video “The Millennium Development Goals.” It is such a thoughtful video because even when technology is at an advanced level, when many people and countries are so prosperous, there are still many problems existing. Although food is thrown away every day, many people all over the world are living in poverty and hunger, can not access to basic health care and utilities. Many children still do not have opportunities to go to school and women in many places are discriminated. Despite all the magical developments, advanced technology over the world, there are people left behind. Is that what human is aiming for? Are we trying to improve living standards for some and ignore other people being left behind? The answer is no. We are aiming for a world where everyone is equal and has same opportunities to access to basic necessities. That is the reason we have The Millennium Development Goals to make sure that the world is changing for the better for everybody.

Issues for further discussion

• How technology and world change can help to eliminate poverty in all societies?

Personal rating

The lesson brightens me in many aspects. I have learned about interesting concepts about dominances and human developments. Therefore, I rated the lesson 8.5/10

Technology is changing the world

It is my first class at TWC and also my first class for this year. So I am quite nervous and excited at the same time. And the first session really makes a good impression on me because I know I will learn much in this TWC course.

The first session is a brief introduction to technology and its impacts on modern civilization. In the first part of the lecture, Prof shows us a video called “Shift happens”. It tells us about society at different countries around the world and how techonology changes people’s lives. The second part of the lecture is about modern civilization. Prof shows “A timeline of time” which records details on human development from the past till the present and after that, he focuses on the question “Why you white men have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little?” which is raised from the video “Guns, Germs and Steel.”

1. Technology is developing fast and affecting society

The video “Shift happens” includes many facts about the society and technology. These facts at first seem trivial but together, they tell a story about human lives in the age of technology.

“Over 106 millions registered users of MySpace (Sep 2006)”

“If MySpace was a country, it would be 11^th largest”

“2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month”

“The number of texts & messages sent & received everyday exceeds the population of the planet”

All these facts show one thing, technology is developing faster than ever. In the past, we had to rely on traditionally delivered paper mail to get in touch with friends, on books to get information. But technology is here for reasons. Now we can share picture, update news from others or access to information and find solution for questions easily. We are truly living in an exponential time, and the essential task is to use the advantages technology brings about to make our lives better.

2. Impacts of geographical differences

“Why you white men have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little?”

It seems so obvious that the white men are more prosperous than New Guineans. There are many reasons that explain the situation but the essential reason is geographical features. On one hand, New Guineans live in forests; Hunting and gathering are main ways for New Guineans to have food. However, hunting and gathering is not efficent and therefore, they only have food to support small population. On the other hand, in the Middle East, weather enables farmers to grow crops which is much more productive and food is also more nutrious. They have enough food to serve large population and therefore, the society has opportunities to develop. Even geographical differences are not the only reason but it really impacts development and modern civilization.

After the first session, I have two issues for further discussion:

• Is there any limit to technology development?
• Can technology help to solve the disparity among different parts of the world?

All things considered, I will rate the first session 8/10. I feel engaged and also learn many new ideas and interesting observations.