2014

Technology and its effects in our

daily lives

H.M.T Chitamba
Vaal University of Technology
10/23/2014
Student number: 212115103

Technology and its Effects on our daily lives

H.M.T Chitamba, undergraduate in Operations management1
1:

Vaal University of Technology, faculty of Engineering, Department of

Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Vanderbijlpark, South
Africa

Abstract

Keywords

This article will illustrate how technology has long been

beneficial to our lives, Businesses and our society, Advances in
technology or Technology development furthers the growth of
our economy, technology plays a great role in the creation of
new jobs, untapped Markets and new capital. The application of
technology can bring about cost reduction and optimization to
many manufacturing industries. Implementing technology in
industries today can help improve product/service quality and
increase productivity. Technologies such as CAD (rapid
prototyping) and automation has helped manufacturing come a
long way and will be discussed in this article.

Cost
reduction
Optimization
Productivity
Automation
Rapid
prototyping
CAD
(computer
aided design)

Introduction

Humanity and technology a

relationship that can only be
described as never-ending. From the
moment when humans discovered
how to make fire, we have long
since been emerged entirely on in
this obsession to practically apply
our knowledge and make our lives
easier and less complicated. From
the wheel to the steam engine and all
the way up to space shuttles we have
magically changed everything about

our beastly nature and have

transformed into somewhat a more
sophisticated beast, a beast that
today holds a state of the art
technology known as a smartphone
in its hand like a wizards magical
wand with unimaginable powers.
Manufacturing
Ever since the 1950s advances in
technology has rapidly transformed
the traditional way of doing things in

the manufacturing industries. New

technology development has
successfully led to the creation of
new tools and advanced working
equipment. Machines such as lathes
and drilling machines have not only
made production processes more
efficient but also have provided for
lead time shortage and massive cost
reduction. It is not a surprise that
many people may argue to say that
machines sometimes make some
human tasks unnecessary and
obsolete and that it pushes human
workforces to train and improve
their skills, But if we decide to look
past the tug of war between Human
labour and Advanced manufacturing
machines we will come to find that
there exists greater benefits towards
both parties, this perspective would
be from a larger scale of this
relationship or as they say the bigger
picture. New technology provides
reliability, modularity, speed in
operations processes and spacesaving through effective facilities
layout designs. It also permits the
processing and storage of large
amounts of information.
(Markowski and Jubb,1989)
An excellent example of beneficial
technology is CAD technology, with
computer aided designs it has now
become much cheaper to make
changes or modify products and
designs, also to introduce new ones
often. today 3D printing is largely
used in manufacturing applications.

With 3D printing an idea can go

from a simple design on a computer
screen to a finished part or product,
potentially skipping many traditional
manufacturing steps. It is very useful
when it comes to on-demand
production, when dealing with long
and complex supply chains that have
some implications, using CAD
manufactures can now make
massive cost reduction in cost added
activities in a supply chain. It also
maximises material utilization and
creates shapes and objects that are
nearly impossible or improbable to
manufacture using traditional
production techniques.

Internet Technology
It almost feels like it was just
yesterday where the easiest means of
communication was the fixed line
telephone and the postal office
mails, today mobile phones and emails have taken of the popular
trends of interconnected
communication. This recent
technologies have gone from a
luxury to a necessity and for some a
way of life says (Mckinsey corp,
2001, U.S.A). the following shows
the growth in percentage of mobile
phone usage:

Communication Trends

30,00%
40,00%

Mobile Phones VS Fixed lines

6
5
30,00%
4
3
WEB Browsing
Wired Use

2
1

social networking and media

0
1990

1995

2000

2001

Fixed lines

Soon wireless web use will exceed

wired use. Mobile internet is
evolving every day with more and
more apps being developed to
enable users to perform their daily
activities such as business
scheduling, news feeds, social
lifestyle and even your health and
fitness. Smartphones have become a
necessity in the lives of modern
civilization. Mobile internet brings
millions of people together through
its interconnected networks and
extended arrays of data.
The following chart shows how Cell
phones have surpassed fixed lines:

2002

2003

2004

Mobile phones

Medicine
We have most definitely come a
long way from traditional healing
and shaman enchantments in south
Africa when we speak of medical
technology, today modern medicine
is studied and applied in state of the
art and well prepared, well-equipped
facilities all-round this nation.
Technology development in the
medical sector has provided for the
success in skeleton x-ray, brain
scans and much more, these
technological breakthroughs have
for the last few years aided doctors

2005

in gaining experience and saving

more lives every day. Drugs and
pharmaceutical medicines have
made a mark on modern medicine,
all this research and development
has definitely set the bar high and
has helped many people escaped
their imminent death and is
continuously increasing our human
life span.

Artificial
Inteligence

Human
Logic
Continous
Improvement

Automation of Knowledge work

Astronomy & Space

Advances in artificial intelligence

(A.I) and machine learning are
setting the pace for the automation
of human logic work, this makes it
possible to automate knowledge
worker tasks that were previously
regarded as impossible for machines
to perform. Systematic tools can be
used to enhance the talents of highly
skilled employees and as more tasks
that requires human can be done by
machines says (HULC industries,
U.S.A, 2004). By establishing such
technology it would also be possible
that some types of jobs could
become fully automated.

With new technologies it has

recently become possible with the
aid of state of the art mega hub
telescopes to see and study the
composition distant planets across
our wonderful Milky Way galaxy. It
was because of our curiosity that
lead humans to build a space rocket
for space exploration, when Neil
Armstrong first landed on the moon
the world was astonished at how far
humans have come from the steam
engine. The space age set the pace
for many more great endeavours in
space exploration. Recently a NASA
drone rover has landed on Mars, this
robot was assigned a mission to test
rock and mineral compositions to
determine whether there exists
elements water and oxygen in the
red planet (NASA, RED planet
project, 2006). At any given time
from today the world will witness
the very first images directly from
the big Red planet. The space age
sure set a stage in motion for

humans to further exploit their

knowledge and discover their
purpose in the universe (Carl
Sagan, 1993).

Natural resource exploration

Being able to extract unconventional
oil and gas reserves from shale rock
formations is definitely a
technological breakthrough tracing
back four decades. Combining
horizontal a\drilling and hydraulic
fracturing makes it possible to
recover oil and gas deposits that
exist in many parts of the world. The
impact of this technology could be a
vital asset to industries such as
petrochemicals manufactures
(Chevron, 2001). Finally with
continuous improvement this
technology could drastically
increase the availability of fossil
fuels for decades. In the recent years
the total consumption of fuels has
risen to great extent, the need for
fuels to power manufacturing plants
has become of international concern.
Many have decided to rely on most
recent nuclear power studies, but
this type of power source still shows
many aspects of harmful effects so it
spirals a cause of distrust in the
hearts of many entrepreneurs and
corporations.

Geographic information System

GIS is a computerized system that
integrates, analyses and models data
from maps surveys, photos, reports
and other sources. And produces
graphical maps, reports and plans for
the decision-making process. GIS
makes interpreting large quantities
of complex data much easier and
faster, from your office desk-top
GIS data includes:
Ground water quality
variations
Land fill settlement
Land fill emissions patterns
Recycling collection site
location
Industrial and hazardous
waste generators
Leakage monitoring
Collection routing efficiency
studies
Three-dimensional (3D)
Visualization

Information on GIS from (

Marc j. Rogoff, Ph.d, and
Bruce Clark, P.E, 2006)

Transportation
Technology in this sector, has
made quite the ground start,
today we have different means
to transport people and freight
we have trains and railways,
sea ships, airplanes and
pipelines all of which have a
long history of improving the
way humans deal with
movement of materials and
products. Transportation is
one of the most important
processes in a supply chain
system. Today managers
improve their supply chains
and distribution systems by
optimizing the methods and
manner by which they
transport their goods.
Advances in transport
technology plays a vital role
in the evolution of our
business ways and trends.
Recently scientists and
vehicle experts are working
on making ground vehicles
autonomous or partly
autonomous. From selfdriving cars, trucks, U.S.A
drone aircrafts, to Googles
unmanned vehicle, the
technology in transport
vehicles is rapidly improving.
Autonomous vehicles could
bring forth a revolution in

Transportation. Some of the

benefits of autonomous
ground vehicles (cars, trucks)
include reduced carbon
dioxide emissions, allow
motorist to have more time on
their hands to do work
through hands-off- driving,
increased productivity in the
trucking and logistics
industry.

Conclusion
Lastly I would say that
technology has not only made
our daily tasks easier to
manage and deal with,
technology has caused a great
impact in our lives, and it
helps us to continue pushing
our boundaries as a species.
Technology has taken us from
our cavemen nature and
transformed us into space
explorers, it has increased our
healthcare and human life
span and helps us become
better organized. Technology
has made it possible for 7.2
billion humans to stay
connected and conduct
business through
globalization. Technology
will continue to grow rapidly,
so it still remains our
responsibility to ensure it
continues to benefit our cause.

References
1. www.mckinsey.com/mgi, Disruptive technologies: Advances that will
transform life. Date of access ( 03 October 2014).
2. www.APWA.net, Advances in technology alter how we now plan and
operate solid waste management facilities, article by Marc j. Rogoff and
Bruce clark. Date of access ( 03 October 2014).
3. Abernathy, W. (1978) the Productivity Dilemma. The John Hopkins
Universiy: Baltimore
4. Acs, Z.J and D.B. Audretsch, (1991) innovation and technological
change.AICHW; New York.
5. Amin, A. and K. Robins (1990) "Industrial districts and regional
development: Limits and possibilities", in Pyke, F., Becattini, G., and W.
Sengenberger, eds. (1990).

6. Antonelli, C. (1988a) "A New Industrial Organization Approach", in

Antonelli, C. , ed. (1988).
7. Antonelli, C. (1988b) "The Emergence of the Network Firm", in
Antonelli, C., ed. (1988). Antonelli, C., ed. (1988) New information
technology and industrial change: the Italian case. Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Dordrecht.
8. Acs, Z.J. and D.B. Audretsch (1990a) Innovation and Small Firms. The
MIT Press, Cambridge,