New & Emerging Technologies
New & Emerging Technologies
Design and technology never stands still. New inventions change how products are made, sold and used — and they reshape industry, enterprise, sustainability, people, culture, society and the environment. For your exam, you need to explain the impact of these changes, not just describe them.
Impact on Industry
Automation and robotics have replaced many repetitive manual jobs, causing unemployment in some traditional manufacturing roles. At the same time, factories need a different workforce skill set — fewer line workers, but more engineers, programmers and maintenance technicians who can operate and repair automated systems.
New industries also cause demographic movement, as workers relocate to areas where jobs in growth sectors are based. Many of these jobs cluster around a science and technology park — a site where universities, research centres and technology companies work side by side to develop and test new products.
New technology can cause unemployment in old industries but demands a more highly-skilled workforce, and it draws workers towards science and technology parks.
Enterprise
Turning a design idea into a business is called enterprise. A designer can set up a privately-owned business, apply for government funding aimed at new start-ups, or form a not-for-profit organisation if the aim is social or environmental benefit rather than personal profit.
New technology has also created new ways to raise money. Crowd funding platforms let a designer show their idea to the public and collect pledges before manufacturing begins. This tests demand and reduces financial risk compared with a bank loan.
A designer develops a solar-powered phone charger and launches a crowd funding campaign with a £10,000 target. Backers pledge money in exchange for early access to the finished product. If the target is reached, the pledges fund manufacturing; if it is not reached, no money changes hands. This removes the need for a bank loan or outside investor before the product exists.
Sustainability
Every stage of making and moving a product has an environmental cost. Transportation costs rise when materials and finished goods travel long distances, and every product places demand on natural resources — some of which, like metal ores, cannot be replaced once they are used up.
Manufacturing and disposal both create pollution and waste generated by production. Sustainable designers try to reduce all four of these impacts by sourcing materials locally, designing efficient processes, and minimising the waste that ends up in landfill.
Sustainability impacts to consider are transportation costs, pollution, demand on natural resources and waste generated.
People
New technology affects different groups of people in different ways. It changes conditions and wage levels for the workforce, changes the choices and prices available to consumers, and can create products aimed specifically at children or at people with disabilities. Designers must think about all of these groups, not just the average user.
Modern manufacturing increasingly needs a highly-skilled workforce who can operate computer-controlled machinery. Apprenticeships are one route into these skilled roles, combining paid work with training.
Culture and Society
Technology and trade have encouraged population movement within the EU, as people move to find work in growth industries. This can lead to social segregation or clustering, where particular ethnic or cultural communities settle in the same area — something designers should be aware of when researching a target market.
Technology has also changed how and where people work. Many businesses now offer flexible working hours and shift patterns, support remote working from home, and rely on video conference meetings instead of face-to-face travel. The Internet of Things (IoT) connects everyday devices — from fridges to heating systems — so they can be monitored and controlled remotely.
Environment
Designers must reduce a product’s environmental impact at every stage: cutting pollution during manufacture, planning for responsible waste disposal, enabling materials separation so components can be recycled, minimising the transportation of goods around the world, and reducing unnecessary packaging of goods.
Production Techniques and Systems
Manufacturers choose a scale of production to suit demand. A batch production run makes a set quantity of one product before the line switches to another. Continuous production keeps machinery running non-stop to make the same product indefinitely, one-off production creates a single unique item, and mass production makes very large numbers of an identical product on a dedicated line. Using standardised design and components across products speeds up all of these methods.
Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing orders stock only when it is needed for production, cutting the cost of storing large amounts of material. Lean manufacturing goes further, aiming to eliminate all waste from the whole production process, including wasted time, movement and materials.