History of digitalization in production and quality documentation (Essay Sample)

History of Digitalization in Production and Quality Documentation Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Code & Title Professor’s Name Date History of Digitalization in Production and Quality Documentation Organizations now capture, store, and retrieve their production and quality data in quite different ways than they did a few decades ago. This history of quality documentation and production digitalization spans several decades. Digitalized production and high-quality documentation were first used when computers were used for business purposes in the late 1960s. Since then, digitization has become essential in production and quality control processes. The processing of data from throughout the organization and its assets utilizing cutting-edge digital technologies is known as digitalization, and it has the potential to lead to new business models as well as societal transformation (Rossato & Castellani, 2020). Any structural adaptation process brought on by the incorporation of digital technology into daily life is covered by this phrase. It allows us to view various processes as a single entity but also makes us more afraid of the phenomenon's massive scale. Starting in the 1980s and moving forward to the present, the history of digitalization can be divided into four major phases. The goal is to give the narration of the four phases enough momentum to use as a foundation for the future, or the fifth phase, and hazard a connected speculative thought. Phase One: Early Networking Utopias In the early stages of digitalization, production, and quality, documents were maintained on paper and manually entered into computers. The method was time-consuming and prone to mistakes, and keeping track of the documentation took a lot of work. As technology advanced, computerized data entry systems were developed to improve the accuracy and speed of data entry. These systems facilitated the storage and retrieval of production and quality data and the easier tracking of production and quality records changes. Computers existed in the 1970s, albeit fairly large and primarily used in colleges, military installations, or large businesses. With the advent of the personal computer or PC in the early and mid-1980s, it was finally time for a shift and computing to become more approachable. Regarding the modern citizen's self-concept, evil war technology became a liberation tool. In addition, early internet service providers started tying Computers together in the 1980s. Early internet communities like "The WELL" functioned as gathering grounds for early adopters, where they established bold views about the networked society of the future. In the middle of the 1990s, as the internet began to permeate more homes, the World Wide Web was developed simultaneously (Platform, 2020). In addition to the hacker scene that emerged around the development of the PC, several other social discourses that passionately adopted the "network" as a new structural metaphor are also especially solidified at this point. There was a time when the internet, this "new realm of the mind," was widely regarded as the ideal setting. Anonymity, decentralization, independence from hierarchy, openness/connectivity, and total freedom of speech were the intellectual cornerstones of building a better society. Yet nothing ended up being as ideal as the net utopians had envisioned. The counter-movement did not primarily build the internet as a post-identity environment but as a new marketplace. As a result, the "New Economy" developed in the background of online debate, compelling cyberspace to once again be connected to the real world and (civic) identities. Douglas T. Ross coined "computer-aided design" in the early 1950s (Llach, 2021). Ross was an academic who studied military radar technology and computer display systems. Early CAD technology endeavors, including Automatically Programmed Tools (APT), which inspired the creation of AED, were projects on which Ross worked (Automated Engineering Design). At the General Motors Research Laboratory, Patrick Hanratty employed CAD in one of its first uses. Hanratty is credited with developing Design Automatic by Computer, the first interactive graphics-based CAD system (DAC). In 1957, he developed the PRONTO numerical control programming tool, which was utilized in the initial commercial CAD/CAM software system (Afiqah Hamzah et al., 2021). Because of this, Hanratty is frequently referred to as "the father of CAD/CAM". In the early 1960s, Ivan Sutherland developed Sketchpad's first true CAD application as part of his Ph.D. thesis at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The designer uses a light pen and Sketchpad, a very advanced CAD tool, to interact directly with the computer. The development of computer-aided manufacturing, on the other hand, began in the 1950s when computers were used to create G-code, which was later translated into punched cards that could run machinery. Punch tapes were produced using computers, which sped up the process of making the cassettes and the instructions that went with them. These codes control a variety of tools and equipment, including water jets and plasma cutters. The automobile and aerospace sectors saw the early commercial uses of CAM. In addition, it became possible to manufacture parts and components automatically in the 1980s thanks to the development of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technologies (Afiqah Hamzah et al., 2021). Engineers could produce exact components and parts with CAD technologies, facilitating efficient manufacture. Parts and components could be produced automatically using CAM technology without manual labor. This improved quality assurance and production efficiency. Besides, Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were first introduced in the 1990s, making storing and accessing production and quality data simpler. Thanks to ERP technologies, numerous systems and procedures might be unified into a single database. This made it simpler for businesses to make decisions based on reliable information by enabling them to track their production and quality statistics. CAD software sales are currently being affected by the launch of open-source, free CAD applications like LibreCAD and FreeCAD (Kumar et al., 2018). Drafters in various industries, including pipelines, photovoltaic drafting, and electrical, mechanical, and structural design, use CAD/CAM. The employment of the skilled drafter may one day be in danger due to the productivity and usability of CAD/CAM software, which has developed to the point where software that anybody can use is now possible. Phase Two: Remediation Initially, the internet tried to imitate or replace traditional media. The first thing to go digital was correspondence regarding orders sent via mail. Likewise, when the New Economy bubble burst at the beginning of the millennium, YouTube and iTunes digitalized television and record collections. Skype took the role of the phone, and Amazon bought retail. But, other digital revolutions did not attempt to replace their analog equivalents and were only made possible by the structural design of the internet. Additionally, an entirely new way of engaging with, sharing, moving, and discussing digital goods was made possible by the appearance of search engines, social bookmarking services, and photo-uploading websites. Inevitably, social networks were then developed as a result. "Web 2.0" became the social media lingo du jour in 2005. Moreover, documents pertaining to production and quality can now be stored and accessed more efficiently, thanks to the rise of cloud computing in the 2000s. Cloud computing has allowed businesses to store their data on the cloud and access it from any device. Due to the ability of businesses to store enormous amounts of data off-site, production, and quality processes became more accurate and efficient. Phase Three: Loss of Control The loss-of-control paradigm was first presented far earlier than 2005. With the advent of Napster and internet piracy in 1999, the issues the recording business faced quickly knocked on the doors of the movie industry, then the regional states, and finally the collective doors (Green & Sinclair, 2022). The loss of control over data streams and information took off in the middle of the 2000s. Of course, social media, which was shortly referred to as "web 2.0," is one of its main drivers. People started publishing even the most sensitive details online all of a sudden. In 2007, when pocket-sized smartphones with sensors and networking first arrived, people were suddenly connected to the internet.Since the Internet of Things (IoT) was introduced in the 2010s, production and quality processes have become more precise and effective (Clarysse et al., 2022). Thanks to IoT devices, businesses may remotely control their production and quality systems by connecting them to the internet. As a result, managing and monitoring production and quality data in real time is easier, making it simpler to identify problems and act quickly. Besides, living space and urban space started connecting thanks to the Internet of Things. This data was all stored in the "cloud” (Firouzi et al., 2022). Nothing more prevented the widespread collapse of control. Additionally, it was the period of Wikileaks revelations about financial organizations, governments, political parties, and other instances of power. It was also the era of Big Data, the exploitation of vast amounts of data from which previously unimaginable knowledge could be gleaned. Finally, Edward Snowden's period came to pass, exposing the fact that we were all completely nude the entire time. Moreover, there were cases of simultaneous second-order loss of control—protests related to Occupy Wall Street, Tel Aviv, Spain, and the Arab Spring. The way the world seemed to disintegrate was greatly influenced by digita...