impact of ict on working practices

impact of ict on working practices

Location & Pattern	Details
Employer premises or at home	ICT has enabled employees to work from home with far greater ease. Many employees are able to access all their work documents and applications from home. They are able to do this via the use of a Private Virtual Network (PVN). This is a secure connection to between the user and the companies computer network.
Allowing personal flexibility	As more and more of our work becomes ICT based it may be possible for us to work when it is convenient for us.
Being static in an office or mobile	Mobiles offices can allow employees to take their office with them. Sales man may need to be connected to the office network when they are in the clients place of work of home.

To work away from the workplace you may need:

A laptop (with access to a word processor, 

spreadsheets, database etc.)

The ability to send and receive e-mails

Mobile phones

Voicemail to receive messages

Fax machine

Pager

Videoconferencing facilities to hold meetings


Advantages of Homeworking
• Less time wasted travelling to and from work 
(especially in rush hour) – leads to increased 
productivity
• Can continue to employ staff who may have left 
because their personal circumstances have changed
• Less stressful for staff
• Less office space needed – saves money
• More flexibility in managing working hours


Disadvantages of Homeworking
• Less supervision – may lead to less work being 
completed
• Cost of buying and maintaining ICT equipment is high
• Difficult to organise staff training
• Can’t organise meetings at short notice
• Employees miss out on social aspects of work

Reference:
1-http://www.graemehigh.com/files/BusEdu/SGAdmin/2a%20ICT%20&%20Working%20Practices.pdf
2-http://www.heles.plymouth.sch.uk/ict/KS5/Y12-Unit02/HTML/WorkingPractices.htm

Air conditioning system

Air conditioning System

Air conditioning is  the process of altering the properties of air (primarily temperature and humidity) to more favorable conditions. More generally, air conditioning can refer to any form of technological cooling, heating, ventilation, or disinfection that modifies the condition of air.

An air conditioner  is a major or home appliance,system, or mechanism designed to change the air temperature and humidity within an area (used for cooling and sometimes heating depending on the air properties at a given time). The cooling is typically done using a simple refrigeration cycle,

Watch more in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MiQCBIx1mM

Main inputs are:

1-Compressor 

2-Condensing unit

3-Valve

4-Evaporation system 

Central heating system in UK

Central heating system on UK

In first of October is "central heating day", when many people switch on their radiators for the winter. Central heating is just another mod-con of contemporary living, but it's done much more than warm us up.

Up and down the country, radiators clank their way back to life after a summer of hibernation.

A radiator - a rare sight in 1970

With energy bills soaring in recent years, and more people aware of energy consumption, many make it a point of principle that their heating stays off until the start of October, which means any nippy late September mornings just have to be endured.

But given how mild the autumn has been so far, others may wait a couple more weeks before the big switch-on.

Only a small fraction of UK homes are without central heating today. In the last comprehensive survey, in 2004, it was 7% of households, and that has probably dropped further since.

Far from being a modern invention, there were forms of central heating systems in ancient Greece, and later the Romans perfected what were called hypocausts to heat public baths and private houses.

In late Victorian Britain, well-to-do houses had a form of central heating. Cragside in Northumberland, the family home of engineer Lord Armstrong, was a famous example, with ducts built into the floors to carry warm air around the building.

But it was a long time before central heating became widespread and affordable, and fired by a gas boiler.

Luxury!

In 1970, Martyn Jarvis, 55, was a gas fitter, installing central heating systems in the Slough area.

Victorian house builders kept rooms small for warmth

"Central heating was just taking off then and there was a sense of excitement. It was like getting the first colour television - 'Ooooh, I've got central heating!'

"Unless you were really well off, you didn't have any radiators. There was an awful lot of solid fuel around then, an open fire in the living room normally, which heated the water as well.

"Other houses just had a three-bar electric fire, so you needed plenty of blankets at night. I remember the 1963 winter was particularly horrendous."

Reference:

http://news.bbc.co.uk.

Robots In Car Manufacture

Robots in car manufacture

Robots were initially retained to perform precise welding chores and other repetitive tasks that humans had long found boring, monotonous and injurious. By using robots to weld, handle dangerous objects and place items, auto manufacturers were able to ensure a consistent product with a minimum of worker injury. Currently, 50 percent of all robots in use today are used in automobile manufacture.

To make a robot work, a computer program is installed on its controller computer. This provides a set of precise instructions--based on geometry and carefully timed--that tells the robot where to place things, how to rotate them, where to weld and how to perform all of its other functions. Robots do not think for themselves, and must rely on humans to provide instructions. Robots also can work in more extreme environments on their own, or they can work alongside humans, assisting them in their day-to-day jobs--such as moving or rotating a car so humans can work on parts of it that would normally be difficult to reach.

Almost all manufacturing robots are single arms with computer controls, and do not look like a typical science-fiction "robot." Different robots will have different appendages, depending upon their job(s). For instance, a robot that places windshields will have a vacuum-powered suction grip to handle the smooth glass, while a welding robot will have an arc welder to fuse two pieces of metal together.

Robotic arm

A robotic arm is a type of mechanical arm, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex robot. The links of such a manipulator are connected by joints allowing either rotational motion (such as in an articulated robot) or translational (linear) displacement. The links of the manipulator can be considered to form a kinematic chain. The terminus of the kinematic chain of the manipulator is called the end effector and it is analogous to the human hand.

Types

In car manufacturing they use different types of robot like:

• Cartesian robot / Gantry robot: Used for pick and place work, application of sealant, assembly operations, handling machine tools and arc welding. It's a robot whose arm has three prismatic joints, whose axes are coincident with a Cartesian coordinator.
• Cylindrical robot: Used for assembly operations, handling at machine tools, spot welding, and handling at diecasting machines. It's a robot whose axes form a cylindrical coordinate system.
• Spherical robot / Polar robot (such as the Unimate): Used for handling at machine tools, spot welding, diecasting, fettling machines, gas welding and arc welding. It's a robot whose axes form a polar coordinate system.
• SCARA robot: Used for pick and place work, application of sealant, assembly operations and handling machine tools. It's a robot which has two parallel rotary joints to provide compliance in a plane.
• Articulated robot: Used for assembly operations, diecasting, fettling machines, gas welding, arc welding and spray painting. It's a robot whose arm has at least three rotary joints.
• Parallel robot: One use is a mobile platform handling cockpit flight simulators. It's a robot whose arms have concurrent prismatic or rotary joints.
• Anthropomorphic robot: Similar to the robotic hand Luke Skywalker receives at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. It is shaped in a way that resembles a human hand, i.e. with independent fingers and thumbs.

Additional information

In space the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System also known as Canadarm or SSRMS and its successor Canadarm2 are examples of multi degree of freedom robotic arms that have been used to perform a variety of tasks such as inspections of the Space Shuttle using a specially deployed boom with cameras and sensors attached at the end effector and satellite deployment and retrieval manoeuvres from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle.

Reference

1-http://www.ehow.com/about_4678910_robots-car-manufacturing.html

2-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotic_arm#Types

3-http://prime.jsc.nasa.gov/ROV/types.html