Unit 42

1. Unit 42 DEVELOPING A SMARTER PLANETD/505/5400 LEVEL 3 LO2 - Understand what is meant by a smarter planet

2. Scenario • AIM AND PURPOSE OF THE UNIT • The Smarter Planet is an initiative developed by the IBM corporation to encourage individuals and organisations to think and develop solutions to processes or problems innovatively. The purpose is to encourage individuals and businesses to review their current practice to identify what they could change to reduce the impact on the planet/ environment. The Smarter Planet initiative can be applied cross sector and this unit encourages learners to consider the ways in which improvements to processes may include cost savings, environmental impact and system efficiencies. • The smarter ideas which learners may identify may initially be small but may then grow and the focus is on constant improvements, developments to “make the planet smarter”. They should look at technological developments across a range of sectors to consider whether these can be adapted to other sectors and they should also identify activities or processes they think can be improved in everyday life and consider innovative solutions that may be developed.

3. LO2 - Assessment Criteria

4. Assessment Criterion P2, P3, P4, M1 and D1 • LO2 Understand the changing smarter business environment • Learners should identify a range of technologies that have surprised or impressed them and be encouraged to research in more depth as to the impacts of these technologies. All developments have primarily benefits but many provide challenges and these would be identified, discussed and opinions given as to whether the advancements out weight the challenges. • There may also be examples where challenges outweighed the benefits and the original purpose was not completed. These technologies will not have been wasted as they are frequently repurposed. Identification of these will assist the learners when they are required to think of wider uses for technology in LO3. • Identification of developments in a sector the learner can relate to will enable them to contextualise the scope of the development and appreciate the benefits. Research may include benefits to individuals as well as the main business organisation focus.

5. Assessment Criterion P2, P3, P4, M1 and D1 • For P2 learners must explain how evolved changes in technology have impacted on everyday life This may be an addition to P1 where the learner explains impacts against a timeline for each change to a range of identified technologies across a range of sectors. Learners should consider the impact on social activity and business activity. • For merit assessment criterion M1 learners must evaluate the wider uses of these technological developments within an identified sector. Learners could evidence this with a report identifying where these developments have been put to a wider use and should evaluate the application of identified technological developments to an adapted purpose. • For distinction assessment criterion D1 learner must discuss why the smarter planet concept is important to society as a whole. Learners should consider the concept of the smarter planet, the underpinning concepts and ideas and why the concept is important for a range of factors. This is likely to be a report identifying the concepts and ideas in detail and the benefits explained. Alternatively this may be a video presentation covering the same criteria.

6. Assessment Criterion P2, P3, P4, M1 and D1 • For P3 learners must explain the benefits and beneficiaries of improved technologies to business. This could be evidenced with an annotated diagram and supporting narrative to clearly identify the beneficiaries of identified improvements and what the benefits that they experience are. • For P4 learners must explain how advances across sectors have brought additional challenges. This could be evidenced in the form of a report or as an addition to P3. The proposed beneficiaries of technological advances may not always have benefitted and learners should identify challenges that changes in technology have brought. Examples can be focussed across a range of business sectors.

7. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • All businesses change and technology within those businesses has changed the character and nature of the business. In each sector technological developments have often been dominant to the change, the make or break of progression. Areas include, distribution, business processes, warehousing, ordering, online sales and technology within the business functions. Almost everything in business has had some technological change that has moved the business forward. Click here for a list of modern inventions. • For the rest of this section you need to choose two of the following variant business models and research how technology has impacted on the business functions. • healthcare • environmental • engineering • manufacturing • IT, retail • electronics • transport

8. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Engineering – Over the last 20-30 years it has not been obvious how engineering has moved forward but all the technologies around us are part of that change. In twenty years we have had a space station, greener fuel efficient cars, high speed trains, 3D Printing and technology in our hands. • Every branch of engineering has moved forward, Nuclear Power plants now account for 20% of the fuel economy of the western world, wind farms, mechanical limbs have developed since the pointless Iraq War and more countries in the world have missile capacity than ever before. • In the three fields of science, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, there has been advances usually coming out of a need, to be quicker, more efficient, safer, better. We thought the Channel Tunnel was a feat of engineering but China is building 3 bigger and longer ones to Taiwan. We thought the Tyne Bridge was a feat of engineering until the French built the Millau Bridge. Click here for others. • If you look at this link and see that the modern developments in engineering account for half of the top 10 you can see that there have been achievements of worth.

9. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Manufacturing achievements tend to go hand in hand with engineering achievements. The revolutionising of a factory floor started in the 70’s, now car plants are almost completely automated. Modern Manufacturing is not about reducing human numbers any more, it is about making the efficient factory floor more efficient. Click here. • Scientific application in manufacturing is also constantly evolving and improving the present status quo. As technology continues to advance, so do the demands placed on the manufacturing engineering industry. Engineers are relying more often on computers and computer driven technology in order to manipulate things such as electricity, human cells, atoms and nanoparticles. All of these elements are increasingly being incorporated into futuristic inventions, and serve to aid in the discovery and understanding of tangible and intangible products for human use, consumption, and overall life improvement.The Chinese revolution in manufacturing is evidence of the modern charge in streamlining. From a nation with the largest population, their intent is to remove the human from the process. Click here. For companies like Foxconn, the concept of taking away their abhorrent working conditions to be replaced by automation is the goal, fixing their damaged reputation, making life easier for workers etc.

10. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • IT, retail - The retail industry is one that lives and dies on margins, with a never-ending quest to increase revenue and decrease costs. Technology has been an area of intense focus in retail industries. Improvements have been made in areas such as supply chain management, inventory management, customer experience, and loss prevention. Wireless technology for instance has enabled the dramatic transformation of business processes in the past. However, wireless deployments in the past have been limited by security requirements, the cost of deployment, inadequate management solutions and lack of standards. • Rapid advances in wireless local area network (WLAN) technology in recent years along with widespread adoption of the technology in the consumer have eliminated many of these hindrances. Today, a new wave of opportunity exists for retail industries to improve margins through the use of wireless technology. • For the modern shopping experience companies are learning to use technology to improve sales, Tracking is the most dubious of these. Click here. • Other uses include Security tracking, facial recognition, sales processes, self checkouts, the cashless shopping experience, stock management and ERM, online tracking of purchases, data mining, customised SEO and SEM. • Companies like Intel push for retail innovations, trying to incorporate their IT technology into interfaces within shops. Click here. • At the end of the day this is either obvious, point of sales style, or discreet. IF you pick up a product on a shelf in a major store and put it back, the system tells marketing that you were interested but for some reason did not want to buy it. Systems kick in, come back a week later and the price is lower, 10% larger, comes with reward points, anything to make you buy it the second time. This is called Active Shelf Tracking through RFID.

11. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Electronics – most technology now has this as the key to improvements. Chips are so small now to be discreet. There is more technology in your iPhone than the entire moon landing project. From the inception of the Integrated Silicon chip we have now made it integral in almost everything we buy and use. • Think of what televisions were like 20 years ago and what they are like now, radios, the phone you have on you, car dashboards. We have tracking chips in our pets and our parcels that get delivered. Remove the electronics from your life and you will be without power, lights, after three days you will be without water in your house, after five you will be without food on your shop shelves and incapable of manufacturing most convenient foods. • Read the following list and see if you understand a word of it but these technologies get incorporated into daily life. We see the gadget show and think this is what electronics is all about but this is the adaptation of the electronics, not the development of them. Click here for top 50 electronic uses of 2013.

12. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Healthcare - Technology as a physician extender - advances in smartphone technology, cloud computing, data analytics, and other innovations have put healthcare in a place where technology can play a necessary and critical role. Unlike expensive new scanners and tests, the information technology required to meet patient demand is inexpensive and easy to incorporate into a hospital practice. Over time, it should save money, not cost money. • For instance, technology can eliminate inefficiencies that plague doctors’ business operations (especially private practices). Online scheduling can help avoid revenue losses by filling appointments more efficiently. Doctors who regularly see 10 to 20 percent of their appointments turn into no-shows could make use of previously wasted time by putting appointment books online. • Other advances in information technology can free up time currently spent on paperwork, patient follow-up, and other administrative tasks so that doctors can focus on the actual work of providing health care. And health information technology will be particularly important as doctors evolve their practices to account for new delivery and payment models.

13. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Healthcare - From information technology that makes the operation of the Doctor’s business more efficient; to telemedicine that can allow doctors to assess a rash or read an MRI without scheduling a visit; to consumer electronics that allow patients to collect their own data and physicians to tailor care to each individual — these advances can serve as extremely effective “medical extenders” that assist doctors in expanding their capacity to match growing demand. They can help doctors build the kind of strong patient relationships that many thought would be impossible when the era of house calls came to an end. • Patients too are increasingly expecting these conveniences. More and more patients use social media and the Internet to find and review care providers, to check their symptoms, or to track their own health data. Mobile health and medical applications for smartphones are predicted to reach 142 million downloads by the year 2016. Large majorities of patients report that they would like far more transparency, online scheduling, and email communication with care providers, as well as access to an electronic medical record to review information and email reminders when they are due for a visit.

14. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Transport – we are all used to how cars are better, but there have been other developments more subtle in transport technologies. From the lowest level, we book our train tickets online, print out our own airline tickets, use e-tickets, use our Oyster card for travel, this has become so common we do not realise the technology that goes into this. • Less obvious are things such as traffic management systems. You may not realise that traffic lights are not regular, when traffic on one road is slow, the lights change, flow through keeps the green lights on busy patches steady to manage blockages. It is like a game of Sims run on a professional scale. • Sustainable or more fuel efficient means of transport are always taking place, specifically with rising fuel costs and environmental issues. Click here for developments. Electric cars are more common now, rentable bicycles in cities. The majority of petrol station in France sell Petrol, Diesel and LPG fuel with a larger promotional discount on LPG. • You can name any transport method and there will have been a change in technologies to improve efficiency. Even Skateboards have adapted with change.

15. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Environmental pressures have been around since the industrial age but have been more prevalent since the modern use of plastics, industrial raw products and industrial smelting procedures. The use of technologies within the industry have advances since the invention of the Geiger counter. • Environmental technology, or green technology or clean technology is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic devices to monitor, model and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement. The term is also used to describe sustainable energy generation technologies such as photovoltaics, wind turbines, bioreactors, etc. • Sustainable development is the core of environmental technologies. The term environmental technologies is also used to describe a class of electronic devices that can promote sustainable management of resources. • Wind farms are the most obvious visual representation of this, renewable energy, but we also have technologies to benefit Recycling, Water Purification, Air Purification, Sewage Treatment, and waste management. Click here for the Jebel Ali desalination plant. Click here for Wave turbines. Click here for Wind Turbine statistics. Click here for environmental technology in development. Task 1 – P2.1 – From 3 of the named categories, produce a timeline of technological change and explain the impact on social activity and business activity these technologies have made. • Use the following slide for guidance as to layout.

16. P2.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Timeline – Produce a timeline of changes in the technology over the last 30 years or less. • Technical details - Of the changes on the timeline – state the technical specifications that 5 of these changes has been. • Scope of Change - Of the changes on the timeline – state the Scope of change, the reason why there was a demand and how these technologies met that demand. • Impact on Businesses – Of the changes on the timeline – state the impact that 5 of these changes has made to the business world. • Impact on Society - Of the changes on the timeline – state the impact that 5 of these changes has made to society. • Sustained or Adaptable Change – State whether these changes have been sustained or led to other innovations beyond the technology.

17. M1.1 - The smarter business environment - Change • Using one example from the selected industries you will need to examine deeper the uses of advanced technology within this sector and explain how the developments within this field have expanded beyond the industry to be use din other sectors. • For instance the developments 3D printing which was designed for the Art industry is now used for Medical and Engineering fields to produce implements that are not normally capable of being produced quickly or without a higher level of skill. • Developments in Manufacturing processes means a cheaper quicker supply of goods, this has benefitted all forms of industry, reducing costs across sectors, allowing for an increase in developments costs etc. • Technologies such as GPS designed for travellers and the army is now used in cars, for goods tracking, for finding your own phone when lost or for tracking staff when making deliveries. Task 2 – M1.1 - Evaluate with evidence the wider uses of these technological developments within an identified sector

18. P3.1 - The smarter business environment - Effects Using one of the selected businesses environments selected in P2, you will need to discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Individuals in terms of the following: • Health - How has the change made life better in terms of medical field, in terms of daily living, the environment, in terms of personal monitoring, fitness and sport. • Labour saving - How has the change made life better in terms of reducing down the workload, making working life easier, reducing physical activities. • Time saving - How has the change made life better in terms of giving us more time for other things, streamlining tasks, allowing us more leisure time or focus on more important tasks. • Flexibility - How has the change made life better in terms of allowing us to do other things at the same time, of reskilling, improving our knowledge of the field or impacted on other tasks around it. • Accessibility - How has the change made life better in terms of disability access, meeting the needs of different individuals, how it has benefitted society on a more global scale. Task 2 – P3.1 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Individuals.

19. P3.2 - The smarter business environment - Effects Using one of the selected businesses environments selected in P2, you will need to discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Individuals Lifestyles in terms of the following: • Health – The more technology we have, the less active we become. Technology is designed to remove menial tasks, adding more leisure time, making us less active and more office bound in the workplace leading to RSI, Stress and Obesity. • Comfort – Technology is designed to make us more comfortable, less active, more time for other things. The technology behind ergonomics for instance is designed to make us more comfortable and able at work. • Travel – We are a more travelled nation because of technology and because the acceptance of technology reduces prices and opens the world up for more competition. Ask parents where they went as children, Butlins, Bognor, Bangor and Benidorm if they were lucky. • Communication – we walk around with the world at our fingertips, we communicate digitally to more people in a day than we did in a week twenty years ago, we send more texts in a day than letters in a year, we look at every event in our social circle’s life when we used to look at the obituaries instead for news. • Social – never has there been a time when Britain has not been such a sociable nation yet we rarely see each other. Facebook, Skype, Twitter, these has become common terms in our vocabulary when once it was ring me, pop over, same time next week. Task 3 – P3.2 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Individual lifestyles.

20. P4.1 - The smarter business environment - Effects • Using one of the selected businesses environments selected in P2, you will need to discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Environmental Issuesin terms of the following: • Pollution – Increased output through mechanisation promotes pollution, as does the increase in transporting goods. The rise in trade also increases the rise in by-products. All this talk of recycling but pollution is on the rise. Click here to see the facts. • Food miles – Increased productivity and the demand for more leisure time also means the increase of products being sold and delivered. Carbon foot-print, we hear it a lot when we buy flights, off-setting our sales, reducing down our emissions. But look in a supermarket and see where the food comes from, how far it has had to travel to get to your plates. We do not complain because it tastes so good but ethically we know it is not right. Click here to see where your food came from. • Increased energy consumption – TV ratings are measured by the electric surge when programmes start. The increased demand for products, foreign and domestic has meant continued energy consumption. Because your Car is greener we drive further. Click here and here for statistics. Task 4 – P4.1 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Environmental Issues.

21. P3.3 - The smarter business environment - Effects • Using one of the selected businesses environments selected in P2, you will need to discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Ethical Issues in terms of the following: • Health and Transplants – The health industry, though the NHS is not a shining example, has been bettered by advances in other industries. Transplants get to the hospitals faster because of improved transport links, ambulances are faster and better equipped. There is even a facility with 3D printers of printing medical equipment. Ethically there seems no downside. • The Internet – Good or bad the Internet is here but ethically there is a lot wrong with it, policing, available of age restricted materials, downloadable guns, Wikileaks, the Daily Mail, PirateBay etc. these can have an effect on our lives in terms of legality, e-commerce and desensitisation. • Data privacy – The DPA is there to protect but there is a limit to how it gets policed. A secretary has access to more materials that a job implies but needs to in order to adds more security risks to the storage and maintenance of it. do their job. The Internet makes it more difficult to police and monitor this information and adds another level of risk. Task 5 – P3.3 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Ethical Issues.

22. P4.2 - The smarter business environment - Effects • Using one of the selected businesses environments selected in P2, you will need to discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Social Issues in terms of the following: • Acceptance – We are a nation that puts up with things. Taxes too high, we still pay them; banks take our money and overpay themselves, we let it happen; technology breaks, we return it without understanding why. As the world gets busier and the demand increases, we grow to accept the changes as though they mean little. Lack of surprise at new inventions - acceptance of something new so quickly becomes commonplace. For instance, the technology in a Smart Phone is so intricate and amazing but we have lost the surprise. When Siri came out we just shrugged and wondered when the next new thing was going to be. • Communication – The rise of social media has not always been a good thing. We have become overburdened with the need to communicate, update our status, gather Facebook friends, find followers on Twitter. Distractions are more so than ever before, crashes in 2011 due to phone usage almost doubled by 2013. Think of what a day in your life would be like without a phone, texting, twitter or Facebook. • Exposure to threat – With the world being more at the end of your fingertips, the risk and threat is greater. Bullying has new methods with the Internet, governments worldwide restrict twitter because of the freedom of speech. Super injunctions are broken by texts. At the end of the day the ability to have information in a second is a liability as well as a boon. • Reduced face to face communication – Socialisation and desensitising, there are large moral arguments over the Internet and all this technological development taking away from social values. The decline of verbal communication skills is one of these issues, the reduction in the quality of English and Mathematics within education due to social interactions. • Task 6 – P4.2 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Social Issues.

23. D1.1 - The smarter business environment – Smarter Business • The Smarter Planet concept is important for a number of reasons or at least the philosophy is important. The need to balance all the previous problems and issues to make the world better rather than more convenient. IBM are selling the philosophy using their hardware and technology in the hope that the planet is made safer, better for all, free from issues. • The concept of “The more we know, the more we want to change everything” is an ideal that all businesses write into their “Mission Statement” such an intent, designed to please customers. • IBM Smarter Planet Projects is about a lot of things, it is about Parking, about traffic managementand about Challenges through technology. • For Distinction you need to research why the smarter planet concept is important to society as a whole. You should consider the concept of the smarter planet, the underpinning concepts and ideas and why the concept is important for a range of factors. Using the company website here and the PDF’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Task 7 – D1.1 – Discuss how the Smarter Planet concept is important to society with annotated evidence.

24. D1.2 - The smarter business environment – Smarter Business • banking • construction • towns and cities • computing and data storage • education • energy • healthcare • infrastructures • oil • products • regulatory bodies • retail • telecoms • transport The smarter planet concept is important to businesses as a conceptual way of making them work better, together and globally. The industries listed above are of specific development targets for the Smarter Planet project. You should consider the concept of the smarter planet on a more global scale, the underpinning concepts and ideas and why the concept is important for a range of factors. Using the company overview of business website here and the PDF’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Task 8 – D1.2 –Produce a report Discussing how the Smarter Planet concept is important to each business practice with annotated evidence.

25. P2, P3, P4, M1 and D1 – Assessment Criteria Task 1 – P2.1 – From 3 of the named categories, produce a timeline of technological change and explain the impact on social activity and business activity these technologies have made. Task 2 – M1.1 - Evaluate with evidence the wider uses of these technological developments within an identified sector Task 3 – P3.1 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Individuals. Task 4– P3.2 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Individual lifestyles. Task 5– P4.1 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Environmental Issues. Task 6– P3.3 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Ethical Issues. Task 7 – P4.2 – Using one of the selected businesses environment, discuss the impact this sector’s technological revolution has made on Social Issues. Task 8 – D1.1 – Discuss how the Smarter Planet concept is important to society with annotated evidence. Task 9 – D1.2 – Produce a report Discussing how the Smarter Planet concept is important to each business practice with annotated evidence.