Kenneth C. Laudon,Jane P. Laudon Management Information System 12th Edition pdf

Sources:

Evan Ramstad, “High-Speed Wireless Transforms a Shipyard,” 

The Wall Street

Journal

, March 15, 2010 and “Hyundai Heavy Plans Wireless Shipyard,” 

The Korea Herald

,

March 30, 2010.

H

yundai Heavy Industries’s experience illustrates some of the powerful

capabilities and opportunities provided by contemporary networking

technology. The company used wireless networking technology to connect

designers, laborers, ships under construction, and transportation vehicles to

accelerate communication and coordination, and cut down on the time, dis-

tance, or number of steps required to perform a task.

The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by

this case and this chapter. Hyundai Heavy Industries produces ships and other

products that are very labor-intensive and sensitive to changes in global

economic conditions. Its production environment is large, complex, and

extremely difficult to coordinate and manage. The company needs to keep

operating costs as low as possible. HHI’s shipyard extends over a vast area, and

it was extremely difficult to monitor and coordinate different projects and work

teams.

Management decided that wireless technology provided a solution and

arranged for the deployment of a wireless network throughout the entire

shipyard. The network also links the yard to designers in HHI’s office a mile

away. The network made it much easier to track parts and production activities

and to optimize the movements of transporter trucks. HHI had to redesign its

production and other work processes to take advantage of the new technology.

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Chapter 7

Telecommunications, the Internet, and Wireless Technology

247

7.1

T

ELECOMMUNICATIONS AND

N

ETWORKING IN

T

ODAY

’

S

B

USINESS

W

ORLD

f you run or work in a business, you can’t do without networks. You

need to communicate rapidly with your customers, suppliers, and

employees. Until about 1990, businesses used the postal system or

telephone system with voice or fax for communication. Today, however,

you and your employees use computers and e-mail, the Internet, cell

phones, and mobile computers connected to wireless networks for this

purpose. Networking and the Internet are now nearly synonymous with

doing business. 

NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATION TRENDS

Firms in the past used two fundamentally different types of networks:

telephone networks and computer networks. Telephone networks historically

handled voice communication, and computer networks handled data traffic.

Telephone networks were built by telephone companies throughout the twenti-

eth century using voice transmission technologies (hardware and software),

and these companies almost always operated as regulated monopolies through-

out the world. Computer networks were originally built by computer

companies seeking to transmit data between computers in different locations.

Thanks to continuing telecommunications deregulation and information

technology innovation, telephone and computer networks are converging into

a single digital network using shared Internet-based standards and equipment.

Telecommunications providers today, such as AT&T and Verizon, offer data

transmission, Internet access, cellular telephone service, and television

programming as well as voice service. (See the Chapter 3 opening case.) Cable

companies, such as Cablevision and Comcast, now offer voice service and

Internet access. Computer networks have expanded to include Internet

telephone and limited video services. Increasingly, all of these voice, video, and

data communications are based on Internet technology.

Both voice and data communication networks have also become more power-

ful (faster), more portable (smaller and mobile), and less expensive. For instance,

the typical Internet connection speed in 2000 was 56 kilobits per second, but

today more than 60 percent of U.S. Internet users have high-speed