Electronic Consumer Goods Research Articles

The Chimera Reified: Design, Meaning and the Post-consumerism Object

ABSTRACTThe design and production of short-lived electronic consumer goods are not only creating enormous environmental and social damage, their very transience indicates that, as objects, they possess little enduring value. This paper considers the design of these goods within contemporary society and suggests a direction that is more consistent not only with the priorities of sustainability but also with more profound understandings of meaning. A brief overview of electronic products is given in terms of their instrumental, social and positional attributes, along with some of their social and environmental consequences, and a simple conceptual ‘post-consumerism’ electronic object is presented that encapsulates various aspects of contemporary critique. This is followed by a consideration of the meanings of contemporary electronic goods, and the changes needed in our approaches to design, production and disposal to address concerns linked to deeper notions of human purpose. Based on this examination, which draws upon philosophical and environmental critiques of technology, new priorities for design practice are developed that are in accord with theoretical arguments for comprehensive reform of design and manufacturing. The potential implications for electronic goods are demonstrated through a second conceptual object.

How Could the World's Largest Population Suffer a Labor Shortage? [Associate Editors' View

David Wang owns a small factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, manufacturing consumer electronic goods. His factory employs some 300 people, all from rural areas of neighboring provinces such as Hunan and Guangxi. Every year, after the Chinese Spring Festival holiday, David would find that some of his employees would not report back to work. A number of them would come back days later, citing bad transportation or some other likely excuse. David knows, of course, that they just wanted to stay at home far away a day or two longer to get ready for another entire year of hard work without being able to visit until the next Spring Festival. But this year, to David's surprise, almost one third of his workforce is still missing ten days after the holiday officially ended. It seems that this time they will most likely remain at home, and not return, for good.

Cuba and China: Governance and Industrial Collaboration

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Cuban government has sought to diversify its foreign economic partnerships. Cooperation with China has emerged as a critical avenue of trade and investment in conventional sectors like nickel and tourism, but also in more innovative operations like the domestic assembly of vehicles and electronic consumer goods. Designed and implemented through governmental channels rather than the private sector, these initiatives reflect unconventionally long-term economic goals and a broadly conceived plan of inter-industry coordination. While collaboration with China has improved certain aspects of daily life in Cuba such as access to public transport and electrodomestic products, critics argue that neither country, whether independently or in league, sufficiently exercises good governance and transparency in political and economic affairs. Drawing on data gathered during three years of research in Cuba and one year in China, the article suggests that international advocates of good governance face two challenges: first, to reduce local suspicions that their efforts are politically self-serving, and second, to develop conceptions of governance and transparency that are nuanced enough to accommodate the unconventional characteristics of Sino-Cuban collaboration.

Vehicle routing in reverse logistics for recycling end-of-life consumer electronic goods in South Korea

This paper presents a vehicle routing approach for the transport of end-of-life consumer electronic goods for recycling in South Korea. The objective is to minimize the distance of transportation of end-of-life goods collected by local authorities and major manufacturers’ distribution centers to four regional recycling centers located. A vehicle routing problem is constructed for each regional center, and a Tabu search is applied to solve it. Computational results using field data show that the method outperforms existing approaches to reverse logistics.

Predicting Display Visibility Under Dynamically Changing Lighting Conditions

AbstractDisplay devices, more than ever, are finding their ways into electronic consumer goods as a result of recent trends in providing more functionality and user interaction. Combined with the new developments in display technology towards higher reproducible luminance range, the mobility and variation in capability of display devices are constantly increasing. Consequently, in real life usage it is now very likely that the display emission to be distorted by spatially and temporally varying reflections, and the observer's visual system to be not adapted to the particular display that she is viewing at that moment. The actual perception of the display content cannot be fully understood by only considering steady‐state illumination and adaptation conditions. We propose an objective method for display visibility analysis formulating the problem as a full‐reference image quality assessment problem, where the display emission under “ideal” conditions is used as the reference for real‐life conditions. Our work includes a human visual system model that accounts for maladaptation and temporal recovery of sensitivity. As an example application we integrate our method to a global illumination simulator and analyze the visibility of a car interior display under realistic lighting conditions.

Otaku world

Japanese youth are famed for their love of technology and fantasy imagery, but the rise of Otaku culture developing into an unhealthy obsession could hamper Japan's high-tech economy. The youths were drawn to Electric Town, with its lure of exotic consumer electronic goods, in the early 1990s. Today, many stores now cater exclusively to their tastes. These young people have had a huge impact on the business model of the large electronics companies. Yet there is a downside to the rise of Otaku culture. The number of young men who snub the workaholic corporate lifestyle is increasing and the number of salary men is in decline, which is threatening the foundation of Japan's economic post-war prosperity.

Battle of the lasers

The season for the biggest sales of electronic consumer goods is approaching fast. Yet still there is little sign of rapprochement between the blue laser camps. It will likely be at least one more Xmas before Blu-Ray/HD DVD players will be in the shops. Global agreement on one format is not here yet but companies are taking sides. Recently, Intel and Microsoft chose Toshiba's HD technology.

Combining heuristic procedures and simulation models for balancing a PC camera assembly line

In this paper, a mixed-model PC camera assembly line balancing case study is presented. The aim of the study is to establish different line configurations, for varying levels of demand. In the first stage of the study, a heuristic procedure previously developed by some of the authors, based on the simulated annealing meta-heuristic, is used to derive line configurations with a minimum number of workstations and a smooth workload balance between and within the workstations. In the second stage, the solutions provided by the heuristic are used as an input to discrete event simulation models in which certain manufacturing parameters that analytical procedures have difficulty to accommodate, namely, stochastic times, machine breakdowns, rework, etc. are introduced. These simulation models derive different performance measures (e.g. flow times and resources utilization) that provide operational support and help fine-tune the line configurations. This paper reports on the collaborative study between the Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering of University of Aveiro and a major manufacturer of electronic consumer goods.

Disassembly Factories for Electrical and Electronic Products To Recover Resources in Product and Material Cycles

Cycle economy as a paradigm for industry in the 21st century depends on the economical and ecological treatment of limited resources. The objective is to achieve more use with fewer resources to increase the use-productivity of these resources. The European Union, aware of the adverse environmental impacts associated with electrical and electronic consumer goods in particular, has passed legislation regulating their appropriate end-of-life treatment. Adaptation processes, including essential disassembly and re-assembly operations, contribute significantly toward the economical fulfillment of these new legal requirements. Typically, the disassembly of used products is characterized by a high rate of manual operations, wide variety of product types, and unknown product properties. To cope with such demands, life cycle units or product accompanying information systems, are being developed and used for acquiring data about a specific product throughout its life cycle to aid in determining the level of product deterioration. Modular disassembly processes and tools have been developed and realized to enable the handling of multiple productvariants. They are being implemented in prototypical hybrid disassembly systemsfor large- and small-size electrical and electronic consumer goods.

Current and future uses of gold in electronics

The applications for gold in electrical and electronic components are many and varied, and the quantity used is growing steadily especially with the growth in consumer electrical and electronic goods. This paper considers the various applications in the context of the physical and chemical properties of gold relative to other candidate materials. The question of reliability versus cost inevitably enters into the decision to use gold in a particular application, but the use of gold is widespread nevertheless, since it is often cost effective.

Products and the environment: an integrated approach to policy

The European Commission has recently begun a process for considering an integrated product policy (IPP), defined as public policy which explicitly aims to modify and improve the environmental performance of product systems. Three main factors have combined to create a need for more effective policies on products and the environment. First, many traditional process-oriented policies have been successful in reducing emissions from industrial production activities, while the environmental impacts of consumption are being increasingly recognized by governments and consumers alike. Second, a number of new analytical approaches (life cycle approaches) for understanding the environmental burdens of product systems have been developed and are being applied in policy decisions. Third, many existing product-oriented environmental polices are believed to have been ineffective. An EU IPP will build on policy initiatives already in train at the EU member state level, and on developments within firms to improve the environmental profile of goods and services. This paper reviews product-related policy in member states, together with an assessment of product environmental management in five industrial sectors: chemicals; pulp and paper; food; electronic goods and consumer goods. A framework for an IPP composed of five ‘building blocks’, clusters of policies with a common objective, is described. These building blocks include policies related to consumption waste management, green product innovation, market creation for green products, environmental information and the allocation of responsibility for product management. Some policy makers argue that we may be witnessing the beginning of a general transition away from process-oriented policies, and towards product- and consumption-oriented policies. The paper illustrates some basic problems faced by an IPP, and proposes an incremental, phased approach to policy development in the EU. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

CAD for free-form surfaces

Recently, consumer products with complex idiosyncratic curved surfaces are becoming increasingly common in the market. It is now usual for designers of products such as cars and consumer electronic goods to use free-form surfaces that cannot be adequately represented in two-dimensional drawings. As a result, computers, especially three-dimensional CAD systems, have become essential design tools. Unfortunately, 3D CAD systems are still regarded as impossibly complicated by many designers. To address this problem, we have developed a 3D CAD system that makes it easy for designers to interactively create and modify the shapes that they have in mind. This system features high-quality modelling functions, can also produce rendered views of the models it generates, and incorporates a user-friendly interface that allows the designer to operate the system unaided. Compared to conventional design processes based on 2D drawings and fabrication of the mock-up products, this system provides an environment that can make great contributions to design work. This paper describes the functions and features of the system.

Marketing electronic consumer goods

Bang and Olufsen's recent turnaround bucked the trend in the mature consumer electronics market where it is considered so difficult to differentiate products that for years many retailers have sold price instead of products. The 1995/96 results are expected to show continued robust growth in turnover and profits. Here, the author examines what characterises the success of this Danish David in a world of (mostly) Japanese Goliaths and looks at what lessons, if any, UK companies can learn from the marketing of this small luxury brand.

Asian Electronics and PWB Production, Market and Technology

The economic growth of Pacific Asian countries in the last three decades is unmatched elsewhere. Financial muscle in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore is comparable to that in New York, London and Frankfurt. Electronics has been one of the industries favoured by this region of poor natural resources but rich in well‐trained manpower. Fuelled by desire and strong financial backing, Pacific Asia is now responsible for 70% of the world output of consumer electronic products. Malaysia is becoming a central focus for IC assembly and the manufacture of consumer electronic goods. Singapore is the disc drive manufacturing centre of the world. Taiwan accounts for 10% of the world PC production. Hong Kong may be a model for future China when the British colony is returned to China in June 1997. Korea is becoming a power house in IC memory. Japan is a threat to the United States in every industrial field imaginable. In this paper, the author will examine the status today and in the year 2000 and beyond of Asian electronics with a special emphasis on the Asian PWB industry which already accounts for 45% of the world production. In addition to production and market assessment, technologies and manufacturing costs will be studied in comparison with the rest of the world.

Training and innovation: the Japanese way

The Japanese output of graduate engineers per head of population is two and a half times higher than in Britain. One result is that Japan continues to dominate high-technology mass-production industries in almost every sector, from electronic consumer goods to cars. (Financial Times, 15th June 1990)

New Forms of Manufacturing and Their Spatial Implications: The UK Electronic Consumer Goods Industry

Findings from a recent survey of the introduction of new manufacturing techniques in the UK electronic consumer goods (ECG) industry are presented. ECG firms operate in an environment characterised by intense global competition, rapidly changing consumer demand, shortened product life cycles, and the pervasive impact of new technologies. In response to these pressures firms are forced to operate in both an efficient and a highly flexible manner. The corporate responses to these pressures are outlined in an industry-wide overview, with the resultant impacts on firm performance being described in a series of case studies. In conclusion, a discussion of the possible spatial implications of the findings is presented. This includes an assessment of the ramifications at both the international and intranational or regional scales. It is shown that the application of new manufacturing techniques within this sector has led to major changes in both the spatial and the aspatial organisation of its production processes.

Corporate strategies in the international semiconductor industry

Within the complex of information technology industries the semiconductor (SC) industry has become one of the main competitive “battlegrounds” for the major U.S., Japanese and, more recently, European electronics corporations. Most industrialised countries consider the SC industry as strategic for several reasons. It is both a major world industry in its own right and, perhaps more importantly, a vital supply industry to the wide range of downstream information technology (IT) industries. In fact, SC components can be seen as the physical “building blocks” of all the final IT goods industries including telecommunications, computers, office equipment, informatics and electronic consumer goods. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the contemporary strategies of the SC corporations of Japan, the U.S. and Europe in their efforts to maintain and improve their competitive positions. A secondary purpose is to use the case of SCs to explore three widely held assumptions regarding technology and competitive performance: (a) that technology strategy is a crucial factor underpinning corporate performance; (b) that technological leads underpin competitive advantage; (c) that technological capability, is, in general, firm-specific, cumulative and path dependent. ’

Production and Assembly of Electronic Equipments in a Large Electronics Industry: A Case Study

The paper deals with the techniques adopted for the Production and Assembly of electronics equipments and components in a major Electronics Industry.At the outset, it explains the objective behind setting up the Industry and the rapid strides it has made in the field of Control Systems, Computers, Communications and Consumer Electronic goods for the period of 17 years, since its establishment. It also tells about the increase in sales turnover in the past five years. The paper in the later part deals with Production techniques followed for the Computer products, Multilayer Printed Circuit Boards, Thick film resistors and the Control systems. It also highlights about the distinctive salient features of the Production methods adopted in the Company. The sequences and methods of production processes are also displayed in the suitable charts.As an essential feature of the production, the paper discusses about the possible improvement areas in Methods Engineering, Tooling, application of computer-aided design ...

Research and Development in Electronic Capital Goods

The world electronics industry has been one of the fastest growing in the past half century, with a compound rate of growth of over 10 per cent per annum at constant prices since 1935.[1] Within the total, the output of ‘electronic consumer goods’ is no longer rising particularly fast in most advanced countries ; but the output of ‘electronic capital goods’ has been increasing at over 15 per cent a year (in current prices) over the past six yeats, and will probably continue to rise rapidly according to most forward estimates.121 This article is mainly concerned with capital goods ; but for some purposes it is necessary to consider the industry as a whole. Many firms produce both consumer and capital goods, because they use similar components and techniques and draw on a common fund of skilled manpower and research knowledge.

Integrated circuits in consumer products

Modular microcircuitry will move into every section of the consumer electronic goods field and perhaps into some areas that are not considered primarily electronic.