The Digital Hand How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries

by Cortada, James W.

• ISBN13: 9780195165883
• ISBN10: 0195165888
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's role in sixteen industries, accounting for nearly half of the U.S. economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear,Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the U.S economy. In addition, to this account of computers' impact on industry, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influencedthe nature of digital technology. Managers, economists, and anyone interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and its future possibilities in a wide array of industries. A detailed picture of what the infrastructure of theInformation Age really looks like and how we got there, The Digital Hand is a sweeping survey of how computers transformed the American economy.

Author Biography

James W. Cortada is a leading authority on the history of information technology and is the author of over three dozen books. Dr. Cortada is a member of the IBM Institute for Business Value and has held various consulting, management, and executive positions at IBM over the past three decades

Table of Contents

Arrival of Digital Technologies and Their Applications	p. 3
Digitizing the American Economy	p. 28
Presence and Role of Manufacturing Industries in the American Economy	p. 66
Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Transformation of Manufacturing Industries	p. 89
Patterns and Practices in Three Traditional Manufacturing Industries: Automotive, Steel, and Aerospace	p. 128
Patterns and Practices in Three Process Industries: Petroleum, Chemical, and Pharmaceuticals	p. 161
Manufacturing Practices in Information Technology Industries: Semiconductors, Hard Disk Drives, and Software	p. 193
Business Practices and Digital Applications in the Transformation of Transportation Industries: Trains and Trucks	p. 227
Presence of Wholesale and Retail Industries in the American Economy	p. 258
Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Transformation of the Wholesale and Retail Industries	p. 283
Patterns and Practices in Three Retail Industries: Grocery, Apparel, and E-tailing	p. 317
Conclusion: How Computers Changed the American Economy	p. 355
How to Study the Role of Computing by Industry	p. 389
The Universal Product Code (UPC), Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Point-of-Sale (POS)	p. 395
Notes	p. 397
Bibliographic Essay	p. 465
Index	p. 473
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