<div dir="ltr">I devote attention to the subject as it related to manufacturing in the USA, with lots of bibliography, in The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries (Oxford U Press, 2004).</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Paul McJones <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:paul@mcjones.org" target="_blank">paul@mcjones.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>Paul,</div><div><br></div><div>Burt Grad described the creation of GE’s first applications for the UNIVAC I in this article:</div><div><br></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div>The First Commercial Computer Application at General Electric</div><div>By: Burton Grad, December 2006</div><div><a href="http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_General_Electric" target="_blank">http://ethw.org/First-Hand:The_First_Commercial_Computer_Application_at_General_Electric</a></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>He said a large team was assigned the task of writing a payroll system for the Washer and Dryer Department, while he was assigned the task of writing a manufacturing control system for the Dishwasher and Disposer Department. It took him about six months, and his programs "operational long before the payroll system was completed.”</div><div><br></div><div>I’m not sure exactly what manufacturing control referred to, but I suspect it involved scheduling and tracking the movement of parts and subassemblies, but not actually performing real-time control of any machinery.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Paul McJones</div><div><br></div><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <<a href="mailto:CeruzziP@si.edu" target="_blank">CeruzziP@si.edu</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="color:blue">... When GE installed one of the first commercial UNIVACs at their Louisville, KY appliance plant, they were concerned with the topic of automation eliminating jobs and its possible bad publicity. ...</span></div><span class=""><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="color:blue"> </span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="color:blue">All that from the installation of a vacuum-tube computer with very primitive, by modern standards, computing power. A further irony is that the UNIVAC, as far as I could tell, did not have anything to do with automating production on the factory floor.<u></u><u></u></span></div></span></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
This email is relayed from members at <a href="http://sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">sigcis.org</a>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</a> and you can change your subscription options at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>James W. Cortada</div><div>Senior Research Fellow</div>
<div>Charles Babbage Institute</div><div>University of Minnesota</div>
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