High-tech industry

High-tech industry The is a branch of material production

High-tech industry The is a branch of material production 

High-tech industry The is a branch of material production in which the resources of nature are extracted on a large scale and adapted to the needs of people,

based on the division of labor and with the help of machines. In the beginning, a large number of raw materials and a large amount of manpower were used during production. Industrial revolutions contributed to the reduction of the role of traditional industries in favor of new solutions. Modern solutions shorten the production time of all kinds of goods. high-tech progress, economic changes, and the change in consumer needs led to the process of restructuring the industry,

 consisting in, inter alia, adjusting the branch structure and the volume of industrial production to the requirements of the global market and individual needs of consumers. Restructuring began most quickly in highly developed countries, e.g. in Germany, part of the Rhine-Westphalia Industrial District; in the United States, the Lakeside District; In Great Britain - Yorkshire County - Humberside, because it requires a lot of money. In the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, including Poland, the restructuring process was initiated by political and economic transformations in the 1980s and 1990s.
 

Features of industry restructuring:

Moving away from environmentally harmful raw materials industry • Moving part of the production to developing countries

• Closing unprofitable industrial plants
• Changing energy sources (coal replaced with oil and natural gas)
 
the High-tech, industry is also called the high technology industry or the high processing industry. It is a branch of industry that uses the latest technical, scientific, and technological achievements, both in the production process and in the product itself. This industry started developing mainly in highly developed countries The development was caused by the development of scientific and technical thought, which has a great impact on the global economy, as it provides new technical solutions, materials, 

and products to other branches of industry, as well as to other sectors of the economy (services and agriculture). The high-technology industry combines in one area scientific and research institutions, highly developed communication infrastructure, business, financial institutions, and high entrepreneurial potential.
The high-tech industry applies the latest scientific and technological achievements in the production of products. It consists of the following branches and sectors:
 

1. Chemical industry producing:

• Plastics
• Synthetic materials
• Inorganic chemicals

2. Pharmaceutical industry.

It is part of the chemical industry. It specializes in the production of drugs based on biotechnology and is developing mainly in highly developed countries because it requires large capital outlays. The United States produces over 35% of the world's drugs.
3. Arms industry producing weapons and parts for them.
4. Aerospace and rocket industry producing:
• Rockets
• Spacecraft
• Airplanes
• Equipment for flight and space research.

5. Consumer electronics industry producing,

for example, personal computers, audio-video equipment, mobile phones, digital televisions and cameras, optical instruments.
 

6. Industrial electronics industry,

eg transistors, integrated circuits, semiconductors, microprocessors, measuring and printing devices, telecommunications and medical equipment, research, and office equipment.
 

7. Industry of the means of transport.

It includes the production of ships and cars, among others. The aviation industry belongs to the much more advanced ones. The leaders in this field are European Airbus and American Boeing. In contrast, parts such as engines and chassis components are supplied, for example, by companies such as Rolls-Royce and Goodrich.
 

8. Precision industry.

It includes the production of medical and optical equipment (including telescopes, lenses, telescopes) and measuring devices. It requires highly qualified staff, therefore its focus is close to scientific resources.
 
The great variety of products is one of the reasons for the lack of a strict definition of the high-tech industry. Currently, two criteria are used to separate it:
 The share of expenditure on research and development, not less than 3.5% of the total expenditure incurred in production.
 
 Share of research workers and engineering and technical staff not less than 20-25% of the total number of employees.
 
In the high-tech industry, the production process is divided into two stages. The first stage is the so-called innovation phase in which scientific research and research facilities play an important role. In this phase, new technological concepts are developed and products are tested. For this reason, industrial centers are located near universities and research and development institutions, and in an unpolluted natural environment. Locating plants in an attractive landscape environment is to encourages specialists and high-class professionals. The innovation phase takes place in highly developed countries: Japan, the United States, and Western European countries.
 
The second stage is mass production in which low labor costs play the greatest role. Countries in the mass production phase often use long-term tax breaks for foreign investors. Important factors that influence the location of the High-Tech products assembly plant:
 
The stable fiscal and political situation of the state
Low bureaucracy
Lack of strict environmental protection requirements, mainly in the case of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
 
The second stage mostly takes place in developing countries. These are mainly Asian countries (Malaysia, China, South Korea, Thailand). Some of these countries often also develop their own research and development sector, which is why these countries not only import but also export high technologies.

Location factors of the high technology industry:

• Skilled workforce. It is needed for the design and construction of devices as well as for the development and implementation of new projects. Scientific research is conducted in rich countries. Continuous training enables further staff development.
 
• Scientific and research facilities. Neighboring universities and research institutions enable the training of staff and researching new technologies and products. This makes it possible to quickly apply scientific achievements to specific products. Profits from the production of new products finance further research.

• Landscape and environmental values. 

Clean air is needed for the production of semi-conductors, and uncontaminated water is needed to produce crystalline silicon. The attractive landscape also motivates employees and promotes relaxation after work. Thanks to very good conditions, it is possible to recruit the best employees.

• Extensive communication infrastructure

 A well-developed transport infrastructure (proximity to highways, airports) facilitates cooperation, trade, and information exchange with companies all over the world. High-tech products, due to their small size, are most often transported by air.

• Capital.

 It is necessary to conduct scientific research, 

implement new projects and modernize production.

• Neighborhood of companies with a similar profile of activity.

 It enables cooperation and exchange of experiences, it also influences competition, contributing to development.

Features of the high technology industry:

• Short product life cycle (e.g. new models every few years)

• High degree of material processing
• Low material
consumption
• Constant modernization of production • Technically complicated production processes
• Extensive cooperation relations between companies
• Large share of scientific and engineering and technical staff in employment
• Tendencies to focus on specific areas
• High quality of products
• High capital intensity of production
• High level of employees' qualifications

The High-tech industry has an impact on the economic development of the state. It requires large financial outlays to support research centers, which is why most high-tech centers are located in highly developed countries, e.g. in the United States, Canada, or Japan, and in Europe in Great Britain,

 Germany, and France.

When it comes to the development of high-tech industry, Europe lags behind the best - due to the advantage of traditional, although constantly modernizing industries: automotive, chemical and electrotechnical. It is caused, among others, by a reluctance to finance risky ventures.
There are many entrepreneurs in the United States willing to pay for pioneering technologies that still require many years of research. The money goes to talented, brave scientists who are ready to create completely new solutions. Most investments are made in biotechnology, IT, and pharmaceuticals - 10-20% of income is spent on research there.

In Japan, the situation is similar, although the amount donated to research is half that.
In Poland, the pace of development of the high technology sector is not high and varies spatially. Technologies are introduced the slowest in the eastern provinces. Poland is mainly a consumer of high technologies or a reproducer of the achievements of other countries, especially in the field of telecommunications, computers, and microelectronic equipment, it is caused by many years of technological delay characteristic of post-socialist countries.

In Poland, the production of chemicals for electronic devices, in particular biotechnology, has great development opportunities. Our country is particularly well-developed research in the field of classical and veterinary biotechnology. At the moment, the cooperation of industry with research plants is tightening, and many scientific achievements are implemented in practice.
High technology industry plants are usually located close, because cooperation, exchange of experiences, and direct contacts between company employees are of great importance. In this way, technopolies are created, i.e. modern industrial districts, which are divided into various spatial forms: technological and industrial parks, science parks, and others.

Technopolies are areas gathering production plants, scientific and research institutions related to each other by the high-tech industry, as well as financial institutions and small service companies for large enterprises. They are located in areas with a well-developed infrastructure. Most of them developed in the USA. The development of technopoly fosters the emergence of cities gathering innovators who deviate from ideas from the past.

The World Technopolis Association (WTA) unites over 80 technopolies, the most famous being Silicon Valley, which is located in the northern part of the US state of California and employs more than a million employees.

They are divided into:

• Science parks (science cities). These are strict scientific research complexes having no territorial relationship with industrial production, including Akademgorodok (Novosibirsk district)
 Tsukuba (Japan)
 Daedeok (Daejeon district in South Korea)

• Technology and industrial parks (technological-industrial complexes). These are the areas with the most complex activities. Research is carried out on them, modern technologies are implemented and industrial production is carried out. These complexes can form from scratch, away from industrial activity (e.g. Silicon Valley), and they can also form in old industrial districts that are transforming (e.g., Boston Route 128)
 Silicon Valley. It is the oldest and most important center of the high technology industry. It covers an area of over 4,000. Square km (about 10 times more than the area of Warsaw). The first part of the name is related to the location in the Santa Clara Valley, and the second to silicon, which is the basic raw material for the production of electronics. The origins of Silicon Valley date back to the 1940s, when Stanford University accepted an order from the US government to develop new computing technologies to encrypt information. State funds and a convenient location favored the creation and development of enterprises specializing in microelectronics. The Silicon Valley is located in an area with a warm, mild subtropical climate, in the vicinity of beaches, near mountains (2-3 hours away), and close to universities.

 Corridor M4. It is a technopoly located in Great Britain, in the vicinity of the M4 motorway between London and Bristol, the development of which began in the 1970s. Now there are mainly representative offices of large international corporations from the automotive (e.g. Honda) and IT sectors (e.g. Microsoft, Dell) ). Low population density, Oxford University, and a clean environment are creating office complexes and business centers.

 Silicon Bavaria. This technopoly is located in Germany, it houses the factory of Siemens ideas and important companies such as Daimler, Bosch. Decades ago, Bavaria was a poor agricultural area, now it is one of the richest. The changes were caused by the expansion of the technical infrastructure and the establishment of research centers, such as the University of Passau.
 Chinese High-Tech centers.

The "Valley of the Four Little Tigers" is a production center for household electrical appliances and acoustic devices. This valley is made up of the cities surrounding Macao and Hong Kong.
Changchun Center (the capital of Jilin Province) specializes in the manufacture of carriages for trains, passenger cars, trucks, and tractors.

Jiujiang (in Jiangxi Province) is dedicated to the aerospace, petrochemical, and fertilizer industries.
The Ningbo Center (near Shanghai) consists of four economic zones, which include numerous universities, machinery, paper, energy, and biomedical industries.
Kunming Center (Yunnan Province) deals with the pharmaceutical industry and the production of auto parts.

Xi'an Center (the capital of Shaanxi Province) deals with the production of electronic and electric machines and devices, software for the industry as well as space technologies, It includes the spheres of economic development and numerous universities.
The Wuhan Center (the capital of Hubei Province) includes the research, communication, financial and industrial center of Central China. He works in the electromechanical, bioengineering, optical, and pharmaceutical industries.

Technological and industrial parks in Poland:

• PÅ‚ock Industrial and Technological

Park • KwidzyÅ„ ski Industrial and Technological Park Industrial
districts, due to the organization of industrial activities, are composed of:
• Industrial districts which usually constitute old industries. This is an area where small enterprises form a production chain that specializes in a specific area of production. The cooperation of companies is a condition for their success. In a district, the interrelated initiatives of the respective sectors of the economy are concentrated in a limited area. The resulting advantages are a specialized market for a qualified worker, the flow of knowledge between enterprises and the presence of the service sector, and the manufacturing factors that support the activities of the enterprise.

• Industrial clusters, 

forming modern industrial districts - technopolies, it is a cluster in a specific area: state institutions, universities, research, and development centers, and non-governmental organizations. Their activities are related to companies that compete and cooperate at the same time, and this activity is aimed at innovation. A network broker is a specialized company that initiates and improves contacts between companies. There are over 2,500 clusters in the world, they are created in all sectors of the economy. There are over 1,200 clusters in Europe, most of them in Catalonia (Spain), the Rhône-Alpes Region (France), Lombardy (Italy), and Baden-Württemberg (Germany). Clusters are divided according to the degree of modernity into: technological (e.g. creating the Silicon Valley) and traditional (otherwise historical, e.g.

In Poland, most industrial clusters are located in the south of the country (ÅšlÄ…skie, MaÅ‚opolskie, Podkarpackie voivodships). The most popular are: the Aviation Valley in Rzeszów (aviation industry, apart from companies related to the industry, there are educational facilities for pilots), Plastikowa Dolina - Tarnów Industrial Cluster (plastics), and the Ecological Food Valley.