Dear All,
The discussion below, between John Mercer and Bill Hooper, makes me think of
the things not to do -- Some metrication don'ts -- if you are involved in a
metrication process, of any size: personal, workgroup, division, company, or
national.
We may not agree on these, so I will float a few ideas for your comments.
1 Don't use old names;
Don't use old measures hidden behind soft conversions. Use hard conversions
rather than soft conversions.
As an example, say you have to change the label on a pint container to
metric; you might proceed as follows:
a Find the correct and exact metric value of a pint.
568.261 imperial
550.610 USA dry
473.176 USA fluid pint
b Don't stop here. If you stop at this point it is called a soft
conversion. This warning, not to stop, is necessary as many people do stop
here, and simply design a label to an appropriate precision -- maybe 568,
551, or 473 in these examples, or again maybe 570, 550, or 480 for these
examples. Users of these labels will know that this metrication process is
not real, as they know that the real amount of stuff in the container is
really, and truly, still a pint, so they will continue to use the word,
pint, in their everyday language, thus prolonging metrication indefinitely.
c Apply thought and reasoning to the conversion. Assume no history. Ask
what is the best and most convenient size for this container. Find out the
conditions in all of the applications where it will be used. In the case of
a pint, this will include blood donations, oil for engines, and common
cooking measures, among many others -- consider what is best in all these
circumstances and if necessary use a variety of sizes to suit different
applications.
d Following the research implied in c, choose an appropriate pint
replacement for each application of the old pint. Blood 'pint replacements'
might be about 400�mL; oil 'pint replacements' might be replaced altogether
with litres; milk 'pint replacements' might become 600�mL.
This process was followed in Australia when the old imperial pint was
changed to blood 'units'; oil is now usually available in litres or
multiples of litres; and the small milk containers changed to
600�millilitres.
2 Don't use fractions other than decimals
Avoid words such as halves and quarters. If you want to supply a half-litre
container label it 500�millilitres; and use 250�mL for a quarter litre; and
375�mL for a three-eighths litre container. This is the approach taken by
the Australian paint industry. Personally, I would have preferred that they
adopted a decimal system rather than binary fractions, but they never use
the fractional names -- their labels are consistently written in millilitres
for cans smaller than a litre.
3 Don't use centimetres.
My observations in Australia convince me that the individuals, groups, and
industries who choose to use centimetres as one of their small units also,
and probably inadvertently, choose an extremely slow metrication process. I
don't really know why this is so, but it is strikingly obvious. I know that
centimetres are an official part of SI, but I believe that it is best to
avoid them if you can in the interests of a quick and efficient metrication
process.
4 Don't avoid having a measurement policy.
Some companies that I have worked with avoid having a measurement policy.
This means that individuals and groups will set their own measurement
agenda. I recall working with a small company where different measurement
policies were adopted and practiced by different sections of the company.
The manager was old and had no intention of having anything to do with this
metric muck; the sales staff were flexible and sent in orders specified
according to the measurement whimsy of their current client; the
manufacturing group worked only in metres and millimetres; the office staff
would work in centimetres (if pushed) but they preferred to work in inches,
and they definitely did not like to work with millimetres. Needless to say
this company was a hotbed of conversion errors with their attendant disputes
and high costs. Don't use NASA as an exemplar to follow here!
5 Don't let metrication linger.
Devise strategies that will produce a quick clean changeover to each step of
metrication. Use the concept of M-days. If you decide to change all of your
temperature measurements to Celsius, then set the temperature M-day, prepare
for the change in instruments and then quickly remove all old measures from
the workplace. Don't leave old Fahrenheit thermometers around to allow the
whole process to linger.
6 Don't use conversion charts.
Experience has shown that the smoothest and fastest metrication processes
are those where the use of conversion charts and tables are avoided. Devise
methods that will help people rapidly form a new metric mindset without the
use of conversion factors. I recall a group of gasfitters where the company
called all of their field staff to a meeting where they were asked to bring
all of their tapes and rulers. These were taken and destroyed to be
immediately replaced by new, high quality metric only tapes and rulers. The
rest of the day was spent doing exercises with the new measuring equipment
that was designed to develop metric mindsets in the gasfitters. Two weeks
later that company was doing all of its work in millimetres and metres
7 Don't use parallel measuring methods.
Try to have the whole group, division, or company metricating at the same
time using the same measurement policy. Think of Kodak, whose film division
changed to metric, using millimetres, in about 1912; on the other hand
Kodak's paper division is still struggling with a mixture of centimetres and
inches.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin LCAMS
Geelong, Australia
--
on 28/2/04 9:02 AM, Bill Hooper at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
This was Re: [USMA:28979] Re: Metric foot
> John Mercer wrote:
>> What does anybody think of changing
>> the foot from 12 inches to 30 Cms, but still calling it a foot.�
>
> This kind of suggestion keeps popping up from time to time in various
> forms (pound = 0.5 kg, mile = 1.5 km, inch = 2.5 cm, etc). In all its
> forms, it has been consistently rejected.
>
> Since a 30 cm foot would not divide a metre into any whole number of
> parts, it would not be very useful within the SI metric system. Giving
> people this Olde English crutch to lean on while they learn metric
> would only result in the necessity of learning TWO things instead of
> ONE:
> (1) Learning to use a foot that is 30 cm long instead of 12 inches, at
> the same time as learning the rest of the metric system, then later
> (2) learning to use centimetres as one of the appropriate parts of a
> metre, with the need also to learn to stop using the 30 cm foot
> entirely.
>
> Why not use just one step:
> (1) Learning to use centimetres as one of the appropriate parts of a
> metre, at the same time as learning the rest of the metric system.
>
> It's easier to learn it right the first time because then you don't
> need to learn it twice.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Hooper
> Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
>
> PS The correct SI symbol for cntimetres is "cm", not "cms" or "Cms".
