Be wary when trying to make money look 'all metric'.
In the UK something expressed like this:
£25m
would mean 25 million pounds rather than "Pound twenty five milli-nothings"
From: Pat Naughtin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:33321] Non metric costs
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 16:04:54 +1000
on 2005-06-22 14.10, Daniel at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I can't imagine how much extra production costs are involved with making
> products like fasteners, where duplication abounds from producing both
metric
> and English, keeping the inventory separate, then the cost to stores
that have
> to carry both. Then the frustration of someone buying one fastener when
they
> need the other and having to make a second trip to the store to rectify
the
> problem. Maybe it is the price we are willing to pay to be different.
>
Dear Daniel and All,
I agree with everything you have said above. But how much does that cost?
Years ago, I was involved with the Australian building industry as they
changed to metric units. We estimated that each building company that made
a
quick clean metric transition could expect to increase their gross profits
by between 15 % and 20 % and their net profits by about 10 % to 12 % as a
direct result of their transition to metric. Each company could then enjoy
these gains forever.
I also read (but I have lost the reference) that the Confederation of
British Industry (CBI) conducted a survey of their members in about 1980
where they found similar savings (15 % of gross profits and 11 % of net
profits).
If these figures are right, and we can apply them across whole nations as
well as whole industries then we can estimate the cost of non-metric
transition as being at least 15 % of gross national product (GNP).
In the case of the USA, non-metric and mixed unit businesses could be
costing as much as 1.58 G$ (that's 1.58 trillion dollars) per annum or
$5700
per person per year.
In the UK this figure would be 231.6 M$/a (that's 231.6 billion dollars)
per
annum or $3900 per person per year. This is 126.7 billion pounds per annum
or 2133 pounds per person per year.
I base my calculations on 15 % of these figures for GNP in the year 2000
taken from http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/gnp.html
USA $10,533,000,000 $38,000
Britain $1,544,000,000 $26.000
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin ASM (NSAA), LCAMS (USMA)*
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter,
'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe by going to
http://www.metricationmatters.com and clicking on 'Newsletter'.
* Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the
Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual for writers,
editors and printers', he is an Accredited Speaking Member (ASM) with the
National Speakers Association of Australia, and a Lifetime Certified
Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric
Association.
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