Perhaps our AgraCorp farms and commodity marketers are metricated, at
least partially. But your regular clod-buster and cow-prodder is
definitely non-metric. I lay a lot of that on the doorstep of the USDA.
They publish a huge volume of educational materials but not a slip of
paper toward metrication of farmers and farming. Never mind that
virtually all ag research is done in metric units; the USDA "translates"
it to non-metric when advising farmers.
Jim
John M. Steele wrote:
I think you need to look industry by industry or even company by company.
As for the claim in comments that the US auto industry is inch-based,
that is false. I worked for an automotive OEM; the industry was already
metric (and the fighting was over) when I joined in 1978.
Clearly being metric didn't save them from falling on hard times.
Several factors affected this:
*Labor costs
*Product quality
*Product range: Not understanding that failure to be profitable in
small cars, and thinking that JUST maintaining dominance (and profits)
in large car and truck was OK was critical. It led to a general failure
to understand that foreign competition would gain ground and expand into
those segments, and unpreparedness for a market shift.
Related industries (agricultural and construction equipment, heavy truck
and coach) also went metric shortly after automotive OEMs. None are
doing well at the moment.
Some other US industry (largely multinationals) have gone metric internally.
There are some odd exceptions where not being metric may cause some real
damage. I think Boeing's plan to do inch-based manufacturing with
foreign partners on the 787 is pure folly. That CAN'T work. The
manufacturing plan required them to go metric, but I think they are
blissfully unaware of that.
Our farmers seem to measure metric tons well enough to export grain in
those units. (except there is resistance to genetically modified grains,
and almost all our grain is "mutant".)
Going metric is not the panacea those comments have assumed. Some
industries have gone metric and failed anyway. It is necessary to look
a little deeper at the causes.
--- On *Sun, 10/4/09, [email protected]
/<[email protected]>/* wrote:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:45928] Metric and the decline and fall of
Anglo-American industry?
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, October 4, 2009, 6:36 PM
This posting on the UKMA's blog has some interesting comments attached:
http://metricviews.org.uk/2009/09/an-anniversary-overlooked/
Just wondering what some of the folks on this list think.
-- Ezra
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
