Employee involvement in quality improvement: a comparison ofAmerican and Japanese manufacturing firms operating in the US

The authors sought to determine whether firms classified as incorporating a Japanese quality management approach had significantly higher levels of worker involvement in the quality effort as well as higher utilization of statistical quality control (SQC) tools. The three types of firms represented were traditional American firms, Japanese firms operating in the US, and nontraditional American firms emulating the Japanese approach to quality management. Results suggest that Japanese and nontraditional American firms (1) have a significantly higher level of worker involvement and (2) use simple SQC tools significantly more than traditional American firms. In addition, Japanese firms operating in the US showed results comparable to these American firms practicing Japanese quality management techniques     

The technical communication practices of Russian and US aerospaceengineers and scientists

Two studies were conducted in order to investigate the technical communication practices of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists. Both studies had the same five objectives: to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communication to their professions; to determine the use and production of technical communication by aerospace engineers and scientists; to seek their views about the appropriate content of the undergraduate course in technical communication; to determine aerospace engineers' and scientists' use of libraries, technical information centers, and online databases; and to determine the use and importance of computer and information technology to them. Responses to a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to Russian aerospace engineers and scientists at the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and to their US counterparts at the NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Langley Research Center are presented     

Technology transfer in US government and university laboratories:advantages and disadvantages for participating laboratories

Based on findings from a national survey of government and university R&D lab directors, the authors examine perceptions of advantages and disadvantages of technology transfer. Four points stand out. First, laboratory directors, regardless of sector, are generally optimistic about the payoffs of technology transfer. Second, there is surprisingly little difference between university and government laboratory directors' views. Third, the research mission of the laboratory is related to directors' assessments of the problems and benefits accruing from technology transfer activity. Finally, laboratories stressing development research encounter fewer disadvantages from technology transfer activity than those involved chiefly in basic or applied research oriented laboratories. The benefit most commonly cited by both government and university laboratory directors is increased public visibility for the laboratories' activities, and both indicate that the greatest problem is time taken away from the laboratories research activities     

Integrating R&D and marketing: a comparison of practices in theJapanese and American chemical industries

The authors analyze survey information collected from R&D and marketing managers working for American and Japanese chemical manufacturers. They report three key differences in the R&D marketing relationships between Japanese and American firms. Those differences involve the procedures for allocating the tasks between the functional areas, the activities assigned to each area as a result, and the potential for conflict between the two functions. Specifically, the authors find evidence that R&D departments in Japanese firms have a larger role in new product development than do marketing departments. American firms are not characterized by the same asymmetry in their relationship. Finally, the American firms studied did exhibit a greater potential for conflict between functions     

A catalyst for US competitiveness

Programs of the US Commerce Department's Technology Administration that are stressing cooperation with industry and academia are discussed. As a result, Commerce programs reflect different approaches. In some cases, the department acts as an advocate for industry within the Federal government. The Commerce Department also acts as an advocate for industry with foreign governments. Efforts are underway to share technological breakthroughs at US government laboratories with small businesses, universities, and state and local governments. In some areas, particularly manufacturing, the Commerce Department acts as an agent for change     

The impact of environmental and organizational factors on discontinuous innovation within high-technology industries

This study examines the influence of environmental, organizational, and managerial characteristics on discontinuous innovation across three industries (aerospace, electronic components, and telecommunications) that are highly dependent upon innovation for survival and competitive advantage. The authors randomly mailed survey questionnaires to 900 chief executive officers located across the USA and obtained quantitative data from 192 individuals. To validate these results, they conducted structured follow-up interviews of 25 executives. The findings suggest that discontinuous innovation increases with environmental dynamism and that structure and processes (intrafirm linkages, experimentation and transitioning, or sequencing from one product/project/program to another) contribute to discontinuous innovation. These results suggest that top managers are active, not passive, in influencing discontinuous innovation within their organizations.     

Japan and the United States: Cooperation vs. competition in high-technology

Japan and the United States share many similar objectives in high-technology. The cooperation between the two countries has spread widely. However, the high-technology area, which is a high growth and most promising sector, has been marked by intensive commercial competition sometimes leading to excessive anxiety and unnecessary confrontation.     

Knowledge transfer and the limits to profitability: an empirical study of problem-solving practices in semiconductor manufacturing and process development

A broadly based empirical study of problem-solving practices in the semiconductor industry reveals that the inability to transfer knowledge rapidly is limiting the profitability of semiconductor, manufacturers. Extremely high user loss rates force users and suppliers of semiconductor process and diagnostic technology to solve problems as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, both sides possess knowledge that is required to solve problems but cannot be transferred rapidly enough for extensive losses to be avoided. Collaboration between users and suppliers, in which problem solvers physically relocate from one side's site to the other's, is minimizing losses but creating a shortage of experts that threatens the health of the industry. A series of practices that will reduce the cost of knowledge transfer is presented. Foremost among these is the establishment of an Internet-enabled toolkit for remote diagnostics and repair.     

A US perspective on standards development

The foundation for the interconnected society of the 21st century is being built today. The key to having this become a reality is the availability of compatible national, regional, and global communications standards. Committee T1 Telecommunications has played increasing important standards development roles in the US and global telecommunications industries. Committee Tl's dual roles of a US standards developer and an initiator of global standards harmonization contribute to satisfying the users' desires that it be as easy to communicate across the country or around the world as it is to communicate across the street. The key technologies of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), personal communications services (PCS), and synchronous optical network (SONET) are but a few of the topics for which standards have been developed in Committee T1, and for which standardization of extensions and enhancements continue. These areas have also been among the topics Committee T1 has targeted for standards harmonization     

A decade of Internet research — advances in models and practices

The complexity and heterogeneity of the current Internet have rendered traditional analytical models and techniques inadequate for networking researchers and engineers. Many within the networking research community feel that researchers investigating new protocols and architectures, either by simulation or test-bed implementation, need to use common models. Despite the lack of models with universal applicability, there are certain models that are more appropriate than others for analysing certain systems. Researchers in different areas tend to use established models, typically to allow comparison of results. In addition, researchers have made considerable progress in understanding the statistical nature of Internet traffic. Despite the widespread use of simulation and test-bed implementation for modelling the Internet, there is little consensus today on analysis techniques and their validation. This paper summarises the main advances made in the last ten years or so in understanding the nature of Internet traffic, models and practices developed for Internet topology and protocol dynamics analysis.     

美军加密市场概况

简介1991～1996年度世界、美国和美军的加密市场并叙述它们的特点。     

Multiproject strategy, design transfer, and project performance: asurvey of automobile development projects in the US and Japan

Large manufacturers usually need to manage multiple projects in order to leverage their financial and engineering resource investments on new technologies and designs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between different multiproject strategies and project performance measured by lead time and engineering hours. The multiproject strategy in this study focuses on different ways of transferring core technologies and designs from one project to another within the firm. First, this paper proposes a typology of different multiproject strategies, which categorizes new product development projects into four types: new design, rapid design transfer, sequential design transfer, and design modification. Second, using survey results on 103 different new product projects at 10 automobile firms in Japan and the US, this study concludes that projects using the rapid design transfer strategy are the most efficient in terms of engineering hours. Only through rapid design transfer can a preceding design be transferred from a base project to a new project with effective task sharing among engineers and mutual adjustments between the two projects. This paper also discusses organizational requirements for managing rapid design transfer projects. Neither a pure project-team approach nor a functional approach seem appropriate for the management of concurrent multiple projects     

美国市场产品认证面面观

针对国内企业对美国市场在电子和电器产品的安全测试认证方面认识的不足,本文从各个角度对美国市场的认证进行了论述,并提出了一些相应的方案.     

A comparison of rare-gas flashlamps

Spectral data for argon, krypton, xenon, and neon flashlamps are presented for the region of lamp operation in which the line radiation makes up a substantial portion of the total radiant energy. The spectral charateristics are presented in terms of both power flux and emitted quanta per unit area per second, the latter being appropriate for the characterization of illumination and laser pumping efficiencies. The emission spectra show strong line radiation peculiar to each gas superimposed on a low emissivity background continuum. The electrical resistance coefficientk (in Omega.A^{1/2})is presented for each gas and is shown to increase with increasing gas atomic weight and pressure. An analysis of lamp radiative efficiency indicates that through proper optimization of the gas pressure, the efficiency and overall output of the lighter rare gases will be comparable to those for optimized xenon lamps with optimum pressures increasing with decreasing gas atomic weight. Overall lamp efficiencies are shown to be as high as 40 percent in the0.4-1.1-muregion.     

A comparison of the IRIDIUM and AMPS systems

A brief history of progress made in the mobile telecommunications industry is presented. This article compares the IRIDIUM system (which uses satellite operating in the 22.55 to 23.55 GHz range) to the existing Advanced Phone System (AMPS) cellular system. It is concluded that although the two systems' architectures, services provided, and subscriber number formats vary enormously, the methods used for call registration, call setup, call handoff, and cell reuse are surprisingly similar. It is assumed that the reader has a familiarity with the existing AMPS cellular system     

A comparison of sender-initiated and receiver-initiated reliablemulticast protocols

Sender-initiated reliable multicast protocols based on the use of positive acknowledgments (ACKs) can suffer performance degradation as the number of receivers increases. This degradation is due to the fact that the sender must bear much of the complexity associated with reliable data transfer (e.g., maintaining state information and timers for each of the receivers and responding to receivers' ACKs). A potential solution to this problem is to shift the burden of providing reliable data transfer to the receivers-thus resulting in receiver-initiated multicast error control protocols based on the use of negative acknowledgments (NAKs). We determine the maximum throughputs for generic sender-initiated and receiver-initiated protocols for two classes of applications: (1) one-many applications where one participant sends data to a set of receivers and (2) many-many applications where all participants simultaneously send and receive data to/from each other. We show that a receiver-initiated error control protocol which requires receivers to transmit NAKs point-to-point to the sender provides higher throughput than a sender-initiated counterpart for both classes of applications. We further demonstrate that, in the case of a one many application, replacing point-to-point transfer of NAKs with multicasting of NAKs coupled with a random backoff procedure provides a substantial additional increase in the throughput of a receiver-initiated error control protocol over a sender-initiated protocol. We also find, however, that such a modification leads to a throughput degradation in the case of many-many applications     

A comparison of the born and rytov methods

A simple relationship between the terms of the Born and Rytov series is derived based on elementary considerations. Two examples are presented which show that the Born and Rytov methods can have a considerably different domain of validity.     

A field theoretical comparison of FDTD and TLM

A field theoretical derivation of the three-dimensional TLM method with expanded node and of the three-dimensional TLM method with asymmetrical condensed node is given. In the derivation, the Method of Moments is applied to Maxwell's equations. The wave amplitudes are related to the tangential field components at the boundaries of the TLM cell. The same approach is applied to derive the FDTD method from Maxwell's equations. A complete dispersion analysis is given for the two TLM methods as well as for the FDTD method