Metric Use in the Tool Industry. A Status Report and a Test of Assessment Methodology

摘要

This study served a dual purpose of testing the most promising methods of assessing metric status in the United States while providing an assessment of the current status and progress of metrication activities of the machine tool industry. The machine tool industry provides capital equipment for other manufacturing industries including the automotive, aerospace, construction, and farm machinery industry. It is a small but critical segment of the national economy. There have been a number of studies of industrial metrication, but they dealt with broad categories of industry and provided little detailed information about specific industries or about the process. This study draws directly on the experience of industry companies and on data from many public and private sources. Some of the major findings are: (1) Metrication is progressing slowly but steadly in the U.S. Machine Tool Industry. (2) The U.S. Machine Tool Industry meets overseas demand and the small domestic demand for metric tools by building metric-capable machines. (3) The serious decline of the U.s. share of the world market has been somewhat masked by the fact that the dollar volume of U.s. overseas sales has increased. (4) Because of the paucity of data, assessment of metric status in specific industries cannot be handled through econometric modeling or aggregation of massive amounts of statistical data. (Author)