Report on Technical and Managerial Innovation

摘要

The Aerospace Guidance and Metrology Center (AGMC), at Newark Air Force Base inOhio, was once one of the largest single-site users of ozone-depleting chemicals in the world, but the threat posed by these chemicals to the Earth's ozone layer prompted the facility to phase them out. The complexity of the work done at the Center would have made even a gradual phase-out tremendously difficult, but AGMC completed the process of adopting alternative technologies in a short time (mainly between 1992 and 1994). The speed with which AGMC found alternatives that met its requirements demonstrates the success of its technical and managerial innovations. Many organizations have already benefited from the technical innovations developed by AGMC. The Center has hosted government and industry representatives from the United States and foreign nations, and it has served as an information source on new ozone-protective technologies. However, as of October 1996, Newark AFB will cease to be part of the United States Air Force. It is one of the military sites chosen by government to be 'privatized in place,' and industry will take over the site. The resulting changes in the Center's mission and structure will reduce its ability to disseminate information on technology transfer. The purpose of this report is to document the Center's accomplishments in this field.