> Jordan:
>
> Don't tell that to the NUMMI folks!
>
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_United_Motors%2C_Inc.>
>
> ..............
>
>
>
>
> If you take a look at a 2005 dated image (see link
> below) from inside the NUMMI facility you may see a
> clue, part of the puzzle, which helps explain why US
> automakers have fallen so far behind -
>
>
> <http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=105515>
>
>
> At the head of the page, there's a photo of a Toyota
> Tacoma being partially assembled by industrial robots.
>
> Such robots (along with the super Taylorization of the
> human labor force "Mr. WD" mentioned) surely play a
> major role in ensuring quality control. The Japanese
> have invested heavily in robotics of all sorts:
> everything from artificial dogs to prototype elder
> care units right on up to the heavy duty machine
> assembly bots used in auto plants.
>
> US automakers' commitment to robotics has been tepid
> by comparison.
>
> Indeed, even that middlebrow rag Time bemoaned the
> sorry state of American industry's use of robotics in
> in this 2001 published piece:
>
>
> Limping Along In Robot Land
>
>
> Once it was hailed as the ultimate manufacturing
> industry, an enterprise that would cut American labor
> costs, boost productivity and rack up as much as $4
> billion in sales by 1990. Blue-chip giants stampeded
> to buy into the action; bankers panted to finance the
> heralded expansion. Optimism was seemingly unbounded
> for the U.S. robotics industry, which produced
> semi-intelligent machines that were expected to help
> American businesses compete with low-wage foreign
> rivals over the next two decades and to improve
> greatly the quality of American industrial production.
>
> Well, that was five years ago. Rather than becoming
> the highly successful purveyor of tireless, reliable
> welders, assemblers and heavy lifters for the auto
> industry, aerospace and other industrial concerns,
> robotics today is an industrial accident victim,
> crippled by a two-year slump. Sales of U.S. robots are
> expected to decline from an anemic $580 million in
> 1986 to about $400 million this year, miles below
> those rosy billion-dollar projections. The number of
> manufacturers that make robots and related equipment
> dropped from 328 last year to 300 this year.
>
> [...]
>
>
> <http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,147117,00.html>
>
>
> It seems we (Americans) do quite alright when it comes
> to sending robots to Mars or into an Iraqi's living
> room with a warhead at the tip but not so well with
> applying bots to everyday matters.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> .d.
>
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