The following message is a courtesy copy of an article that has been posted to bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers as well.
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <l...@garlic.com> writes: > 2nd hand tale of some of the competitors testimony in gov./ibm > anti-trust trial ... all computer manufacturers knew by the late 50s > that the single most important factor in the market place was to have a > compatible architecture across the whole machine line ... and they > weren't able to get all the different plant managers to toe the line > ... different plant managers responsible for different models would do > various optimizations for the particular technology that they were > using. Only Watson prevailed in forcing all the plant managers > (responbile for the different models) to toe the 360 architecture > comptability line. re: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#45 360 programs on a z/10 so some number of business reporters from the auto show this week commented that the us auto industry is making statements that they need to be agile and adaptable to react to changing consumer preferences and market conditions in order to compete with foreign competitors. in the 90/91 time-frame the us auto industry had C4 task force meetings about how to become more profitable and compete with foreign competitors and invited some number of technology vendors to participate. they detailed that big inhibitor was the long product cycle (from idea to rolling off the line) of 7-8 yrs ... when the foreign competitors had cut their cycle to 3-4 yrs and looked to be in process of cutting that in half (18-24 months). the industry had a bunch of details on what was needed ... as well as looking to technology vendors for help in improving the process as well as cutting the elapsed time. One of the examples used was corvette design which tended to have very tight space/size tolerances ... and between initial design and actually starting to manufacture ... several components would have changed size and shape ... and no longer fit (requiring expensive redesign & delay). I chided some of the pok/mainframe attendees about it might be difficult for them to offer advice, since at the time, they were in similar product cycle situation. In any case, while in the C4 meetings it was possible for them to clearly articulate all the problems and what all the changes that were required (including being more agile and adaptable), they didn't seem to be actually able to do anything ... all the major stakeholders seemed to have vested interest in preserving the status quo. misc past posts mentioning Boyd &/or OODA-loops (OODA-loops being one of the best paradigms for characterizing agile and adaptable ... especially in competitive situations; in the past, I had sponsored Boyd's briefings at IBM): http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html misc. past posts mentioning C4 task force meetings: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#41 Reason Japanese cars are assembled in the US (was Re: American bigotry) http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#43 Reason Japanese cars are assembled in the US (was Re: American bigotry) http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001k.html#36 Newbie TOPS-10 7.03 question http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#61 TGV in the USA? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004h.html#22 Vintage computers are better than modern crap ! http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006.html#43 Sprint backs out of IBM outsourcing deal http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#14 Program execution speed http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#20 The Pankian Metaphor http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#49 The Pankian Metaphor (redux) http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#29 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#34 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#13 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#33 IBM Unionization http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#31 IBM obsoleting mainframe hardware http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#4 Horrid thought about Politics, President Bush, and Democrats http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#22 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#68 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#30 VMware signs deal to embed software in HP servers http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#31 IBM announced z10 ..why so fast...any problem on z 9 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#50 Toyota's Value Innovation: The Art of Tension http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#65 Is a military model of leadership adequate to any company, as far as it based most on authority and discipline? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#31 Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#2 Republican accomplishments and Hoover http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#50 update on old (GM) competitiveness thread http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#58 Mulally motors on at Ford http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#21 Fraud due to stupid failure to test for negative http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#52 Are family businesses unfair competition? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#4 Michigan industry http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#77 Tell me why the taxpayer should be saving GM and Chrysler (and Ford) managers & shareholders at this stage of the game? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#22 Is Pride going to decimate the auto Industry? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#20 What is the real basis for business mess we are facing today? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#2 China-US Insights on the Future of the Auto Industry http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#3 IBM interprets Lean development's Kaizen with new MCIF product http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#10 64 Cores -- IBM is showing a prototype already http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#31 Why are z/OS people reluctant to use z/OS UNIX? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#67 I would like to understand the professional job market in US. Is it shrinking? -- 40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
