Jim Elwell wrote (extract)
Oh, and it is a very rare decision that is as trivial as "metrication increases
the chances for survival." Any decision such as metricating a company
has to take into account a myriad of factors, such as:
...
* which customers will accept metrication? which will not?
* which subcontractors will accept metric work? which will not?
...
I could certainly go on, but most of you will get the point: there is no one in the
world who knows the answers to all these questions except the business owners
themselves, and even then the answers to many questions are, at best, educated
guesses.
These issues can only really be tackled by a Nationwide program of change. Individual businesses cannot do it own thier own. Companies cannot be expected to invest money on metrication and rely on a reasonable return unless they know that customers and suppliers, and all related aspects of the business world, will converge to the same common metric standards within the forseeable future.
It's hard to see how a gradual change over many decades will create an environment that allows this to happen.
Well, Phil, I fear you saw in my comments exactly the opposite of what I was trying to convey. In response:
(1) You cannot say "individual business cannot do it on their own." Thousands of companies already have, ranging from big companies like Ford and General Motors, to thousands of their smaller suppliers, to unrelated companies like mine. It has not progressed as far in labeling of consumer products, but even there companies like Proctor and Gamble ARE doing it on their own. They don't need any "nationwide program of change." They saw the need/opportunity and they did it!
(2) Likewise, you cannot say "companies cannot be expected to invest money on metrication ... unless ... aspects ... will converge..." when thousands of companies have already done so.
(3) It is NOT the ambiguity of the circumstances that prevents metrication. People who own and run businesses deal with extreme levels of ambiguity on a daily basis. I would go so far as to say one of the key factors of success in business IS dealing with ambiguity. My point with the list of questions was that, as ambiguous as those questions are, the people who run each company are the ONLY ones who have a clue about the answers to many of them.
(4) More US businesses do not metricate because they do NOT see the need to metricate! It is as simple as that. Given the hundreds of factors, many ambiguous, that enter into the question of whether and how much to metricate, many businesses look and say "Why?"
Our challenge is to show them "why," then they will automatically do it, and they will deal with the ambiguities and challenges of doing so, and they certainly don't need bureaucrats or politicians helping them.
If the "why" includes "it will save you money" - "it will increase your markets" - "it will improve your ability to export" - "it will let you make one product for US and EU markets" etc., then most businesses will start doing it (except where laws impede them)
On the other hand, if we cannot demonstrate any of the above, why should they metricate?
(4) I have argued against any "nationwide program of change" many times, so I won't bother again. Let me just repeat something else I have said many times: if we only made the US Federal Government purchase metric-only products, we would provide a HUGE impetus to metrication in this country, without passing one new rule on private businesses, nor creating any more government enforcement bureaucracies. There are thousands of companies that sell to the US Feds, and a huge portion of them would immediately start metricating just so they could continue to do so. They would then pressure their suppliers (as has already happened to military contractors), etc.
(5) I would be the first to admit that metrication in the USA has been proceeding slowly. However, I believe that we are getting much closer to a critical mass, or a tipping point, where progressive companies no longer fear any backlash from metricating, and less progressive are starting to see the need. I will be very surprised if, within the next 10 years, there is not a dramatic increase in metrication across the board, including consumer products.
The laggards will be the politically-driven organizations, meaning federal and state governments. Partly because they are huge, sluggish bureaucracies, partly because they are political.
But I expect to buy food by the kilogram long before I drive in kilometers per hour.
Jim Elwell
