conductor and computer manufacturing, for example, progress is made primarily through incremental improvements in a cyclical manner.¹⁵ The driving force is speed in the manufacturing cycle. If a new idea is proposed at any time other than the beginning of a development cycle, it demands adjustments, testing, and problem solving that endanger time schedules, particularly with complicated manufacturing processes and products. Minor changes may cause reliability and manufacturing problems. Timing, therefore, is a critical part of the competitiveness equation. Teamwork is important to the development of a fine sense of timing in industrial research and development.

In general, successful technology transfer involves cooperative work among people whose interests and talents in development, research, and manufacturing are combined to meet the requirements of a specific goal. Linking research and development programs to the manufacturing and marketing segments of an organization is one way to ensure that technology transfer will occur rapidly enough to meet the demands of the market. The key to the success of these programs is shared technical visions and shared goals, including a mutually agreed-upon work plan and program timetable, division of labor among the joint program participants, and articulated product goals. Moreover, this type of technology transfer has to be ongoing; it cannot simply focus on one generation of technology. Projects must be organized so that, while development groups concentrate on the next product, a joint program is working on the technology for follow-on products, and research is targeted at the next generation out. Joint program coordination is the key to success.

To a great extent, technology transfer programs need to be tailored to individual cases. This point will be expanded in the next chapter of the report. There are key elements that carry through on nearly all successful transfer efforts. The participants all "get on the same wavelength." They know ahead of time, step-by-step, what they will be expected to accomplish and what their collaborators will be expected to accomplish. Finally, all parties have as clear an idea as possible of what product they want to bring to market.

Joint work, mutually agreed-upon goals, and a managed division of labor across organizational and disciplinary boundaries are the key to technology transfer. One of the reasons for the success of the national weapons laboratories is that the government has assumed the role of customer: setting specifications, taking delivery of the "product," and evaluating what was actually produced against the requirements.

The transfer process is especially difficult because so much of the knowledge necessary to advance the process of technology creation or adoption is not easily written down or codified in a blueprint or technical drawing.