Toward a New Era in U.S. Manufacturing The Need for a National Vision (1986) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C: A Review of Policy Recommendations of Selected Study Committees, Panels, and Commissions, 1979-1985
Appendix C: A Review of Policy Recommendations of Selected Study Committees, Panels, and Commissions, 1979-1985
Pages 131-156
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While some of these study groups have dealt with broad issues of productivity, innovation, and technological change, the main focus has been on the manufacturing sector. This appendix summarizes policy recommendations made by 17 study committees during 1979-1985.
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Human Resource Management Various studies included wide endorsement of the idea that employees should be more involved in the decisions affecting their work, that the adverse human impacts of automation need to be moderated, that reward systems linked to productivity performance can be helpful, and that labor-management cooperation should be encouraged. Education and Training Several panels stressed the need to improve and expand engineering education in a time of explosive growth in technology.
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Several panels favored simplification of the tax structure. Capital Investment The capital investment issue was considered by several groups as connected with efforts to stabilize monetary and fiscal policy.
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Vanderslice, GTE Corporation. It analyzed how technological progress is affected by certain economic problems, including slow productivity growth, inadequate capital investment, uncertain government regulation, and a complicated patent system.
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Major Policy Recommendations · Review the tax code to achieve substantial simplification in the tax structure, reduction in tax preferences, and reduction in marginal tax rates through a broadening of the tax base. · Adopt a mechanism to adjust the valuation of capital gains for inflation thereby eliminating a major impediment to saving and investment.
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· Review current antitrust policies and modify any antitrust laws that inhibit productivity growth. · Regulatory goals should be pursued primarily through market incentives and the use of the bubble and offsets programs; use of regulatory requirements and direct controls should be avoided.
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Background Professor William J Abernathy of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration headed an 11-person pane} of experts from industry, labor, universities, finance, and an official of a major automobile manufacturing company.
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· Temporary import quotas will encourage production inefficiencies and high prices, weakening primary demand. On the assumption that fundamental structural change is taking place with substantial technological change, new products, decTine of vertical integration, and advance of specialized producers, the pane} projects that · Tax incentives and deregulation will aid investment in new product development.
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· Expand incremental R&D funding as well as research grants to universities for projects related to a firm's business. Capital formation policy Create a category in the depreciation system for equipment with high rates of technological obsolescence combined with a reduction in the penalty for taking the investment tax credit over a short time period.
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· Restore the patent time lost as a result of FDA regulatory requirements. · Examine antitrust policy to determine whether it discourages mergers that could make U.S.
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Technology · Examine government-sponsored collaborative R&D projects in apparel manufacturing, involving fiber, fabric, and equipment industries. · Place greater emphasis on policies affecting equipment utilization, such as more favorable tax incentives for the use of experimental equipment.
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considered a wide set of policy options, specifically rejecting any large-scale government subsidies, protectionism, and major countercycTical purchases of machine tools by DOD. It concentrated on the removal of obstacles posed by existing policies rather than on crafting dramatically new ones.
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Capital formation · Fashion monetary policy to stabilize interest rates to encourage long-term capital investment. · Clarify guidelines to industry for antitrust enforcement and launch an analysis of the effects of antitrust prohibitions against domestic mergers and market concentrations on international competitiveness.
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Major Policy Options Trade The panel considered the benefits and disadvantages of antidumping suits, countervailing duties, tariffs, trigger price mechanisms, and quantitative limitations, including the current system of negotiated voluntary quotas. Environmental policy The pane!
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capacity and capability. Major Policy Recommendations DOD actions · Modernize the defense industrial base through increased and stable funding of the Industrial Modernization Incentives Program and the Manufacturing Technology programs.
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· Reduce barriers to the export of machine tools to Eastern bloc markets. · Make an inventory of federal programs that are aimed at the problems of manufacturing productivity to gain better coordination and simplification.
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· Federal agencies that purchase manufactured goods should accept digital data sets compatible with the Initial Graphic Exchange Standard rather than requiring conventional drawings as a deliverable item under contracts. Manufacturing companies considering investment in product design or manufacturing process technology should consider CIM.
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Quality awareness should be raised through campaigns that would include private cooperation with schools to spread the concept of quality and national awards for contributions to improved quality. · Reward systems for productivity improvement should be initiated, including sharing business information with employees, participative work practices, pay for performance, and better measurement of productivity.
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· Develop a specific plan for fundamental tax reform, with improving productivity as a standard for evaluating tax reform proposals. · Change or repeal laws that unpose impediments to productivity growth, including performance standards in environmental regulation; cost-benefit analysis and market-based incentives in health and safety regulation; - protection of patents against unfair use by other coun tries, especially in areas of computer software and chip tech nologY; making joint ventures, including joint R&D ventures, a more effective means of meeting world competition; and consistently evaluating regulations and laws in terms of effects on productivity; creating a National Medal for Productivity and Quality Achievement; and emphasizing better techniques of measuring produc
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· Promote labor-management cooperation to consider workplace problems such as plant closings, training, restrictive practices, and employment security.
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· Expand programs for disseminating labor market infor Expand programs for assisting displaced workers, including advance notice and financial incentives to relocate personnel, either in or outside the firm. Work environment Increase oversight of and research on the workplace effects of automation through OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
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Under the guidance of the Department of Commerce, more than 150 senior representatives from industry, labor, academia, science, and public interest groups participated in meetings held by the Advisory Committee on Industrial Innovation. These deliberations covered the broad issues of economic and trade policy, environmental, health, and safety regulations, regulation of industry structure and competition, federal patent and information policy, federal procurement policy, and direct federal support of R&D.
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titrust policy. Consider general economic health in enforcement of an Patent and information policy · Complete development of art effective computer-based patent search and retrieval system.
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Major Policy Recommendations Research and development and manufacturing Create a federal Department of Science and Technology. Increase tax incentives for R&D.
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Review export policies, including renewal of the Export Administration Act, negotiate agreements to minimize the impact of national security export controls on competitiveness, and improve the functioning of export expansion, trade information, and export financing programs.
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· Employers, in the event of dismissal of permanent employees, should actively help them find suitable work elsewhere, including outplacement services, retraining, and pension portability. Regional groups of employers and unions should form alliances and organize computer-based job clearinghouses and retraining, education, and job creation programs.
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