Word: processes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...computer industry has emerged from an overall slump and surged forward with robust sales increases, IBM has plodded along (1987 revenues: $54.2 billion, up just 8% in a two-year period). IBM has tried to become lighter on its feet by cutting staff, modernizing factories and streamlining its process for getting new products to market. But results ! have been slow in coming. Last year's profits of $5.3 billion were 20% below the 1985 level...
...liberation of its divisions could be a morale booster for the company, especially since the move comes after a streamlining process in which the company reduced its work force by 16,000 jobs, to about 400,000 total. At the same time, some 20,000 workers were transferred, often from cushy staff jobs to more grinding assignments in sales and service. Akers is thus trying to give the company a peppier, more entrepreneurial feeling, even renaming the product groups to give them pizazz not normally seen at IBM. Example: the Information Systems & Storage Group will be rechristened IBM Enterprise Systems...
...truth, though, sculpting in glass is exacting, sensitive work. By 6 a.m. Stankard is in his studio, twirling thin rods of colored glass over the gas- oxygen burner, similar to a large welding torch. The centuries-old process is lampworking, so named because the glass was once worked over an oil lamp. "Lampworking was trivialized as a street craft and dismissed as an art form," says Stankard. "I think I've brought it far enough along that in a hundred years people will say, 'Holy smoke, how did he do that?' " As if to puncture such pretensions, he grins...
Thus while Mubarak's visit produced no tangible results, it did bring some activity and discussion to the long-dormant peace process. Where that might lead remained to be seen, but U.S. officials were not optimistic. Said a State Department analyst: "We can cajole and we can encourage, but the major players have to get together and decide that they want to talk. So far, we just don't see any evidence that there is a will to do that...
...aide: "The SEC doesn't have a staff that can go in and analyze a computer system to see if it functions correctly." That could change quickly. The N.Y.S.E. has begun to beef up the capacity of its computers, and the SEC is keeping close tabs on the process...