Lean Transition of Emerging Industrial Capability (LeanTEC)

Lean Transition of Emerging Industrial Capability (LeanTEC) program was a cooperative agreement between the Boeing Company and AFRL conducted from January 1998 to January 2002. The results of this program are documented in the Manual for Effective Technology Transition Processes included as an attachment to this report. This manual provides processes, procedures, and tools for greatly improving technology transition in the aerospace industry. Methodology for the implementation of these improvements is given along with methods for customizing the various processes, procedures, and tools for a given company or business unit. The indicated methodology was tested by the LeanTEC team and results are documented in the report.

Whither Japan's Economy?

The Japanese economy entered a long recession in spring 1997. Its economic growth has been much lower than in the US and the EU despite large fiscal stimulus packages, a monetary policy which has brought interest rates to zero since 1999, injections of public money to recapitalize banks, and programs of liberalization and deregulation. How could all these policies have failed to bring the Japanese economy back on a sustainable growth path? This paper argues that the failure of Japan's efforts to restore a sound economic environment is the result of having deliberately chosen inappropriate and inadequate monetary and fiscal instruments to tackle the macroeconomic and structural problems that have burdened the Japanese economy since the burst of the financial bubble at the beginning of the 90s. These choices were deliberate, since the "right" policies (in primis the resolution of the banking crisis) presented unbearable political costs, not only for the ruling parties, but also for the bureaucratic and business elites. The misfortunes of the Japanese economy during the long recession not only allow us to draw important economic policy lessons, but also stimulate reflections on the disruptive role on economic policies caused by powerful vested interests when an economy needs broad and deep structural changes. The final part of the paper focuses on ways to tackle Japan's banking crisis. In particular, it explores the Scandinavian solution, which, mutatis mutandis, might serve Japanese policy-makers well.

Towards a knowledge economy

This paper provides a preliminary formulation of a new currency based on knowledge. Through a literature review of alternative currencies, various properties and benefits are selected that we hope will enable such a currency to be created. Nowadays not only money but also knowledge is necessary to do business. For instance, knowledge about markets and consumers is highly valuable but difficult to achieve, and even more difficult to store, transport or trade. The basic premise of this proposal is a knowledge measurement pattern that is formulated as a new alternative social currency. Therefore, it is an additional means of contributing to the worldwide evolution of a knowledge society. It is intended as a currency to facilitate the conservation and storage of knowledge, and its organization and categorization, but mainly its exploitation and transference

Digital Economy USRG podcast - Twitter

A video podcast plus MP3 of a 30 minute presention on the use of Twitter to build a digital presence.