MANAGEMENT
plier—who accounts for 9 3 % of D u Pont's 30,000—is t h e only answer. This is especially true for much of the spe cial plant equipment which must b e "tailor-made". Such equipment is often supplied by small fabricators who hap pen to have the highly skilled man power and know-how. Also* D u Pont engineers point out that frequent design changes in plant equipment necessitate adjustments which can be effected quickly and eco nomically only by a small company with facilities close to t h e plant, whose per sonnel are quickly available. The D u Pont study also turned up a number of small manufacturers whose entire output is channeled toward a spe cific D u Pont need. Small, as they are, some of these companies are volume producers. For example, the Chatta nooga printer who set u p a small plant where he makes the 3 0 million or s o carboard disks used annually at the D u Pont nylon plant there to identify t h e yam as it is shipped out to customer,
Small Fry Research Truth at Any Cost For its frank and deft handling of the news of the Whiting Refinery disaster last year ( s e e C&EN editorial, Oct. 10, 1 9 5 5 ) , Standard Oil of Indiana wins a Public Relations News Annual Achievement Award. Here, Robert E. Wilson, chairman of Standard Oil's board, receives the PR award from Mrs. Denny Griswold, N e w York City editor and publisher of Public Relations News. Referring to the Whiting disaster, Mrs. Griswold said, "Today, enlightened management realizes that it has a responsibility to inform the public. It gives the media company news, quickly and factually whether that news be good or bad."
Big at Expense of little? No—its a n interchange, says Du Pont. Small companies number more than 9 0 % of its 7 5 , 0 0 0 customers and 3 0 , 0 0 0 suppliers CONTRARY
TO POPULAR BELIEF,
the
bigs and littles d o not compete directly for the same business, according to a re cent D u Pont survey. The bigs do t h e jobs for which they are best equipped —volume production, large scale re search and development. The smaller companies, on t h e other hand, excel in processing, converting, and distribut ing the products of b i g business. Du Pont says 95% of its products go to other manufacturers for further proc essing, only 5% direct to the ultimate consumer. Furthermore, D u Pont claims its big business products open u p opportunities for little business. As examples, company cites its: 5400
C&EN
NOV. 5, 1956
• Cellophane—300 small firms em ploying 12,000 people convert and fab ricate cellophane film. Also, more than 6000 firms, of which less than 100 are big, buy D u Pont cellophane t o pack age products. • Nylon. Yarn and plastic of nylon are made into hundreds of articles by several thousand firms, nearly all of them small business. • Teflon resin finishes. To date, 30 small metal coating companies are treating metal for fabricating bakery and candy machines, heat-sealing and other special equipment. β Free refrigerants—now used as the propellant in more than 100 kinds of "push-button" aerosol products. An industry of 50 loaders employing 1300 workers has mushroomed in less than a decade. I n buying annually thousands of items ranging from paper clips to power plants, D u Pont, like most big business, finds that for many jobs the small sup
A research investment as l o w as $ 5 0 0 0 c a n p a y off. It's a l l in pick ing the right targets THE AVERAGE DOLLAR invested in sci
ence returns a dividend of $60, says James O. Bengston, president of Chi cago Apparatus C o . W i t h this kind of a dividend, research definitely can pay off for small companies as well a s large. "It's time to shatter the notion that re search is feasible for t h e D u Ponts and General Electrics but not for the small company." If small firms pinpoint their objec tives, a research laboratory investment as low as $5000 can pay off- Small firms should concentrate on: • Lowering cost of production • Decreasing maintenance costs of old products • Increasing useful life of existing products • Expanding markets for old products These targets do not require long range financing and a company can achieve tangible results in a minimum amount of time. Bengston tells of a paint manufacturer w i t h 3 5 employees, annual sales of about $1 million, and a two-man research and control labo ratory. The t w o m e n recently de veloped a paint which saves a n impor tant customer more than $15,000 a year. Although this company's invest-
...SINCLAIR CHEMICALS ALWAYS RIDE FIRST-CLASS! Two special fleets of tank cars are added assurance that you get what you pay for when you specify Sinclair! To guard against contamination, Sinclair ships odorless solvents and aromatics in separate tank car fleets used exclusively for this purpose. It saves trouble! TRULY ODORLESS SOLVENTS — Sinclair's team of truly Odorless Solvents, both Light ( 340-405ς F.) and Heavy (375-465° F.), are synthetically produced from carefully selected hydrocarbons to insure the uniformity, stability and superior quality required by manufacturers of odorless paints. Available in full, or split tank car quantities. HIGH PURITY AROMATICS -Toluol (1° nitration grade), Xylol (5°), and Paraxylene (98% ) are being produced by modern Udex extraction facilities at Sinclair's Marcus Hook, Pa., refinery. Available in full, or split tank car quantities. When your manufacturing processes call for fast and reliable service, and top quality in petroleum-derived chemicals, Sinclair Chemicals, Inc. is ready to serve you. For complete information call or write to:
SINCLAIR CHEMICALS, I N C (Affiliate of Sinclair Refining Company) 600 Fifth Avenue, New York 20, Ν . Υ. · Phone: Circle 6-3600 155 North Wacker Drive, Chicago 6, Illinois · Phone: Financial 6-590O NOV. 5, 19 56 C&EN 5 4 0 1
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ment in research facilities is only $10,000, it has been able to stay ahead of larger competitors* Another example of a small firm making research p a y off is a manufacturer of home water softeners. This company developed its own technique to coat metal tanks with plastic, thus doubling the life of a home water softener. So research can and does pay off for some small firms. Still, w h y do so many other small companies hesitate to undertake it? Bengston says the biggest single reason is the difficulty in o b taining authoritative information on research costs. However, don't let this be a block. For good practical advice, go to laboratory equipment suppliers, trade association executives, and management consultants.
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Asked whether the influence of maintenance executives on purchasing is increasing or waning, 78% say that influence is on the way up. T h e other 22% said it was about the same: none report any lessening of influence. "The emergence of the plant and maintenance engineer as a buying influence indicates that capital equipment manufacturers must widen their sales approach to the plant operating team to include this new, important purchasing factor," says Clapp & Poliak, sponsor of the interview-survey. This interview-survey was conducted breakage for Clapp & Poliak by Kemp Research Organization, marketing analysts of Rochester, Ν . Υ. Many of the maintenance executives interviewed were employed in the chemical and the chemical processing industries. Others interviewed included manufacturers of foods, automobiles, machine tools, electronic equipment, and household appliances.
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THE CHEMICAL RUER CO. ^5310 SUPERIOR AVENUE · C.LEVÎLAND 14 .OHÎO
^SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT *«£ ANALYTICAL-CHEMICALS ^LABORATORY FURNITURE
5402
C&EN
N O V . 5,
i V ^ : à H HANDBOOK
1956
·
LABORATORY .SUPPLIESjJi
OF CHEMISTRY
AND
play a major role in the purnew capital equipment sway decisions on what brand purchased
PHYSICS^
• Pre-employment hearing tests were suggested b y Robert A. Ewens, execu tive director of Wisconsin Manufactur ers Association. H e says an audiometer examination is at least a starting point. "A person may b e 20% defective i n hearing when he is hired and 10 years later, due to either noisy environment
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
RADIATION
LAtORAlOlTi-derkttry.
.Livermore
UCRL
At TJCRL's Livermore, California, site — interior view o f drift tubes in hig-H-current linear accelerator designed t o deliver 250 ma ofif 3.6 IMev protons or 7.8 Mev deuterons
Could you help advance these new frontiers? New techniques . . . new equipment... new knowledge—all are in constant growth at Livermore and Berkeley, California as some of America's most challenging nuclear frontiers are met and passed by the University of California Radiation Laboratory's unique scientist-engineer task force teams. There are many such teams. And what you can do as a member, is limited only by yourself—your ability and your interest. For UCRL is directed and staffed by some of America's most outstanding scientists and engineers. This group offers pioneering knowledge in nuclear research—today's most expansive facilities in that field...and wide-open opportunities to do what has never been done before.
I
F YOU are a M E C H A N I C A L or ELECTRONICS ENGINEER, you may b e in-
volved in a project in any one of many interesting fields, as a basic member of the task force assigned each research problem. Your major contribution will be to design and test the necessary equipment, which calls for skill at improvising and the requisite imaginativeness to solve a broad scope of consistently unfamiliar and novel problems. If you
are a CHEMIST or
CHEMICAL
ENGINEER, you will work on investigations in radiochemistry, physical and inorganic chemistry and analytical chemistry. The chemical engineer is particularly concerned with the problems of nuclear rocket propulsion, weapons and reactors. If you are a PHYSICIST or M A T H E M A -
TICIAN you may b e involved in such
fields of theoretical and experimental physics as weapons design, nuclear rockets, nuclear emulsions, scientific photography (including work in the n e w field of shock hydrodynamics), reaction history, critical assembly,
nuclear ptiyslcs, h i g h current linear accelerator research, and the controlled release of -thermonuclear energy. In addition,, you w i l l b e encouraged to exjplore? fundamental problems of your o*wii choosing a n d to publish your findings in t h e open literature. And for yowxr family—there's pleasant livdng fro b>e had in Northern California's simny, smog-free Livermore Valley., near exi-cellent shopping centers, schooLs and tfcie many cultural attractions o f the S»an Francisco Bay Area. Yozi ccz.li help develop townorr-Qw?—at UCRL today Send fror complete information on the facilities, vvorik, personnel plans and benefifcs and th-e good living your family can entjoy.
© UCRL
55-2-2
UCRL
DIRECTOR OF PROFESSIONAL PERSONNÎEL UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RADIATIOOi LAJ3OE*AT0RY LIVERMORE, CALIFORNTIA
Please send me complete information describing UCRJL facilities, projects and opportunities. My fields of interest areNameAddressCity
-Zone
State.
N O V . 5,
I9 5S
C&EN
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^NA_GJ^ENT or some other cause, may b e 25% de fective. Kis employer will know at least that he is not responsible for the first 2 0 % / ' Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co., Ewens says, long has made prehiring tests and finds that one-quarter of its job applicants has some hearing defect.
THERMAL TYPE CA DIRECT FIRED AIR HEATERS
• Longer vacations of- Du Pont—this is one of the revisions of the company's benefit programs. Instead of the 15 years' service previously required, em ployees who have worked for D u Pont for 10 years are now eligible to receive three weeks' vacation annually. Also, employees now have an opportunity to be insured for twice their annual pay. • Executive skills a t Foster D. Snell
are being encouraged. Purpose: a trained nucleus for advancement to top management positions. Thirty employ ees have been selected for an executive development program to b e given by Harold Feldman. He is dean of the school of business administration at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is an educational consultant to the Ameri can Institute of Management.
C O M P A C T . . . EASILY
• University o f Chicago's seminar in
INSTALLED
management is under way. It's a one-year program primarily for middle and upper management levels.
Readily fitted to ovens, kilns, spray dryers, etc., the T H E R M A L Type CA Air Heater is an ideal source of heat where products of combustion may be mixed with the air. O i l , gas or combination firing is available without change in heater construction.
• $ 2 0 million raise a t Wesfinghouse
—the raises apply to both employees represented by unions with which the company negotiated five-year contracts, and also those not represented. It's an automatic pay raise of 3%, with mini mum increases of about five cents an hour, over employees' base rates. Effective Oct. 15, it is to be followed by raises of 3 % of base pay in October 1957, and 3.5% in October 1958, and again in October 1959.
NO R E F R A C T O R Y R E Q U I R E D . . . The T H E R M A L High Velocity Burner built into the heater permits combustion to be substantially com pleted within the burner itself. Thus the heater is basi cally a mixing chamber wherein the products of combustion are mixed with the air being heated. Refractory is not normally used. Successful applications have been made ranging from under 200,000 BTU/hr. to over 20,000,000 BTU/hr. and at all pressure levels. .. FOR PEUILED INFORMATION WRITE FOR BULLETIN 1
UNITIZED CONSTRUCTION Initial cost and upkeep Is kept at a minimum through the use of all welded, all metal construction. The CA Air Heaters are normally supplied as complete "package" installations.
STUD DÉTAILS TO SUIT
THERMAL BURNER
0Ι / / .
^-i_/i
• Employees' trust plan a t Bjorksten
X •* Ν— L
StlCC
V,
1 f
ν,,XIHGOftlFICCS
NOARY AIR INLET
^
Gas, OU & Combination Gas-Oil Burners · • Heat Exchangers · Submerged Combustion · Combustion & Heat Transfer Engineering
OTHER THERMAL PRODUCTS & SERVICES
T H E R M A L Thermal Research & Engineering Corp. CONS
5404
H O H O C K E N
•
REPRESENTATIVES
IN
C&ENI NOV. 5, 195 6
ι
P E N N S Y L V A N I A PRINCIPAL
CITIES
Research Labs is under way. The com pany each year will turn over one half of its profits—to be credited to each em ployee-member's account in proportion to his compensation during the year. Other benefits under the plan include the loaning of money at low interest rates to the members. • Field salesmen
for
manufacturers
increased their earnings b y an average of 31/2% last year, according to a sur vey of sales compensation by the American Management Association. More than 17,000 sales personnel were surveyed in positions from sales train ees to supervisors, and district and re gional managers. More than threefourths of the salesmen covered earned between $5000 and $15,000 annually.
