Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech,americast.usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Mon, Aug 24 1992 Date: Mon, 24 Aug 92 04:10:13 EDT Message-ID: 08-24 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update Aug. 24, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network NISSAN USES HIGH-TECH IN TENN.: Nissan spared little in overhauling its Smyrna, Tenn., factory, which sprawls about 30 miles south of Nashville. Smyrna sports some of the most sophisticated technology in the U.S. auto industry. Its manufacturing process, called IBAS (Intelligent Body Assembly System), is controlled by computers. It is being used to manufacture Nissan's new Altima models. (For more, see special IBAS package below.) WANG BEGINS TO MAKE CHANGES: Wang Laboratories will restructure part of its international operations. Kenneth Olisa, the senior vice president who had been responsible for operations in Europe, Africa and the Mideast, will lose his job. Wang chairman Richard W. Miller says the changes will trim bureaucracy. About 5,000 jobs worldwide eventually will be cut. Wang filed for bankruptcy court protection Tuesday. HONEYWELL WINS SETTLEMENT: Honeywell Inc. said Friday it will get $124.1 million in settlements with seven camera makers it says infringed on its patented technology for autofocus lenses. Honeywell also said it will get future royalties for camera sales through March 28, 1995, when applicable autofocus patents expire. The companies: Kodak, Konica, Kyocera, Canon, Matsushita, Nikon and Premier. ASCII TO GET LOANS: ASCII Corp., a leading Japanese producer of software and publisher of computer magazines, will receive a total of $126 million, Nihon Keizai newspaper said. Kazuhiko Nishi, president of ASCII, said the loan request did not arise from a downturn in the company's core software business, but he conceded some of its subsidiaries are in financial trouble. SOFTWARE BIDS ARE SOUGHT: The U.S. Air Force Friday asked more than 300 vendors to submit bids for an advanced computer-aided software engineering contract conservatively valued at $750 million, Bloomberg Business News reports. The bidders have until Oct. 21 to submit technical proposals and until Nov. 4 to submit cost estimates, Air Force spokesman Sgt. William Dunlap told Bloomberg. MICROWAVES TO FIGHT ACID RAIN: Acid rain may be just a memory one day because of a development being unveiled Monday at the American Chemical Society meeting. High-frequency microwaves would zap the poisonous sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides, formed from burning high-sulfur coal, into byproducts that could be used for treating wastewater and cleaning toxic gases, researchers said. PILOT PROGAM DUE IN 1993: The Department of Energy said a process that uses microwaves to convert sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides into useful sulfur and nitrogen is 98% effective. That compares to 90-95% for conventional smokestack scrubbers and 80-85% for catalytic systems. Department of Energy officials say they expect the first commercial microwave system to be installed at a pilot power plant by mid-1993. ENDEAVOUR STAYS ON SCHEDULE: As Miami and the rest of south Florida braced Sunday for the onslaught of Hurricane Andrew, it was business as usual for the Space Shuttle Endeavour, 180 miles north at Cape Canaveral. Endeavour has been scheduled to be rolled out to its launch pad at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday in preparation for a Sept. 11 liftoff, and Kennedy Space Center officials saw no reason to alter that plan. JURY RULES AGAINST BOEING: Employers might re-examine the way they treat workers with repetitive motion injuries now that a Seattle jury has awarded $1.2 million to a former Boeing worker who lost use of both hands. The decision is "a clear signal ... that juries are going to view this as a very serious injury," says Steven Phillips, a lawyer representing 700 people in cases against computer keyboard makers. ODS, PRIMESERVICE SIGN DEAL: Optical Data Systems Inc. and PrimeService say they have signed a service alliance agreement. PrimeService will be the North American service provider for ODS. The deal includes on-site service and parts support. ODS makes internetworking products, including hubs, hub modules, personal computer cards and transceivers. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON IBAS: IBAS GIVES MANAGERS CONTROL: The IBAS system in Nissan's plant in Smyrna, Tenn., is aimed at giving Nissan the ability to decide what kinds of cars to build, fix problems quickly a nd guarantee quality. "Simply put, we are aiming for a (system) in which managers can immediately grasp what is happening and what needs to be done," says Nissan executive Kazutaka Kobatake. MODEL CHANGES ARE QUICKLY DONE: First installed in its year-old Kyushu plant in southern Japan, IBAS lets Nissan engineers change the way cars are assembled in an afternoon simply by re-programming IBAS' computers. That might take days in a conventional plant. Annual model changeovers, which require U.S. carmakers' factories to be closed for a month or more, can be accomplished in about three weeks. WELDS ARE DONE BY ROBOT: IBAS' advantage can be seen most readily in highly labor intensive areas like body welding. Altima car bodies pass through a compartment where robots do 67 different welds in seconds - tasks that used to take dozens of people several minutes. From there, the cars go into a closed booth where laser beams check the welds' accuracy. IBAS MAY REVOLUTIONIZE INDUSTRY: University of Michigan professor Donald Smith predicts IBAS, developed by a joint American-Japanese Nissan team, will revolutionize the way cars are built in the USA. "We took a mix of the way Japan does it, and added the best of the way we do it," says Turner, who spent six months in Oppama, Japan, directing 150 American and Japanese employees in developing IBAS. (End of package.) Technology Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM