It pays to go the extra meter - includes related articles on metric conversions

It Pays To Go The Extra Meter

For Ronald Stange, president of Tools for Bending, in Denver, the very idea of adopting the metric system 13 years ago was "a royal pain in the neck." But once he and his staff solved what he calls "the mystery of metric" by actually working in then-unfamiliar centimeters and millimeters, they found the metric system easy to use. "Now my engineers all prefer it," Stange says.

The production of metric-sized metal-bending tools has enabled his company to crack markets in Europe, Japan, Australia, and India, where metric is the standard system of weights and measures. Since 1976, the company's exports have increased as much as 30 percent a year, and the number of employees has doubled to 70.

Stange became interested in selling overseas after a discussion with Carl Jacobsen, then a trade specialist in the Denver office of the U.S. Department of Commerce and now deputy director of Commerce's office in Hartford, Conn. Jacobsen stressed to Stange the benefits of developing a secondary market to protect his company during domestic recessions. "In fact, that's exactly what happened during the recession of 1979-81, when our foreign markets kept us going," Stange says.

Stange is one of many small-business owners in the U.S. who have discovered the economic benefits of going the extra meter to attract foreign customers. And the trend toward a metric marketplace is growing steadily. By the end of 1992, the 12 countries of the European Community (EC) are to become a single market accepting only metrically labeled imports.

Also by the end of 1992, federal agencies will have to use the metric system in procurement, as required by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. This means the government will require metric weights and measures for about $380 billion worth of purchases annually, "except to the extent that such use is impractical," according to the law. (See the box on the facing page.)

The metric system, formally called the International System of Units, or SI, was developed by the French in the 18th century. Today, it is used in nearly every country. Only the U.S., Burma, and Liberia still use the english-based system of weights and measures, known as the customary, or inch-pound, system.

In 1975, with the passage of the Metric Conversion Act, it appeared that the U.S. was ready to go metric. But the law made the change voluntary and imposed no deadlines for metrication, and interest in conversion soon waned. Some large corporations, including General Motors, adopted metrication. Most small businesses held back, however, saying conversion was too expensive and too much trouble.

These attitudes are slowly changing, though, as many enterprising businesses realize that exporting requires a metric product. The Perfect Measuring Tape Co. of Toledo, Ohio, a family business with seven employees, made that discovery when Canada adopted metric standards in 1977. Perfect Measuring Tape had to convert if it wanted to continue selling its disposable paper measuring tapes to Canada's textile companies. (The tapes are attached to goods such as rolls of carpet or cloth and are discarded after use--such as determining where to cut the roll for a piece of a certain size.) The company converted one machine to supply its Canadian customers, says Andrew C. Bohnengel, the firm's president. "Once we did that, we found a whole metric world out there." Perfect Measuring Tape today ships 28 percent of its measuring tapes abroad.

The lumber industry, too, is changing to metric--if slowly. American hardwoods are in great demand not only in the U.S. but also in other countries, and several companies are cultivating secondary markets overseas in case of domestic sales slumps. Such firms find they have a sales edge if their exports are in cubic meters rather than the "board feet" measurements commonly used in the U.S. Lumberyards in some states are exporting to the Far East and Europe, and they tailor their products to foreign market preferences.

One such company is Mongold Lumber in Elkins, W.Va., which still ships lumber in board feet for domestic sales but uses cubic meters when filling overseas orders. It also makes custom cuts of lumber in metric measures. The company's chairman, Max Armentrout, found that it was not difficult to convert to metric measure. Because of his engineering background, he was familiar with SI. "Many people who resist it don't realize that metric measurement is easier to use than the English system," he says. "It's more precise, and you don't have to deal with fractions."

The automotive, farm-machinery, liquor, and soft-drink industries are among those that have readily adopted metric measures. Others, including the commercial-aircraft, oil, and construction industries, still use traditional inch-pound standards, but they make metric concessions to comply with overseas regulations or satisfy customers.

Rexworks, in Milwaukee, makes construction machinery and concrete-mixing equipment in customary units for domestic and foreign markets, but the weighing devices it includes in some products can measure in both systems.

Now, Rexworks faces a decision that may become more commonplace in increasingly global markets: whether to use inch-pound standards for metric products being introduced in the U.S. The company designed and built overseas an all-metric machine used in surfacing rural roads. For U.S. sales, at least its hydraulic components must be converted to customary measurements, says Dick Carone, vice president of Rexworks' international division, "because only inch-pound hydraulic pumps and motors are available in the U.S. But we're doing an analysis to decide whether to build the rest of the machine in SI or inch-pound."

Even suppliers to the staunchly inch-pound oil industry must do some things in metric when selling abroad. The Tom Wheatley Valve Co. in Houston, which supplies valves to oil companies, exports about one-third of its annual production even though only 1 percent of it is metric. But Wheatley Valve documents overseas shipments in SI, and its test reports give measurements in both customary and metric units to meet countries' regulatory requirements.

"The secret of America's success in the international market lies in giving the customer what he wants," says Lew Babbidge, vice president and general manager of Wheatley Valve. "For a Japanese client, we supplied valves in English measurements with metric flanges to meet a Japanese standard. If the customer wants metric, he gets metric."

Carl E. Beck, president of the Charles Beck Machine Corp., in King of Prussia, Pa., and chairman of the American National Metric Council, a trade association, says government support for metrication is welcome. The trade law's metric provision may encourage small firms to start making metric parts, he says, which would break the cycle of companies not designing products with metric parts because none are available and suppliers not making metric parts because there is no demand.

Beck sees the effects of that cycle in his own company's operations. His firm, with 40 employees, makes industrial sheet cutters for paper, cardboard, and textile factories for U.S. and overseas markets. Exports average 10 percent of production annually. Foreign customers ask for metric parts and gauges on their cutting machines, but because so few are made in the U.S., Beck must buy expensive metric air-pressure gauges from Switzerland.

The cost of replacing tools and equipment is a concern of any company considering metric production, but often this expense is less than feared. At Tools for Bending, the company paid for metric micrometers and gauges, and thus the staff machinists did not have to buy these tools for themselves. Stange says the cost of converting part of his business to SI was not significant.

Companies usually find that the metric system requires fewer tools. Beck Machine uses 18 different inch fasteners but only eight metric fasteners. Moreover, some companies have metric capability that has gone unrecognized. For example, Stan R. Jakuba, a metric consultant in West Hartford, Conn., worked with a company that had 40 machines on the shop floor and found that about half of them had metric thread-cutting ability--which was known to the machines' operators but not to supervisors.

Jakuba also deals with another type of measurement--his own system for measuring the public's attitude toward the metric system. Acceptance must be spreading, he says, because "I don't get hate mail any more."

Lorna Williams is a free-lance writer in Washington, D.C.

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