The future not in its own hands?
C. Richard Liu takes the example of the service for automation of production that has been promoted by the institute's Mechanical Industry Research Laboratories for many years now. Taiwan basically did not have any intermediary companies providing this kind of service in the past, and the MIRL could only take on the responsibility of giving direct guidance to all kinds of enterprises and industries. Yet with there being some 80,000 manufacturing enterprises in the country, no matter how much the MIRL went all out, each year it could serve several hundred companies, not even one percent of the total. Now the MIRL has changed to mainly guiding intermediary companies, making them into seeds and teaching resources in the hope that they will become effective levers saving the MIRL own more power for more difficult and challenging objectives.
However, it can also be said that although the conditions for each laboratory are different, on the whole much of the institute's income has come from providing this kind of industrial service. It makes good use of the institute's personnel, and they can also enjoy the direct gratitude of enterprises. Now with intermediary companies coming in to share these tasks, the institute is creating its own competitors, making employees inevitably skeptical about this kind of project.
"If the current services are gradually transferred out, and MIRL has no way to upgrade its own research and development abilities, this will create a sense of uncertainty about the future among the more than 1000 employees," admits C. Richard Liu. Being confined to research and development and providing services for the public interest without pursuing profits or conflicting with the interests of the private sector, the institute has to work toward the goal of being self-supporting and responsible for its own profits and losses. At the same time it has to avoid cuts in the work force affecting the work of research and development through eroding staff morale along with the demands of a host of other contradictions. The anxiety of the workers is not hard to understand.
Facing the shifting scenes of the industrial environment and in anticipation of the numerous quarrels between the institute and many who are outside it, on its twentieth birthday the ITRI deserves not only deep consideration--it even more so re quires encouragement.
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p.96
ITRI is not only the acronym for the Industrial Technology Research Institute; if you tack on a "DE," you get the initials of the six major concepts that drive it--innovation, teamwork, respect, industriousness, dedication, and excellence.
p.97
Although they call themselves a "scientific oddity," the variety of skills among the ITRI staff is a spur to creativity.
p.98
Quiet and even a bit uninspired, the main area of the Institute rarely sees people strolling about; everybody has their heads buried in their respective labs.
p.99
The newly-completed national-level "submicron lab" is the first demonstration factory in the country for wafer integrated circuits. Given the requirement of a "dust-free environment," workers can only go in "fully protected."
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Outsiders often think ITRI must be virtually all-male, but is fact women account for a quarter of the staff. And the women don't play second fiddle to the men in either research or factory visits.
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Developing advanced technology, assisting traditional industries to upgrade, and assisting small and medium enterprises, ITRI is the main technical support unit for the nation's 80,000 manufacturing enterprises.
p.101
The common engine development program is entering its third year, employing technology purchased from Lotus of Great Britain, it is hoped that the domestic auto industry can stay competitive even after the R.O.C. enters GATT and the car import invasion begins.
p.102
It's good to relax at dusk after a day buried in research.
p.104
There are many employees who commute daily from Taipei to Chutung, and they don't want to waste the time they spend in transit.
Outsiders often think ITRI must be virtually all-male, but is fact women account for a quarter of the staff. And the women don't play second fiddle to the men in either research or factory visits.
Developing advanced technology, assisting traditional industries to upgrade, and assisting small and medium enterprises, ITRI is the main technical support unit for the nation's 80,000 manufacturing enterprises.
The common engine development program is entering its third year, employing technology purchased from Lotus of Great Britain, it is hoped that the domestic auto industry can stay competitive even after the R.O.C. enters GATT and the car import invasion begins.