.i onstant ~ Manufacturers

and educators must be amenable to change if they are to keep pace with advances in technology and shifts in the marketplace BY THOMAS W. EAGAR ·r he world is changing. That truism is especially perplexing · today because the pace of change is accelerating. Changes around us require us to change or to accommodate change as individuals, as institutions, as a society. Yet change can hurt. It upsets the way we view the world, as well as the way the world views us. In the short term, change can create confusion, inef-ficiency and loss of morale; but in the long term, it is the only way to improve, progress and learn. Most people resist change to avoid short-term pain. But, if we never pay the price of change, we will never reap the good that comes from it. Change is inescapable, but it hurts less if we understand what is chang-ing and why. Changing Markets "To five well, a nation must produce well " (Ref. 1). "Productivity isn't everything, but in the long run it is nearly everything " (Ref. 2). A nation that does not produce well may not, in the long run, Jose jobs for its citizens, but its citizens will find that the quality of their jobs and standard of living will deteri-orate in comparison to those of nations that do produce well. Over the past 50 years, international trade has expanded over fifteenfold. Although trade still represents only 10 % of the U.S. economy, there is intense interest and concern over the persistence of our trade imbalance over the past ten years (Ref. 3). To many, the U.S. is no longer competitive in world markets and some believe that we have lost our manu-facturing leadership. This simply is not true. Although manu