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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gottfried who wrote (51144)	8/25/2001 6:27:34 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

G, That is indeed a good question as the Japanese have always been reluctant to let people go. Perhaps they are becoming more westernized in this respect? BK

To: Gottfried who wrote (51144)	8/25/2001 6:43:46 PM
From: Cary Salsberg	Respond to of 70976

RE: "...belated cutting of fat?" The article below attempts to attribute JDSU's cuts to a form of "cutting of fat", becoming more efficient and less labor intensive. In 1983, $50B IBM predicted $100B in 5 years. They haven't reached it yet! Good companies constantly "cut fat." When JDSU goes from 29,000 to 13,000, one expects that all the "fat" will go, but all the cuts from IBM to JDSU to Toshiba are done to cut costs and eliminate cash hemorrhaging in the face of drastically reduced revenues. One also hopes that, considering the obscene salaries most top executives make, layoffs are a leading rather than trailing indicator. "...and has now increased its total number of planned job cuts to 16,000. Considering that, even at its peak, the company employed no more than 29,000 workers, this figure is undoubtedly staggering. However, it's quite likely that, like many other large-scale layoff plans that have been announced, the impetus behind JDS Uniphase's decision isn't simply an industry downturn, but also the ability to realize increased production efficiencies. On the whole, the manufacturing of optical components is highly labor-intensive, at least when compared with, say, the manufacturing of magazines or plastic bottles. However, over the past couple of years, there has been a strong, ongoing trend towards the automation of manufacturing facilities, both with regards to the production of "passive" components such as filters and couplers, and semiconductor-based "active" components such as lasers and modulators. JDS Uniphase has been among the leaders in driving this trend, and, given its economies of scale and the scope of its recent job cuts, may be one of its largest beneficiaries one the optical networking industry begins its inevitable rebound."

To: Gottfried who wrote (51144)	8/25/2001 9:56:03 PM
From: StanX Long	Respond to of 70976

Gottfried, you posted “Japanese companies may be more a belated cutting of fat?” This may be close to the truth. I have lived in Japan as well as work with many people from different companies. There has been a general feeling that companies in Japan hire people for a very long term commitment. Two days ago, I was speaking to a Japanese vendor. Nice enough guy selling his goods. After our business was concluded, I asked him how long he was been working for his company ? “Seventeen years”, he said. "You’re too young looking to have been working for your company so long", I said. “No, I started straight out of college”, he said. I believe many Japanese companies have held onto their people longer than they should, and we are seeing this inevitable. :0) Stan