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    "ocrText": "- 53 -\n6.54\nMail Inquiries also covered fields such as Education, Safety, Labor, Construction, Health, and\nAgriculture, and self-help programs in small communities. The substantial annual growth in these mail\ninquiries attests to the important niche they filled. This program was also a resource, often the sole one, for\nsmall entrepreneurs.\nH.\nAnalysis of Products by U.S. Firms\n6.55\nThis novel Technical Assistance Service was initiated to enable manufacturers and agricultural\nproducers to locate and contact American private firms and trade associations who would agree to review and\nmake recommendations with respect to 1) the potential for improvement of existing products or 2) the design,\nspecification, and marketability of new products. The intent of this service was to provide assistance not\notherwise available, provide product review, and strengthen the various efforts in Europe and elsewhere to\ndevelop new products or improve existing ones.\n6.56\nThe thousands of Productivity Team members who visited companion facilities in the U.S.\noften saw new products and components in the plants and in the marketplace during their itineraries and many\nwere thus encouraged to produce similar items. In many instances this was the first time such products were\nencountered. The novelty of these newly seen products was not only the result of the isolation during the war\nperiod, but also the insularity of national markets in Europe, their overvaluation of established traditional\nproducts; the lack of interest encouraged by distance, and the lack of competitive pressure resulting from\nprotected local markets, often by cartels.\n6.57\nInterest in new products was often generated by the low real cost of many of the products\nseen. This made apparent the potential for their production for low income groups or for increased sale and\nconsumption of the new rather than the presently produced types of products. The products often had new\nutilities or provocative new designs. In many cases, Team members saw that the new products could be\nmanufactured with their present equipment.\n6.58\nOther factors encouraging the embarking on new or modified products were lessons learned\nin the cost savings they observed in the U.S. resulting from simplified designs, new cheaper components,\nstandardization of parts and fittings, and specialization of production within departments and plants. However,\nfirms embarking on the development of comparable products often did not have outside, market-tested\nfacilities to review their new designs and assembly procedures. Since manufacture of similar products was only\nslowly beginning in their countries, there was no body of comparable products on hand. In addition the\ntraditions of plant secrecy were slow to change, inhibiting exchange of experience in product design.\n6.59\nRequests from Productivity Centers for such product evaluation by U.S. firms were channeled\nthrough trade groups, management associations, and marketing organizations. Although the number of such\nrequests was not great overall, these requests found a sympathetic response in many American companies who\ndisplayed an admirable openness and sense of social responsibility. Productive assistance was rendered, again\nwithout the need for high cost traditional consulting firms who would, under the best circumstances, have\nfunctioned as intermediaries.\nMARK TRUMAN NARA LIBRARA"
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