VOA标准英语2010年-Extensions Spread 'Lean' Business Idea

Almost a century ago, in 1914, the U.S. Congress set up a network of county agricultural agents who showed small farmers how to modernize¹ their methods. This Agricultural Extension Service helped make American farms the most productive in the world.

Planners soon put this idea to work in industry. They set up an elaborate manufacturing extension service that helped turned their agrarian² nation into a dominant³ industrial power.

That nation was not the United States. It was Japan. A network of 170 regional technical centers called Kohsetsushi sent out experts to help Japan's 875,000 small, industrial companies to modernize.
 
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology uses this illustration to describe the impact of its Manufacturing Extension Partnership⁴ program.

Not until 1989 did the U.S. government stir and begin to build a nationwide manufacturing extension network of its own.

Now that network, called the Manufacturing Extension Partnership under NIST - the National Institute of Standards and Technology - is going strong. It supports industrial extension centers in every state and Puerto Rico. More than 400 all told.

Based at state universities and nonprofit consulting agencies, these centers are more problem solvers and efficiency experts than renowned⁵ pipefitters or notable technicians.
 
North Carolina State University
N.C. State University's Industrial Extension Service advised workers at Cable Assembly, LLC, in Graham, N.C., to keep every size of cable right next to their work pods to improve efficiency.

An example is the Industrial Extension Service at North Carolina State University in the capital city, Raleigh. With funding from the state and federal government, and from fees charged to clients, it advises Carolina furniture manufacturers, pharmaceutical⁶ and medical firms, and other companies how to achieve what it calls lean manufacturing.

Reaching that goal involves cutting inventory⁷, improving on-the-job training and communications, and putting technology that has been successful in one industry to a whole new use in another one - much as auto⁸ plants were converted to bomber⁹ factories during World War II.

In just 4? years, clients report that North Carolina's industrial outreach program has helped them, collectively, to create goods and services worth more than $1 billion

1 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

2 agrarian   

adj.土地的，农村的，农业的

参考例句：

• People are leaving an agrarian way of life to go to the city.人们正在放弃农业生活方式而转向城市。
• This was a feature of agrarian development in Britain.这是大不列颠土地所有制发展的一个特征。

3 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

4 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

5 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

6 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

7 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

8 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

9 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。