80 



National Resources Planning Board 



In general it can be observed thai the small company 

 creates a unique place for itself by renderinp; through 

 its research a specialized technical service to larger 

 companies or supplies a distinctive product to a select 

 market. For the most part its research activities are 

 characterized bj' "organized fact finding" of an immedi- 

 ate and practical sort not necessarily set apart in a 

 functional unit, while those of large companies arc of a 

 continuing and more intensive nature, carried on m 

 specially organized departments or laboiatories and 

 encompass in certain instances advanced research 

 which the small companv' can rarely afford. 



Character of Research Activities 



In fields where the art has become well established 

 with less prospect of consequential technical change, 

 organized fact finding assumes the aspect of those 

 engineering activities essential to the improvement of 

 product or process. In attempting to measure the 

 magnitude of research among small enterprises, the 

 intent was to determine the highest type that was 

 essential for a company to maintain its competitive 

 position. Of course, these companies engage as well 

 in the supplementary technical activities of a lesser 

 order down to those of a routine or practical nature. 



Tlie research activities of small comjianies tend 

 naturally to be individualistic. In 6 instances a 

 genius of the inventor type is the moving spirit in 

 developmentiil work, under whose direction a few techni- 

 cians carr\" on llir ronlitie tasks. More fref|ii('ntly, as 



mSii^l 



'^IPC,^ 



Figure 11. — Laboratory for Developing and Testing Refrac- 

 tories, General Refractories Company, Baltimore, Maryland 



in 11 companies, research centers in a close group of 

 technically trained operating executives. In 9 other 

 cases a technical staff has been built up, the members 

 of which are individually responsible for specific activi- 

 ties to the line executives, rather than constituting a 

 distinct engineering department. 



Although there is no clear-cut line of demarcation, 

 there is evident a correlation between the size of the 

 company and the kind of unit to which it trusts its 

 research. Separate engineering departments are found 

 in 15 companies of our sample of 50, and these com- 

 panies employ between 150 and 500 wage earners. 

 Departments which engage in both engineering and 

 research are found in 10 companies which range in size 

 from 200 to \J^()0 workers although 3 companies with 

 smaller personnel have similar units. Separate units 

 devoted solely to process engineering appear in 17 

 companies. These 17 cover a considerable range of 

 size, but the greater number of these units are in fairly 

 large companies. 



Facilities for Research 



The number of experts, engineers, and technicians 

 employed in research b}' small companies varies without 

 regard to size. For example, in the group of companies 

 employing about 100, there is 1 concern with 12 experts 

 and technicians and another with 1."^. The number in 

 this group, however, is more likely to run between 3 

 and 6. At the other extreme, 1 company employing 

 l.-^OO has only 10 experts and another with a personnel 

 of 1,200 has but 15. By contrast still another company 

 employing 1,200 has but 58 in research. The factor 

 which determines the need for research workers is 

 obviously not the size of the plant nor of its business, 

 but its character. In some cases the technical activities 

 are a responsibility delegated to operating executives, 

 shop superintendents, or foremen, while in others 

 separate staffs are set up and their ninnbers run, as we 

 have seen, from 3 to 58. In 12 companies sales engi- 

 neers constitute an important part of the technical 

 organization. 



Size likewise in no way distinguishes the number of 

 technical fields represented by engineers or experts in 

 tlic employ of small companies. The technical activi- 

 ties of 11 companies fall wholly into 1 field, while those 

 of 22 companies relate to 2 major fields. Nine com- 

 panies, in turn, have occasion to delve into 3 such fields, 

 while of the remaining 7, G operate in 4 fields. All of 

 these companies are scattered over the whole range of 

 size, and there is no apparent relation between size 

 and the number of fields. Mechanical and electrical 

 engineering, together with metallurgy or chemical 

 engineering, were the technologies most frequently en- 

 countered in the study. Of course other fields were 

 represented in specific cases, but the variation in 



