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Show “E4 The Salt Lake Tribune BUSINESS Sunday, April 27, 1997 U.S. Automakers Turningto ‘Virtual Workers’ THE DETROIT NEWS have used computer software to DETROIT — The newest factory workers joining the ranks of create simulations of equipment to discover faulty designs of parts which makeit difficult to build a used on the factory floor. The vehicle or put too much strain on Regional Award T acre per yi In addition,“the project remedied an erosion problem that the NRCSdetermined was adding 20 percentofthe silt load into nearby Starvation Reservoir. The second project, called the wastoo late to make any changes. But like the humans they imi- & Continued from E-1 Long-Term Agreement, involved using herbicide to thin out sage- Detroit's automaker's aren't young or well-educated — they . aren't evenreal. The Big Threeare on the verge of usiig computer-simulated im.ages of their hourly workers to software has enabled them to find the best way to change assembly lines or create new oneswithout ever moving a machine. Virtual workers represent the nextstep. Ford has already used virtual help cut costs and savetime. Therobot-looking men and women known asvirtual workers can workers on a future Jaguar and Lincoln car and a future truck. Virtual workers are being used bend, stretch and jump. They also for the first time by Chrysler Corp. on its 1998 Chrysler Concorde and DodgeIntrepid sedans. And General Motors Corp. is evaluating the technology for future product developmentwork. But the automakers’ nearly are helping the automakers figure out the easiest and safest ways to install parts of a vehicle without building costly prototypes “Work will be doneearlier,” said Laura Johnson, a manufac- -turing and systems analyst at 400,000 hourly workers have workers. In the past, those mistakes weren't discovered until it tate, the virtual workers do face limitations. The software isn't able to adjust for different ages, a critical factor as many workers approach retirement age. Virtual workersalso cannotyet perform all the steps needed to build a vehicle. Ford is just now starting to show its hourly workers their virtual counterparts, Johnson said. So far, the workers have shown interest in the technology, but Ranchers’ Love For Land Wins servation Service (NRCS), Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR), Farm Service Agency, Utah State University, Duchesne County and the Ute tribe to in- crease forage production on thousands of acres of pastureland visible from U.S. Highway 40. Jim Brown, a range conserva- tionist for the NRCS in Roosevelt who worked with Smith on two separate projects, says the effort improved thelandfor cattle grazing while also enhancing it for deer, elk, sage grouse, foxes and otherwildlife. “Hebasically has created a situation where the terrain is more vital and productive than it was -Ford MotorCo.“This is the first time we havebeen able to use motion.” In recentyears, the automakers nothing to fear. Their virtual counterparts are designed to make work casier, not steal jobs. Engineers use virtual workers questions have been raised over TCI Deal Will End Era At S.L. Tribune owners more than liquidity. “The marriage is going to guarantee the newspaper's future.” have not changed. The philosophies have not changed.” TCI is the largest partner in a lyst at Morton Research in Wash- new venture called @Home, which plans to make the Internet ington, said dozens of other fam- jects, called the Sand Wash Erosion Area, involved removing har- available on television screens at ily-owned newspapers have met the same fate and often for the speeds many times faster than samereasons: liquidity for own- @ Continued from E-1 presently available via personalcomputer modem. September. Of that sum, $341 millionis for the TCI stock that Kearns-Tribune owns,a stake left from the days when Gallivan and the Tribune joined with Bob Magness, the TCI chairman whodiedlast year, to create the cable company. Gallivan had persuaded the owners of The Tribune and Ogden’s Standard-Examiner to finance a cable-television system for Elko, Nev., in the mid-1950s. Magness was building a cable sys- tem in Montanaat the sametime, and the two systems merged into Community Television Inc. in 1964. The company grew fast and eventually went public as TCI. For thecable giant, the attraction of Kearns-Tribuneis not the newspapers; it’s the chance for the company — or for Chairman - John Malone, who has a separate agreement — to take back much « of the 6.9 percent control of vot‘ing stock that Kearns-Tribune © wields. *- For Kearns-Tribune, the merg- er is an answerto a problem that - has weighed on the company and its shareholders for 40 years, said Steiner: “It's the liquidity issue. » People have wanted to try their ~ hands atdifferent things.” Moreover, the bigger share~ holders worried about the estate + taxes their survivors would have * to pay when they died. The com» pany likely would have to buy qanect stock to free up cash for tax“Tt could have taken all our Peerital available for expansion,” + Steiner said. Gallivan said the deal gives the Those systems will need local news, which costs millions of dollars to provide. The Tribune will be able to provide that newsfor a percentage of the profits, Gallivan said. That way, the newspaper can continueits role as a leaderin the community even if newsprint falls out of favor with readers, said Gallivan, who was adopted by Sen. Kearns’ widow,his aunt, as a child, “The ownership of the mission is the importantthingas far as the family is concerned,” he said. Dominic Welch, president of Kearns-Tribune and publisher of TheTribune, said TCI will set the newspaper subsidiary’s budget and will have oversight. Otherwise, the management team, which he will head,will have full control A.L.Alford Jr., publisher of the Lewiston Morning Tribune and a member of the Kearns-Tribune boardsince 1991, says that for the newspapers underhis wing,it will be “business as usual.” Alford is familiar with the loss of local ownership. His relatives sold their share of the Lewiston paper to Kearns-Tribunein 1981, and hesold thefinal 17 percent in 1991, along with the last of his whether Ford will expect workers to be able to do everything the vir- tual people can do,she said. John Morton, a newspaper ana- ers and the prospectof high estate taxes. One of the few exceptions is The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. Most, though, have been swallowed up by newspaper chains, W. Scott Trundie, who)became publisher of the moved mechanically and the land production increased by seven to 10 times rather than by the three to five times heoriginally expect- ed Other complementary projects included the construction of 25 miles of standard fence and 17 miles ofelectric fence that enable him to practice rest-rotation grazing. To provide water for cattle and wildlife, he built more than 50 ponds onthe pastureland. All told, the two projects have cost about $300,000. Smith paid Newspapers group of Ohio bought it four years ago, said group ownership hasclearly been good for the newspaper and community, The group boughtit from the Hatch family. Trundle points to the newspaper's readership gains. Circulation rose 11.6 percent to 62,886 daily between March 1993 and last September, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Standard-Ezaminer has now surpassed the Deseret News to becomethe second-most widely read newspaperin the state, and its circulation growth rate has outstripped The Tribune’s(5 percent) and the Deseret News’ loss of 4 percentin the same period. The Tribune had 127,978 daily readers, the Deseret News 61,076 at the end of September. Joan O'Brien, a Tribune reporter and president of the UtahSoci- Seventy-four percent, for ex- ample, reported working with their Agricultural Extension Services on conservation and natural-resource management, while 62 percent reported working with government agencies, 53 percent with conservation groups, 32 percent with colleges and universi- ties and 20 percent with wildlife groups. According to the survey, 87 percent have areas that support wildlife and 19 percent set aside land specifically for that purpose. Ninety-four percent said their range or pastureland was in the sameorbetter shape than it was 10 years ago. “J don't think we get out enough andtell our story,” Smith says. “There have been some abuses, sure. But most of us are here because we have taken care of the land.” more than $120,000 of the cost, while the rest was covered by federal agencies. Smith says the efforts not only improved his own land, they al- lowed him te be a better steward on public lands. “Tt has given me grazing flexibility I didn't have before,” he says. The NCBA’s Buyck says that while Smith's efforts stand out, many Western ranchers engage in environmental practices, a fact that often is lost as the land-use debate heats up. —_ Scottsdale* takingit to a point whereit is pro- A 1896 NCBAsurveyof cattle producers conducted by indepen- dent Rockwood Research showed ducing 1,200 pounds of forage environmental partnerships are | Quick & Reilly virtually no grass was growing, Schwab ' Fidelity N ee iner when the judgment that the sale is wise. But the daughter of former publisher Jerry O'Brien, who died Alford expects the same with the TCI merger.“We'rereally talking aboutthe same people.The faces vate pastureland and a neighboring 13,000 DWR-ownedacres. Patches of sagebrush were re- ship frees a newspaper from establishment cronyism. Washington border. Alford also has remained largely local, and grasses on 7,000 acres ofhis pri- was reseeded with native grasses. Theeffort revived an area where ety of Professional Journalists, said she has faith in the bosses’ oversees The Whitman County Gazette in Colfax, Wash. Control of the Lewiston paper dy sagebrush that was sucking away all available moisture, and inhibiting the growth of native but that’s not always bad, Morton said. Sometimes, distant owner- shares in The Daily News of Mos- cow and Pullman, on the Idaho- before there was any grazing on it,” Brown says. Smith says one of the two pro- brush on 3,000 acres. Smith built a fence to divide the area into six pastures and then rested it to allow forage to grow. He says measurements he recorded over time show forage common. Going NOWHEREin veur new CAR? With today’s high interest rates, you may not go anywhere for a while after the purchase of your newcar. 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