LE TAUX DE PÉNÉTRATION DES NOUVELLES TECHNOLOGIES DANS LES PME MANUFACTURIERES QUÉBÉCOISES

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main objective of this survey was, first, to identify how far advanced production technologies have penetrated small firms in two industrial sectors—the plastic industry and machine workshops—and second, to assess the rate of this penetration within the last ten years and during the next three years. Another objective was to assess the immediate impact of the introduction of new technologies, in firms which had adopted them, on jobs in production, as well as the nature and frequency of training made necessary by such technological changes. The results presented here show that in 1988 almost 38 per cent of small businesses in these sectors used at least one type of advanced technology, and that a large number of them used two or three different new technologies. Thus, for the four main types of equipment, the rate of penetration in 1988 was 19.4 per cent for digitally-controlled machine tools, 8 per cent for computer-assisted design, 7.7 per cent for flexible or computer-assisted systems (workshop/flexible cell, computer-assisted manufacturing, computer-assisted design and manufacturing) and finally 2.8 per cent for robotics applications. These rates are the result of very fast development. Thus, as far as equipment investments are concerned, the increase in the rate of expenditure during the last three years has been calculated at 41 per cent in nominal value (35 per cent in real value) for digitally-controlled machine tools, 49 per cent (42 per cent) for computer-assisted design, 113 per cent (103 per cent) for flexible or computer-assisted systems and 27 per cent (22 per cent) for robotics applications. During the period 1989–1991, it is anticipated that the purchase of new technologies will increase at a constant, although slightly slower, rate (8 per cent for digitally-controlled machine tools, 50 per cent for computer-assisted design and 44 per cent for flexible or computer-assisted systems). As far as the number of users is concerned, the increase should be 11 per cent for digitally-controlled machine tools, 40 per cent for computer-assisted design, 39 per cent for flexible or computer- controlled systems and 78 per cent for robotics applications. The number of enterprises having advanced equipment in 1991 should be of the order of 54 per cent. Nevertheless, the adoption of new technologies often had an impact on employment. In 59 per cent of cases, jobs were created or lost, and training in one form or another was also necessary in 58 per cent of cases. However, the impact resulted in an overall positive balance in favour of job creation, with an average net total of five new jobs per enterprise. In all, 11.4 per cent of production jobs in user firms result from the adoption of new technologies. As far as training is concerned, the most significant result is the very large predominance of in-house training, used eight times more often by firms than external courses. Moreover, this in-house training is usually given by the user himself (71 per cent of cases) or by the manufacturer (39 per cent of cases). Consultants are very rarely used (3 per cent of cases). Finally, the survey allowed an assessment to be made of the role played by enterprise size in the adoption of new technologies. This factor had already been identified as discriminatory in a previous report. In the sample studied, a very small size (20 employees or less) turned out to be a considerable obstacle. Above this critical point, size variations no longer seem to cause significant variations in the percentage of users of advanced technologies. As has already been shown, other factors (management complexity or modernity, informational horizon and capacity, owner/manager's training) play an essential role in the adoption of technologies by enterprises having between 20 and 200 employees.