And we think of any kind of problem or phenomenon as naturally following the distribution where there's a few people at one end who have no problem, a few people at the other who have, you know, a kind of little bit of a problem, and then there's a big broad middle and the curve goes up.

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Ms. KELLER: I think that as the news about General Motors evolved, I think it became more and more apparent to the employees that this is not a short-term phenomenon or problem at General Motors that was just going to go away.

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This is symptomatic of the problem with virtual manufacturing: it is still, despite its promise, a sporadic and haphazard phenomenon.

ECONOMIST: Manufacturing technology