91.   The United States companies were at the forefront of semiconductor research and design, but stumbled badly on the factory floor in production quality and efficiency.

92.   There is a muffled buzz here on the factory floor, where hundreds of employees are assembling computer innards.

93.   Then there are the changes on the factory floor.

94.   They have borrowed Japanese management practices, which emphasize teamwork and job flexibility on the factory floor as a way to improve quality.

95.   They regularly visited the factory floor to closely monitor the work and were impressed at the quality-control system in place, Barnes said.

96.   They are used in business for everything from controlling tools on the factory floor to getting out an order to a customer.

97.   Those ideas hold significance to the company, whether they come from the factory floor or the top offices of management.

98.   Today, many more people with education beyond high school are working on factory floors.

99.   Tolerance, though, is a work in progress, and not just on the factory floor.

100.   Under its old system, the assembly of a new coupler would start at one end of the factory floor and finish at the other.