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  3. Read the following article about Grasmere, a small British company that manufactures steel components, and the questions on the

Read the following article about Grasmere, a small British company that manufactures steel components, and the questions on the

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问题 Read the following article about Grasmere, a small British company that manufactures steel components, and the questions on the opposite page.
For each question(15-20), mark one letter(A, B, C or D)on your Answer Sheet.
In a tough climate for UK manufacturers, Malcolm Drake thinks he has hit on a way for his company, Grasmere, to succeed: by becoming a bespoke manufacturer This involves working very closely with customers to produce precisely what they want. As a result, Grasmere has become indispensable to its big customers, which are based around Europe. Grasmere makes a range of small metal items that are tailored to fit into much larger products, and its customers include big electronics and electrical goods manufacturers. ’When we start talking to customers about an order; they often have only a rough idea what they want,’ says Drake. ’We assist them in identifying and specifying their needs, and we advise them on the best way to manufacture the product. Then we fulfil the order, which could involve making anything between 40 and one billion parts in a year’
Grasmere’s main tools are press machines that stamp out metal items in its Birmingham premises. The company was started by Drake’s great-grandfather in 1903, when its best-selling products were pen nibs, and the company prides itself on never having fallen below the exacting standards which it set then. While today’s range has moved a long way from those pen nibs, some of the original machinery stands in the reception area, as a memento of the company’s roots. Only in the last year has the company relocated from the cramped and grimy workshop it moved to in 1910, to a more modern and open-plan building on the outskirts of Birmingham, an operation that involved a major logistical exercise to move the machinery. The new site has allowed Grasmere to make itself more efficient. The company has cut staff from 150 to 125 by shedding low-skilled employees without reducing turnover
Malcolm Drake says that 18 of Grasmere’s customers each contribute revenues of more than ￡100,000 a year with half of all turnover coming from three of them. ’It isn’t the usual supplier-customer relationship,’ he explains.’We are very open with them and provide them with a lot of internal information about costs. But we select them as much as they select us. If we are asked to do something that is too difficult or expensive, we say "no". We educate the customer as to what is possible. If you allow yourself to be dictated to, that’s not a partnership -it’s grovelling.’
Grasmere’s business has spread more widely to other parts of Europe in the past few years, though not because of any deliberate strategy to push up exports. As Drake points out, if a company such as his is keen to yoke itself to successful companies that think strategically, inevitably this will mean more overseas sales to relatively far-flung divisions of these businesses, to meet their own demand for the components Grasmere can produce.
The company depends on having technically literate people who can talk intelligently to customers. Hence 90 of Grasmere’s employees are engineers employed in a range of jobs including making products, sales, marketing and purchasing. While about 100 of the staff are directly involved in shop-floor production work, they frequently also have an outward-facing role, such as talking to customers about design or manufacturing.
Malcolm Drake sums up his company’s strengths as offering five attributes that customers want: quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and low costs. As a result, the company is flourishing.
Grasmere’s workforce has fallen because
选项 A、productivity has improved.
B、it is difficult to recruit skilled staff.
C、new machinery has been introduced.
D、some staff chose to leave the company.
答案A
解析
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