Low-end printers had too many parts and too much labor content to be profitably built in the United States. James T. Vanderslice, the Vice-President of IBM for manufacturing and development, was not happy with this conclusion. He told his team: "Let's suppose you didn't work for IBM. Could we do it then? If we can't do it, we're out of the business." This challenge persuaded IBM to find a way to become a competitive manufacturer of low-cost printers in the United States.
James Vanderslice, VP of IBM Corporation, talks on the challenge faced by the team setting out to build a competitive Proprinter.
