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Quality

Study Shows $25 Billion in U.S. Economic Benefits from Baldrige

Economic professors Albert N. Link, University of North Carolina, and John T. Scott, Dartmouth College, recently examined the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program and estimated the total economic benefits of the program to the U.S. economy at almost $25 billion, for a benefit-to-cost ratio of 207 to 1. They determined the total operational costs, including the value of executives’ volunteered time to review applications, at $119 million.

From the program’s inception in 1987 through 2000, 41 companies have received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and NIST has received 785 applications. However, thousands of other organizations of all sizes and in all sectors of the economy have benefited by using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence as the foundation for performance management and quality improvement programs.

To determine the benefits to the U.S. economy as a whole, Link and Scott examined data from a survey of corporate members of the American Society for Quality. The economists estimated the total benefits to the ASQ members from using the Baldrige criteria to be $2.17 billion, for a benefit-to-cost ratio of 18 to 1. They then extrapolated the ASQ data based on the assumption that other companies in the economy benefit to the same extent as ASQ members’ companies.

A copy of the report is available at www.nist.gov/director/prog-ofc/report01-3.pdf or by faxing a request to NIST Public and Business Affairs at (301) 926-1630.

Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767

 

Quality

Apply for Baldrige Award, Get Guaranteed Seat on Board of Examiners

In a pilot effort designed to improve an organization’s understanding of the Baldrige performance excellence criteria, NIST will guarantee a seat on the award’s board of examiners to every organization that submits an eligibility form for the 2002 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award application process by March 18, 2002.

Every year, almost a thousand people vie to be one of approximately 400 examiners who review applications for the Baldrige Award. Examiners evaluate applications for the award and prepare feedback reports to applicants citing strengths and opportunities for improvement. Positions on the board are sought after because, as part of the evaluation process, board members get a better understanding of the Baldrige performance excellence criteria, learn how leading organizations achieve performance excellence, and network with some of the nation’s foremost quality professionals.

Board members will not review applications from their own organization or any other organization to which they are affiliated. It is a violation of the board’s code of ethics for members even to ask for information on applications other than those to which they have been assigned.

Eligibility and award application forms will be available early in January 2002 at www.quality.nist.gov or by calling (301) 975-2036.

Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767

 

Building Technology

‘Hurry Please,’ Says BEES Please, to Be in the Software

Time’s running out for manufacturers who want their products to be included in the 2002 version of BEES, a Windows-based software designed by NIST to help the construction industry select “cost-effective” green building products.

The deadline for manufacturers to submit to NIST both a completed comprehensive questionnaire about their building products and payment for product data development is Dec. 31, 2001. BEES, an acronym for Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability, measures life-cycle environmental and economic performance for 65 generic building products. The next version, BEES 3.0, is scheduled for release in spring 2002 and will add performance measures for specific brands.

NIST’s “BEES Please” program encourages manufacturers to submit their building products for inclusion in future BEES releases. For each submission, a questionnaire is required to provide detailed information about the product’s manufacture, including material and energy use, waste and environmental releases and other issues. Fees for submitted products depend on the extent of the requested BEES analysis. BEES Please offers either an analysis covering six environmental impacts (global warming, acidification, eutrophication, resource depletion, indoor air quality and solid wastes) or an analysis covering 10 environmental impacts (adding ozone depletion, smog, human toxicity and ecological toxicity).

PricewaterhouseCoopers/Ecobalance will validate all submitted data, complete the data set and contact manufacturers if questions arise. Collaborating companies also will have the opportunity to confidentially review BEES environmental and economic performance scores for their products. NIST and the submitters must resolve any differences before BEES 3.0 is published. At any time before publication, a manufacturer is free to withdraw its product data from the software.

For more information, go to www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/bees.html or contact Barbara Lippiatt, (301) 975-6133, blippiatt@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
John Blair, (301) 975-4261

 

 

Electronics Research

New Publication Details Optoelectronics Work at NIST

Optoelectronics is the marriage of optics and electronics that has enabled many high-tech products and processes such as the Internet, fax machines, laser printers, bar code scanners and electronic cameras. The industry is large and growing rapidly as new advances emerge from research laboratories. NIST has long supported this sector with a wide variety of research and measurements.

A new NIST publication catalogs the diversity of research within the institute that assists the optoelectronic industry. Among the topics covered: atomic photonics; optical frequency standards; photometric measurements; optical detector metrology; semiconductors; space-based radiometry; advanced optics metrology; optical communications; industrial, medical and military uses of lasers; and applications of optoelectronics to electrical and electronics instrumentation and magnetic data storage. In all, 64 NIST research projects are summarized and listed with technical contact information.

Copies of the publication Optoelectronics at NIST: Brief Research Summaries from Throughout the Institute (NISTIR 6608) may be obtained from Annie Smith, NIST, MC815, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 497-5342; smitha@boulder.nist.gov. This information also is available at www.boulder.nist.gov/div815.

Media Contact:
Fred McGehan, (Boulder) (303) 497-3246

 

 

Information Technology

Partnership Validates Smart Card Security Requirements

Smart cards—credit card-sized plastic cards with a small embedded computer chip that can process or store information—just got smarter and safer.

NIST and the National Security Agency have formally recognized a major advance in the security of smart card technology. The two agencies, through their joint National Information Assurance Partnership, issued an evaluation certificate on a formal set of smart card security requirements. These specifications will allow manufacturers to have their smart cards tested to ensure they meet certain security standards. Smart cards have to be protected against hackers because they contain computerized information.

NIST and NSA worked with an international consortium of leading financial services companies—including American Express, Europay International, JCB, MasterCard International, Mondex International and Visa International—to develop security standards for smart cards.

The consortium, known as the Smart Card Security Users Group, developed the security specifications using the new international security standard ISO/IEC 15408, which is known as the Common Criteria.

A commercial testing laboratory evaluated the specifications, which then were validated by NIST and NSA under the NIAP Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme. These results will be recognized by the 13 other nations who are signatories of the International Common Criteria Recognition Agreement.

The development and evaluation of SCSUG smart card security requirements represents a successful industry-government partnership contributing to the security of information systems and networks in the United States and around the world.

For more information on the Common Criteria Project, including the completed smart card evaluation and validation, go to http://csrc.nist.gov/cc/. For more information on NIAP, go to http://niap.nist.gov/.

Media Contact:
Philip Bulman, (301) 975-5661

 

 

Administration

Two New Members Named to Visiting Committee

NIST Acting Director Karen Brown has tapped two distinguished technology experts from industry and academia to serve on the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology, the agency’s primary private-sector policy adviser. The new VCAT members—both of whom will serve three-year terms until Jan. 31, 2004—bring the body’s number to 13. The committee can have as many as 15 members.

Starting their service on the VCAT are: Deborah L. Grubbe, corporate director of safety and health for DuPont; and Masayoshi Tomizuka, director of the Engineering Systems Research Center, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. The two remaining seats on the committee will be filled at a later date.

Grubbe has 22 years of experience in five of DuPont’s 16 strategic business units. Her previous positions with the company include operations and engineering director for DuPont Nonwovens, and director of DuPont Engineering’s 700-person engineering technology organization. Tomizuka has been affiliated with UC-Berkeley since 1974. Prior to that, he was a member of the teaching staff at Japan’s Keio University. Tomizuka is the author or co-author of more than 400 publications, including seven books or book chapters.

The VCAT was established by Congress in 1988 to review and make recommendations on NIST’s policies, organization, budget and programs.

Media Contact:
Michael Newman, (301) 975-3025