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Thirty-Six Companies Apply for 1998 Baldrige Award
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Quality
Thirty-Six Companies Apply for 1998 Baldrige Award
Thirty-six U.S. companies--up from 26 in 1997--including 15 large manufacturers, five service companies and 16 small businesses, have submitted applications for the 1998 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's premier award for business excellence and quality achievement.
Many companies believe that applying for the award is beneficial, whether they win or not. "The Baldrige application process is a great business health check that forces a company to closely examine all of its business practices. Every company that applies is a winner," said Gary Floss, director, customer-focused quality, Medtronic Inc., and chair, Baldrige Award board of judges. Applicants for the award must show achievements and improvements in seven areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and business results. Every applicant receives an extensive feedback report highlighting strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Winners of the 1998 award are expected to be announced in November by President Clinton and Commerce Secretary William Daley after the award's examiners and judges make their recommendations.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko (301) 975-2767
MEP
Montana Center Helps Boot Company Put Best Food Forward
I was busy; I had a backlog of orders, but I was not making any money," was the complaint of Dave Viers, owner of the Montana Boot Co., a Livingston, Mont., retail, repair and manufacturing operation that builds full-custom boots often made from exotic leathers. So Viers took the first step toward a solution by seeking help from the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center.
MMEC, an affiliate of the nationwide NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership, developed a shop-rate costing model for the bootmaker, so he could see the actual cost of doing business and how operational changes would impact pricing. This helped Viers learn that previous sales practices--such as giving a full-custom price off the top of his head without accurately costing the project--did not work. Now, a price quote takes many factors into account, including materials budget, overhead costs and changing wages.
As another cost control, Viers also has begun sending precut leather rather than full sheets to a contractor who makes his handmade boot lines. He expects that this will help control waste and reduce the amount of raw inventory.
The NIST MEP is a nationwide network of manufacturing extension centers helping smaller manufacturers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Smaller manufacturers can call (800) MEP-4-MFG (637-4634) to reach the MEP center serving their region, or check out the MEP World Wide Web site at http://www.mep.nist.gov.
For further information on MMEC, contact Deborah Nash, (406) 994-4507, dnash@coe.montana.edu.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko (301) 975-2767
ATP
500 + Applicants Vie for 1998 Project Awards
Over 500 proposals are being considered for the 1998 Advanced Technology Program competitions for innovative industrial R&D projects. The final tally for the 1998 general competition is 167 proposals, while the numbers of submitted projects for the eight 1998 focused program competitions are: Adaptive Learning Systems, 51; Catalysis & Biocatalysis Technologies, 31; Digital Video in Information Networks, 25; Microelectronics Manufacturing Infrastructure, 55; Photonics Manufacturing, 60; Premium Power, 66; Selective-Membrane Platforms, 18; and Tools for DNA Diagnostics, 29.
The ATP provides funding on a cost-shared basis to industry for research and development on high-risk, emerging and enabling technologies that offer significant, broad-based benefits to the nation's economy. Approximately $82 million are available for first-year funding of new projects in 1998.
Award announcements will be made by Sept. 30, 1998.
Further information on the Advanced Technology Program and the 1998 ATP competitions may be obtained by phone at (800) ATP-FUND (287-3863), by e-mail at atp@nist.gov or on the World Wide Web at http://www.atp.nist.gov.
Media Contact:
Michael Baum (301) 975-2763
Weights and Measures
NIST Training on Price Scanning Accuracy Benefits Consumers
To help improve the accuracy of price scanning by supermarkets, drug, department and home improvement stores, NIST weights and measures experts recently completed training for officials from 46 states.
Consumers across the country will benefit by seeing fewer overcharges at checkout, while retail businesses will lose less revenue due to undercharging. From June 14-16, 1998, and June 21-23, 1998, the NIST Office of Weights and Measures trained state weights and measures inspectors in procedures for determining the accuracy of price scanners.
In 1996, the Federal Trade Commission, NIST and the states conducted a study that found wide variations in accuracy and suggested how retailers could improve accuracy and how consumers could ensure they pay the proper price at checkout. The FTC and state inspectors advised the retail industry that there would be a follow-up study due to the problems detected and that a reasonable period of time would be given to allow industry to take corrective actions.
In preparation for the second study, NIST invited representatives from all state weights and measures offices to participate in training, and staff from 46 states accepted. The FTC provided assistance in the three-day training, which involved classroom instruction and hands-on activities. The first session was held at NIST in Gaithersburg, Md.; the second was held in Nashville, Tenn.
Media Contact:
Linda Joy (301) 975-4403
World Wide Web
Be It Ever So Humble, There's No Place Like NIST's New Homepage
If you're a regular user of the NIST site on the World Wide Web, http://www.nist.gov, there's a pleasant surprise in store on your next visit. And if you haven't tried out the site before, now is a great time to get acquainted.
An improved, more customer-friendly NIST homepage is now in operation. The homepage's new features include a site index, an upgraded search engine, a "hot news" section, a link to NIST atomic time and up-front connections to NIST's four major programs--the Measurement and Standards Laboratories, the Advanced Technology Program, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Baldrige Quality Program.
A special section, "NIST and You," helps online visitors explore the agency's nearly 100-year-old history, get answers to frequently asked questions, take a "walk" through the world of timekeeping and learn how NIST is connected to everyone's daily life ("NIST in Your House") and community ("NIST and Your City").
Finally, the new homepage links users to the latest information (usually including special websites) about the more than 100 major conferences and symposia held at NIST each year.
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman (301) 975-3025
Computer Security
Industry, Government Team Up for Seamless, Secure E-Commerce
NIST and 16 leading companies in the electronic commerce arena recently banded together to ensure their products can communicate easily while providing a high level of security.
The group, formed as part of a cooperative research and development agreement, held its first technical meeting this month, bringing together computer security experts from NIST and its private-sector partners, including leading software, telecommunications, computer security and credit card firms.
The collaboration marks an intensified effort to support a "public key infrastructure" that will make e-commerce more secure. PKI is expected to bring the advantages of cryptography to consumers and businesses who do business over the Internet.
The current project builds upon previous work by NIST and industry partners to develop technical specifications that enable a variety of e-commerce PKI products and services to communicate seamlessly in the same way that telephone and Internet services offered by different companies can utilize a common network. The previous effort focused primarily on digital signatures, which can be used to verify the identity of parties involved in e-commerce. Digital signatures are critical to the growth of e-commerce because consumers and businesses alike want to "know" the parties they do business with and the signatures help each party to recognize the other one electronically.
The CRADA partners are focusing on issues such as enhancing the confidentiality of e-commerce PKI transactions and interoperability, which assures that products and services produced by a variety of companies can communicate over a common network. Participating companies are AT&T Corp., CertCo, Certicom Corp., Cylink Corp., Digital Signature Trust Co., DynCorp Information & Engineering Technology Inc., Entrust Technologies Inc., Frontier Technologies Corp., GTE, ID Certify, MasterCard International, Microsoft Corp., Motorola Inc., SPYRUS Inc., VeriSign Inc. and Visa International.
For technical information, contact Donna Dodson, Bldg. 820, Rm. 418, NIST, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-0001, (301) 975-2934, ddodson@nist.gov.
Media Contact:
Philip Bulman (301) 975-5661
Optoelectronics
Researchers Find Cool Way to Make Laser Measurements
Researchers in the NIST Optoelectronics Division, Boulder, Colo., have built a new laser power and energy measurement system based on a commercial cryogenic radiometer. Designated the Laser Optimized Cryogenic Radiometer, the NIST system will increase the accuracy to which the agency can calibrate optical power meters used with lasers.
Since 1967, NIST has built and maintained electrically calibrated calorimeters to calibrate laser power and energy detectors for a variety of industrial and defense customers. Because commercial laser power and energy meters have improved significantly in the last 10 years, customers now require lower uncertainties from NIST's calibration services. The combined standard uncertainty of measurements with electrically calibrated calorimeters is limited to 0.25 percent because they are operated at room temperature. The new system, based on electrically calibrated cryogenic radiometers operating near liquid helium temperatures, eventually will provide laser power measurements with a combined standard uncertainty of 0.02 percent or less and will provide traceability to SI (metric) units with improved accuracy for laser power and energy calibration services.
NIST compared the LOCR with its highest accuracy laser calorimeter and found that the two systems agree within 0.1 percent. This means the LOCR may be used in the future to calibrate transfer standards for other calibration services, resulting in a lower calibration uncertainty.
More information is available from Sarabeth Harris, MS104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3337, (303) 497-3237. Ask for paper no. 23-98.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder) (303) 497-3246
U.S. Department of
Commerce
Technology Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Editor: Michael Newman
HTML conversion: Crissy Wines
Last updated: June 22, 1998
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