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Quality
Fifty-two Organizations
Try for Nation's Top Award for Excellence
Fifty-two U.S. organizations,
including four large manufacturers, 11 service companies, 12 small businesses, and, for
the first time, 16 education and nine health care organizations have submitted
applications for the 1999 Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award, the nation's premier award for performance excellence and quality
achievement. This is the first year that not-for-profit education and health care
organizations are eligible to apply for the award.
Applicants for the award
must show achievements and improvements in seven categories: leadership, strategic
planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus,
process management, and results. During the upcoming months, each of the 52 applicants
will receive a minimum of 300 hours of review by the award's mostly private-sector
examiners.
Companies passing an
initial screening this summer will be visited by a team of examiners in the fall to verify
application information and to clarify issues and questions. Every applicant receives an
extensive feedback report highlighting strengths and opportunities for improvement.Winners
of the 1999 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.
For more information on the
Baldrige National Quality Award, go to www.quality.nist.gov
on the World Wide Web.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767 
MEP
Sausage Maker's Link to
Success Is Wisconsin Center
Tom Chermak was looking for a fresh
perspective for his family-owned company, the Cher-Make Sausage Corp. in Manitowoc, Wisc.
He found it in a brochure distributed by the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension
Partnership, an affiliate of the nationwide NIST
Manufacturing Extension Partnership network.
The brochure described WMEP
programs and services that could help small businesses improve performance, cut expenses
and become more competitive. Chermak, who recently had been named Cher-Make president,
decided to put the center's expertise to the test.
WMEP manufacturing
specialists helped Cher-Make in a variety of ways such as eliminating steps in the order
process, defining cost-saving measures, improving communications and employee relations,
and installing the firm's first-ever strategic planning process.
The results? Cher-Make
employees now can meet customer demand even during the busiest periods. Business is
thriving, expenses are down and the company recently implemented a $200,000 per year
cost-savings project in materials giveaway.
The NIST MEP is a
nationwide network of manufacturing extension centers helping smaller manufacturers in all
50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For more information, call (800)
MEP-4-MFG (637-4634). For more information on WMEP, contact Deb Simon, (608) 240-1740, simon@wmep.org.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767
Technology Partnerships
NIST and Maine Team
Up for Technology, Economic Growth
On June 10, 1999, Maine Governor
Angus King Jr. and Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology Gary Bachula signed a
letter of partnership linking organizations
in Maine with NIST in an expansion of current cooperative efforts. It is the first such
partnership formed by NIST with a state and will serve as a pilot for possible expansion
to other states if successful.
The partnership will
strengthen existing ties between NIST and Maine organizations, such as the Maine
Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a strong component of NIST's nationwide Manufacturing
Extension Partnership.
Teams from Maine and NIST
have identified several promising areas for expanding current relationships through a
combination of formal and informal arrangements. Three of the areas that will be explored
under this new partnership include:
Other initiatives cover the
use of wood composite materials, research on other composites, assessing conformity to
boost exports, and a weights and measures pilot project.
Maine and NIST officials
will monitor progress on the new partnership and report annually on its status.
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Semiconductor
Metrology
NIST Gathers
Valuable Gas Data for Chip Processing
In the competitive struggle to
increase the processing efficiency and the quality of semiconductor wafers, U.S. industry
must have reliable data for the properties of numerous gases used in chip processing.
That's because mass flow controllers--which are critical to the processing of
semiconductor wafers--must be calibrated differently for each of the more than 50 gases
now in use. Complicating matters is the fact that many process gases are extremely
dangerous to handle, making it impractical for the manufacturers of mass flow controllers
to directly calibrate each controller for each type of gas.
To get around this problem,
industry calibrates mass flow controllers using benign gases, such as nitrogen, and then
fine tunes the calibrations with models that are based on approximations of the properties
of individual gases. More accurate data about the gases needing calibration would reduce
the degree of guesswork needed for these models.
Now, NIST's Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory is
developing a comprehensive, reliable database for process gases. Agency researchers are
gathering the data by measuring the speed of sound as it travels through gases. The
technique yields accurate information about the heat capacity and the equation of state,
which is used to determine the density of a gas from measurements of its temperature and
pressure. Thermal conductivity, viscosity and diffusion constants also are derived from
specialized acoustic measurements.
For technical information,
contact John Hurly, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8380, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8380, (301)
975-2476, john.hurly@nist.gov. Hurly will talk
about this research at Semicon West '99 during the Workshop on Gas, Distribution Systems,
1-5 p.m., July 11, 1999, San Francisco Marriott Hotel.
Media Contact:
Linda Joy, (301) 975-4403
Standards
Amendments Focus
FQA, Lessen Burden and Lead to Enactment
On June 8, 1999, President Clinton
signed into law a series of amendments to the Fastener Quality Act of 1990 that make the
legislation more focused and less burdensome. With these amendments, the law clearly
establishes protections against the sale of mismarked, misrepresented and counterfeit
fasteners while eliminating unnecessary requirements. Fasteners include screws, nuts,
bolts and other devices used in critical products and systems such as automobiles,
aircraft and tanks.
A five-month Commerce
Department study requested by Congress was completed in February 1999. The study's results
led the department to conclude that the number and magnitude of problems with fasteners
are a fraction of what they were when the law was passed. Among the reasons identified for
this quality improvement were advances in fastener manufacturing technology and better
procedures for military and civilian federal procurement of fasteners.
The new law as amended
reflects many of the recommendations made in the February report. These include: limiting
coverage to only high-strength fasteners, encouraging the use of recognized industry
quality assurance systems, and streamlining paperwork reporting by allowing companies to
transmit and store reports electronically.
NIST will continue to
operate a voluntary program to accredit fastener testing laboratories. Additionally,
accreditation organizations may submit their own registration and accreditation guidelines
to the NIST director if they choose not to follow International Organization for
Standardization guidelines.
The text of the amended FQA
can be downloaded from the World Wide Web at www.nist.gov/fqa.
Additional information--including the text of the February 1999 Commerce Department study
of the FQA and a fact sheet detailing the major amendments in the final law--is available
at the same web site.
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Materials
Reference Materials
Available to Measure Ferrite Content of Welds
NIST has completed the certification
of two new reference materials (abbreviated RM) for the calibration of instruments used to
measure the ferrite content of stainless steel welds. Ferrite is a magnetic component that
has an important effect on properties such as the weld toughness and corrosion resistance.
The standards were certified in accordance with American National Standards
Institute/American Welding Society Standard A4.2 and the International Organization for
Standardization Standard 8249.
Secondary Ferrite
Standards, RM 8480 and RM 8481, are designed for use in welding construction and repair
operations where the ferrite content must be controlled. RM 8480 covers the low range
(Ferrite Numbers 0 to 30) and RM 8481 covers the corresponding high range (Ferrite Numbers
30 to 120). The NIST certification program required the development of an advanced
calibration procedure and included over 25,000 individual magnetic measurements before the
data could be reduced to statistical summaries. The calibration procedure and statistical
summaries are included in the reference material certificates.
To order RM 8480 and/or
8481, contact the Standard Reference Materials Program, NIST, 100 Bureau Dr., Stop 2322,
Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-2322; (301) 975-6776, fax: (301) 948-3730, srminfo@nist.gov. For technical information, contact
Tom Siewert, NIST, MC 853.07, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3337; (303) 497-3523; siewert@boulder.nist.gov.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
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