The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has launched a program to ensure a seamless fit between the standards it develops and the standards needed by the market, as well as to save resources by making certain that it only develops standards for which demand exists. The ISO Technical Management Board decided in September 1998 to implement this program.

ISO, which has created more than 12,000 voluntary technical standards, has requested that each of its 186 standards development committees produce a detailed business plan to ensure that its work is fully aligned with market requirements. ISO expects the committees to complete their business plans, which should also cover the activities of their subcommittees, by the middle of 2000.

The business plans will analyze conditions and trends in the market sector served by the committees, as each committee specializes in a particular technology sector, and will be explicitly required to link work programs and sector needs. This exercise is expected to generate clear priorities for which standards are needed, when they are needed, and what resources are required.

The business plan program aims to objectively demonstrate the specific benefits that the work undertaken by each technical committee will bring to the business sector it serves. Such benefits may be economic (cost savings, shorter time to market, easier market access, lower sales prices), social (improved worker safety) or societal (reduced environmental pollution, less waste of finite resources).

Although standards  provide benefits to manufacturers, service providers, consumers and governments, they also cost a considerable amount of money to develop. "In ISO we want to be sure we are making the best use of resource--human, financial and technological," says ISO Vice President of Technical Management John Kean. "The committee plans will do this by further improving our alignment with market needs. They will enable us to obtain a more strategic point of view of market requirements before we get down to the nuts and bolts of individual standards."

ISO is currently looking into various information and communication technologies to help the business plan creation    process. "The draft plans will be made available for public comment, and it is expected that this will lead to some feedback from the interested public in relation to market needs," says Roger Frost, ISO press officer. "They will be distributed for review to the interested public, the full membership of the committee, and possibly organizations and companies that have a known stake in the development of standards in the field."

For more information regarding ISO standards, visit www.iso.ch/presse/whatsnew.html .

School District Learns from ISO 9002 Registration

A small Ohio school district is on the cutting edge of quality. Liberty Center School District consists of Liberty Center High and Liberty Center Elementary, which are located on the same campus. Along with the schools' new gymnasium, computer rooms and Y2K-compliant computer system, the school district has a new ISO 9002 certificate.

The district funded the registration process with a $50,000 School-to-Work community block grant. The process was well worth the considerable price, according to Rick Utz, the high school principle and the district's ISO 9000 project manager representative. "The series of internal audits involved in registration helped us to detect any gaps and address them throughout the process," he says.

Traditionally, schools registered to ISO 9000 have considered the students to be their products, labeling them defective when their grade point averages dropped below a specified value. Liberty Center Schools took a different approach. "We named the students our customers, and our product the curriculum and its delivery," explains Utz. "Our district discovered that, overall, we run really well. But we lacked a way to document that fact. ISO 9000 helped us do that. We very rarely get an honest evaluation from an independent third party with no vested interest."

The considerable time and resources spent on this process were due in large part to the groundbreaking nature of this application of ISO 9000. Liberty Center Schools was the first district in Ohio to gain ISO 9000 registration. Though schools in other parts of the country have undergone similar registrations, this one was different, claims Chris Lantow of CRS Registrars. "There are a handful of schools in the country that have been certified to ISO 9000, but most of them approached the process from an administrative perspective," he says.

"Liberty Center Schools has used this process as part of a continuous improvement plan for ensuring the quality of our teaching," explains Utz. "In the future, schools will be able to look to our experience for direction in their own paths to ISO 9000 registration. We had no such resource. There was no registrar or school we could call for a road map to exactly where we wanted to go."

Shingo Prize Recognizes North American Manufacturers

On June 10, six North American companies were awarded the Shingo Prize at the 11th Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony in Columbus, Ohio. The Shingo prize is known internationally alongside the Deming Prize and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

The six companies include three from the United States (Federal Mogul Lighting Products, O.C. Tanner and The Wiremold Co.) and three from Mexico (Delphi Automotive Systems--RIMIR Operations, Grupo Cydsa Sales del Istmo and Spicer Cardanes).

Since its inception in 1988, the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing has recognized 57 plants and companies for superior manufacturing. Named for the late Shigeo Shingo, author and manufacturing expert, the Shingo Prize recognizes companies that excel in productivity and process improvement, quality enhancement, and customer satisfaction. The prize is administered by the College of Business at Utah State University in partnership with the National Association of Manufacturers.

The 1999 recipients of the Shingo Prize "are exemplary cases of the quest for world-class manufacturing based upon the Shingo Prize model of manufacturing," says Ross Robson, executive director of the prize.

For more information about the Shingo Prize, visit sticky.usu.edu/~shingo/main.html .

Automotive Laboratories Collaborate
on Reference Guide

Nineteen of the top independent automotive laboratories throughout the United States have collaborated on a detailed reference document outlining their specialized capabilities. The Laboratory Capability Referral Network is available at the Web site of the American Council of Independent Laboratories, the national trade association representing scientific and engineering laboratory, testing and research firms.

The participating member laboratories have identified areas of expertise that include materials testing, nondestructive testing, vehicle testing and accreditation, environmental simulation, and more. Testing lab participants have only included areas of expertise that are covered under the scope of their corresponding accreditations.

For more information, visit www.acil.org . Select the "Hot News" link on the first page of the site.

APQC Studies
Activity-Based
Management

Research from the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC)   indicates that activity-based management (ABM) has developed into a powerful tool for helping organizations grow. These organizations are using ABM to improve effectiveness at both ends of the supply chain, enhancing revenues and providing customers with improved efficiencies. ABM has enabled some organizations to increase revenues 700 percent.

     In the past four years, APQC has conducted 45 site visits to organizations with successful ABM practices. Collectively, these best-practice examples provide ABM themes and enablers for success, termed by APQC the Seven Commandments for a Successful ABM Initiative:

1. Management must display commitment and give priority to all phases of ABM initiatives.

2.Application of ABM must add value to the organizational strategy.

3.The ABM methodology must be applied consistently throughout the process.

4.Cost-efficient and reliable reporting systems must be employed.

5.ABM Information must be linked to improvement initiatives, operating and strategic goals, performance measures, and the operating environment.

6.Linkage to incentives is required to demonstrate the importance of achieving set goals.

7.Training and education must be used throughout the organization.

"These commandments are interrelated and cannot exist independent of one another," states Laura DeVries, APQC benchmarking specialist. "These consistent best practices provide guidelines for any organization pursuing or wanting to begin an ABM initiative."

Several site visits conducted as part of this research stemmed from a recent Arthur Anderson/APQC benchmark study, Activity-Based Management III: Best Practices for Strategic Improvement. The focus was expanded over that of the previous two studies; it now includes use of activity-based management budgeting, use of ABM information to enhance revenues and the benefits of the ABM initiative.

     The final report based on this study is available to members for $195 through APQC's International Benchmarking Clearinghouse. Nonmembers will be able to purchase the report beginning August 30 at the retail price of $395. A free executive summary is currently available at APQC's Web site at www.apqc.org .

President Clinton Rewards
Federal Organizations

President Clinton recognized nine exceptional federal organizations with the 1999 President's Quality Award at the end of the three-day Excellence in Government conference, which began on July 13 in Washington.

The President's Quality Award recognizes those organizations that have helped the president keep his promise to make the federal government more cost-effective. "Seven years into our game plan to reduce government spending and improve service, our federal work force is more productive, more efficient, and delivering quality, A-1 services and products to America and the world," says Vice President Al Gore.

The ceremony's highest award--the Award for Quality Improvement--went to the 62nd Airlift Wing at McChord Air Force Base in Washington; the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Air Base in Japan; and the National Security Agency/Central Security Service in Fort Meade, Maryland. Six other organizations received recognition in different award categories.

"While this is the 12th year the President's Quality Awards have been given, they've certainly been reinvigorated by Clinton and Gore's move toward government reinvention," comments Michael Orenstein of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which administers the quality awards program. "The focus is getting savings where you can [in government operations] without sacrificing customer service. And that customer can be your mom or dad walking into the Social Security Office to receive benefits or any other citizen who has to deal with a government employee or organization."

Executives Note Worker Emphasis
on Positive Work Environment

Maybe money isn't everything. For some time now, employees have been saying that having an enjoyable job is a priority. According to a new survey, executives at many U.S. firms seem to be listening. One-third of those polled place a positive work environment at the top of the list of factors for keeping employees satisfied. This number was up from 9 percent in 1993, surpassing both "praise" and "compensation."

The survey, conducted by Robert Half International Inc., included responses from 150 executives from the United States' largest companies. "While compensation will always be a strong motivator, today's professionals are placing greater emphasis on issues ranging from management style and degree of autonomy to intellectual challenge and relaxed dress code policies," says Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International Inc. In an attempt to stay informed of relevant trends, Messmer's company has been conducting employment-related surveys for more than 20 years.

Executives were asked, "Which one of the following factors do you think is most important in keeping an employee satisfied?" Their responses were:

RESPONSE                   1999      1993

Work Environment            33%        9%
Praise and Recognition      28%       47%
Compensation and Benefits   28%        7%
Job Security                 6%        9%
Promotions                   4%       26%
Don't Know or No Answer      1%        2%

Congress Amends the Fastener Quality Act

President Clinton has signed into law a series of amendments to the 1990 Fastener Quality Act (FQA) that make the legislation more focused and less burdensome. Commerce Secretary William Daley explains that the legislation will still accomplish its original goal of protecting against the sale of mismarked, misrepresented and counterfeit fasteners, but will eliminate unnecessary requirements. Fasteners include screws, nuts, bolts and other such devices used in critical products and systems.

Clinton's move comes just a month before U.S. industry was to be in full compliance with the existing regulations. "Congress and the Administration recognized that the fastener industry had made major improvements in its manufacturing and quality control systems since 1990," says Daley.

In February 1999, the Commerce Department concluded a five-month study, which Congress had requested. The findings led the department to conclude that the number and magnitude of problems within the industry were a fraction of what they had been when the FQA was originally passed.

The amended law addresses many recommendations made by the Commerce Department in February. These recommendations include limiting coverage to only high-strength fasteners, encouraging the use of quality assurance systems recognized within the industry, and streamlining paperwork by allowing companies to transmit and store reports electronically.

Download the amended act from the World Wide Web at www.nist.gov/fqa .

Correction

In our How Do Registrars Measure Up? article (July 1999), the very last sentence at the end of page 30 should read, "For about half of the categories, the interval is closer to 0.02 in either direction." The word "half" was left out. Our apologies for any confusion this may have caused.