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The Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing are working together to develop a new standard for lean certification. The organizations are collaborating with industry and academia in the initiative, which…
An upcoming workshop will focus on the integration of ISO 9001 and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. The event, scheduled for May 4 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will show how the requirements of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 can be used to support the system of internal controls mandated by the standards, and how…
Comments on the updated draft of the United States Standards Strategy are due by April 18. A first draft of the USSS revision was released on March 7, 2005. The USSS will be the topic of a National Institute of Standards and Technology forum, scheduled for April 15 in Washington, D.C.
The draft…
The American Society of Safety Engineers recently released seven standards for public review. There are three new ANSI A10 standards in the release: construction standards on lockout/tagout, hearing-loss prevention and sanitation. Four other existing standards that need reaffirmation are also…
The Australian government recently announced that it will develop a standard by which to certify food safety auditors. RABQSA International and the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry recently signed a contract to develop and implement a National Food Safety Auditor…
Nearly 300 delegates attended the first meeting of the new International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group that will develop ISO 26000, the planned standard on social responsibility (SR). By the end of the meeting, the working group had formulated 32 resolutions, mainly regarding…
The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently launched a new Web site to increase the profile of international standards online.The new Web site is designed to help individuals and organizations find information about the use of standards in government. The site supports the…
Orion Registrar Inc. and Shenyang Auditor Training Center recently partnered to create Orion (Shenyang) Registration Inc., a bid to expand Orion’s business in rural northeastern China. “The establishment of Orion (Shenyang) Registration Inc. will make up for the shortage of registration resources…
RABQSA International and the National Quality Institute of Canada have joined forces to promote personnel training and certification throughout Canada. The agencies will temporarily allow people and organizations currently registered to standards by NQI to also be registered to one or more of…
The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently released a draft of its new Quality Plus standard. Comments on the draft are due by April 18. The standard, compliance to which is voluntary, identifies organizations that have adopted innovative practices or that promote quality care. It…
Mark W. Hurwitz, president and chief executive officer of the American National Standards Institute, will retire from the organization at the end of the year. Hurwitz, 64, was appointed to the post in 1999. He cited his desire to spend more time with his family, and their plans to move from the…
The International Electrotechnical Committee recently published a standard that limits the radio waves emitted by mobile phones. Limits on specific absorption rate (SAR)—the rate at which radio frequency energy is absorbed by the human body—are set by organizations like the International Commission…
Device features on computer chips as small as 40 nm can now be reliably measured, thanks to a new test structure developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The new test structures are the product of NIST’s more than four-year effort to provide standard “rulers” for measuring…
The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the American National Standards Institute will co-sponsor a public forum on U.S. standards next month.The event is designed to engage stakeholders in a dialogue about the United States Standards Strategy document and invite public comment. It…
Racal Instruments Inc. recently released newWave, a software toolset designed to facilitate compliance to the new signal definition standard, IEEE 1641. Developed to assist software and test developers use and implement the new standard, newWave enables signal definition exports into ATML, C++ and…
The National Committee for Quality Assurance and the American Board of Internal Medicine will offer a new program to physicians seeking to maintain their ABIM certification and the opportunity to more easily earn a new distinction: recognition from NCQA and its partners. The agreement will allow…
Omnex Systems LLC recently released EwQMS 2.0, a software suite aimed at allowing quality managers to quickly build, approve, manage and analyze critical quality documents for continual improvement. By using a centralized repository and interchangeable software modules, EwQMS users can tailor…
QualityWBT Center for Education and AQS Management Systems Inc. have partnered to offer a new ISO 9001 certified lead auditor class over the Internet. The RABQSA-approved class combines three days of training online and two days of face-to-face training. Students can access the online training at…
The International Organization for Standardization recently launched an online survey to examine the value of ISO 14001 to small and medium-sized businesses. ISO encourages all sm all- to medium-sized businesses to participate, whether or not they have implemented ISO 14001 or another environmental…
ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden recently spoke at the World Economic Forum, emphasizing the importance of standards in the world economy. The forum was held Jan. 26–28 in Davos, Switzerland, and was attended by several world leaders in industry, government and trade. Bryden pointed out that…
The international Organization for Standardization recently published ISO/IEC Guide 74, a standard designed to maximize the effectiveness of symbols. “The use of graphical symbols in signs, on labels and in product instructions and other product documentation has a number of advantages,” says John…
The first meeting of the ISO group that will develop a standard for social responsibility has been scheduled for March 7–11 in Salvador, Bahia, in Brazil. The chair of the working group is Jorge E.R. Cajazeira, Suzano Group excellence programme corporate manager; and the vice chair is Catarina…
SAI Global recently announced the acquisition of Ohio-based CRS Registrars Inc. for an undisclosed sum of money. SAI Global, which is based in Australia, reports that the transaction will add $5 million in revenue to its U.S. customer base. Additionally, the combination of CRS’s and SAI’s North…
The International Organization for Standardization Technical Management Board is circulating a new work item proposal for an ISO Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility. The first meeting of the ISO/TMB group that will develop the proposed ISO SR standard will be held March 7–11 in Brazil. The…
DNV Certification was recently accredited to perform audits to RC 14001 by the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Program (ANAB). The RC 14001 standard combines components of ISO 14001 and Responsible Care into one audit. In doing so, RC14001 goes beyond the scope of an environmental management system…
