NIST
Helps U.S. Manufacturers Build
a Technological Advantage
The
job of the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) is to help the nation’s manufacturers—and
other parts of the U.S. economy—create and capitalize on technological
opportunities. NIST has a century-long tradition of working with
companies of all sizes and with industries of nearly every type
to develop and apply technology, measurement, and standards.
In the fiercely competitive global economy, NIST’s four programs
and its staff of 3,000 are sources of technological advantage. (See
“Snapshot of NIST Programs.”) Together, they help
to speed the pace of innovation, ensure the mastery and application
of new technology in products and processes, and advance U.S. technical
interests in the increasingly important realm of international standards.
(See “Standards and Trade”)
The
agency occupies a unique and vital niche in the nation’s technology
infrastructure. It focuses on important technical tasks that are
prone to under-investment either because the resulting benefits
are broadly shared or because the risks and planning horizons exceed
the thresholds of individual firms. NIST’s contributions are
delivered in several forms: technical services and tools, strategies
and guidelines for continuous performance and quality improvement,
industrial modernization assistance, and risk-sharing incentives
that motivate U.S. companies to pursue next-generation manufacturing
technologies. Planned—and often carried out in close coordination
with the private sector—the institute’s outputs complement
those efforts and are essential parts of a national foundation for
technological progress and industrial growth.
NIST
Laboratories: Measurements and Standards for Competitiveness
Firms
in every industry rely on a toolkit of supporting, generic technologies.
Integral to a company’s manufacturing capabilities, these
indispensable tools range from tables of scientific and engineering
data to statistical quality-control methods to reference measurements
and techniques for ensuring accuracy and reliability. They are pervasive
across factories and throughout supply chains.
Services and research results supplied by the NIST Laboratories
help U.S. manufacturers to make products:
-
right, from the very beginning of a new process and throughout
production runs;
- interoperable,
so that they can work efficiently in networks composed of disparate
technologies that often are distributed about the globe;
- traceable,
so that customers and suppliers can trust the accuracy of measurements
that underlie quality and performance; and
-
small, the means to improving efficiency and to delivering the
new or enhanced capabilities that are made possible as the dimensions
of part features grow ever smaller.
Aligned
with Industry
Specializing in the critical area of measurements and standards,
the work of the NIST Laboratories is integral to the performance
of U.S. manufacturers and their efforts to be at the crest of innovation.
Simply put, advanced measurement capabilities are tantamount to
the advanced manufacturing capabilities needed to efficiently produce
affordable, high-value-added products that can differentiate U.S.
firms from lower-cost competitors.
Infrastructural
technologies and services supplied by the Laboratories support the
full spectrum of manufacturing activities—from the processing
of raw materials into feedstocks to final product inspection to
marketing and after-sales support.
The seven laboratories,
assisted by NIST’s Technology Services outreach arm, are aligned
with major industrial sectors or key technology clusters: manufacturing
engineering, electronics and electrical engineering, materials science
and engineering, chemical science and technology, building and fire
research, information technology, and physics.
All work closely
with U.S. industry, and all participate in sectoral planning activities,
such as the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, International
Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, Integrated Manufacturing
Technology Initiative, U.S. chemical industry’s Technology
Vision 2020, and National Plan for Building and Construction R&D.
Often, NIST will convene industry, university, and government experts
to scope out measurement and standards needs in established industries
and emerging technology areas. Recent examples include workshops
devoted to identifying infrastructural requirements for “smart”
machine tools, establishing priorities for measuring nanotube properties,
and determining interoperability requirements for manufacturing
and construction operations.
NIST played
a lead role in the formation of the Government Agencies Technology
Exchange in Manufacturing in 2003. GATE-M coordinates and leverages
complementary manufacturing-related research at six federal agencies.
Initially, NIST and its five GATE-M partners are focusing on two
strategically important areas: intelligence in manufacturing and
nano- and microscale systems and technologies.
How
the
Labs Work
Planned in
consultation with industry, most NIST projects are carried out in
collaboration with partners from U.S. companies, universities, and
government laboratories. The laboratories host more than 1,600 guest
researchers each year. Collaborations address critical issues that
range from modeling and improving machine-tool performance, advancing
the state of the art in manufacturing simulation software, and developing
new high-throughput methods for measuring the properties of advanced
materials.
Putting
NIST Research Results to Work
Results of
NIST research lead to industry-accepted test and measurement methods,
process models, interface standards, and other useful tools. Often,
these outputs are the basis for product and process standards developed
by industrial organizations. They also are embodied in the diverse
array of measurement and data services that the agency supplies
to manufacturers, testing laboratories, and other organizations.
(See “In a Capsule: NIST Services”)
In industries
ranging from electronics to radiopharmaceuticals and from chemical
processing to aerospace, NIST-developed tools contribute to effective
operations and quality products. The capabilities that they support
often set the technical limits on what can be accomplished on the
factory floor, in the R&D laboratory, or with suppliers and
customers.
Consider the
U.S. automotive industry, a long-standing customer of NIST measurement
services. About 350 NIST-developed Standard Reference Materials—the
equivalents of certified “rulers” that firms use to
check the accuracy of their own measurements—support motor-vehicle
production at nearly every step of the process, from the manufacture
of sheet metal, windshields, tires, and transmission gears to final
assembly and subsequent operation.
NIST also is
helping automakers and their suppliers to extend their capabilities
and to exploit new technologies. The agency is providing key technical
assistance in an industry-wide effort to achieve true, cost-effective
interoperability across the automotive supply chain. (See
“Working on the Supply Chain”)
NIST's record
of accomplishments in this critical area includes its leadership
and key technical contributions during the development of a now
international standard that allows product data to be shared among
diverse systems. Officially known as ISO 10303 but better known
as STEP, the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data is
a growing set of specifications that are creating “universal
language” for sharing data within companies, with suppliers
and customers, and across applications.
As adoption
of the neutral data interface format grows in the automotive, aerospace,
defense, and other industries, costly errors and duplication of
effort (due to the need to re-input flawed data because of faulty
exchanges and the need to maintain multiple, redundant software
packages) are decreasing. A recent study, commissioned by NIST,
estimated industry-wide savings currently exceed $150 million annually
and are projected to exceed $900 million annually within several
years. However, this figure is but a fraction of the savings that
could be realized as software implementations of STEP multiply and
the adoption rate among software users increases.
To help achieve
this potential, NIST continues to contribute to industry-led development
of extensions to the standard that will broaden the range of capabilities
that STEP enables across the product life cycle. The agency’s
manufacturing and information-technology researchers also are looking
further out onto the horizon. They recently initiated a set of interoperability
projects intended to pave the way for self-integrating systems—those
that reconfigure themselves in response to new requirements.
Meanwhile, NIST
materials researchers are characterizing key properties of advanced
materials so that weight-saving, performance-improving alloys and
other materials can be stamped or otherwise formed into cost-competitive
fenders, hoods, and other parts of future cars and trucks.
Measurement
needs are growing and diversifying in every area of manufacturing.
In precision manufacturing—a label that applies to a growing
portion of the discrete parts industry—dimensional tolerances
are shrinking to sizes equivalent to ever smaller fractions of a
split hair. Meanwhile, the shapes of parts and products are growing
more complex.
In the continuous-process
industries, manufacturers must continuously raise the threshold
for levels of selectivity and specificity. Indeed, all manufacturing
industries are being driven to improve processes, reduce waste,
and raise quality. At the same time, emerging technologies present
tantalizing prospects for novel products and processes, but they
also introduce new measurement challenges that must be mastered
before these opportunities can be fully realized.
Making those
challenges more difficult, manufacturers today face a heightened
need for securing information networks and for protecting other
critical infrastructure essential to the manufacturing sector—a
need that NIST also is addressing collaboratively with industry.
Baldrige
National Quality Program: An Agent for Change
Since its creation
in 1987, the Baldrige National Quality Program has played an
important role in helping the United States regain
and maintain its competitive edge and its world-class quality ranking
among nations. But, the competitive race is far from being won.
For manufacturers, in particular, quality now is a well-recognized
mandate, not an option. Companies and other organizations worldwide
know the competitive advantages achieved through quality and performance
excellence. To attain and retain market leadership in the next
century, U.S. organizations will have to improve continuously.
Whether
an organization is small or large, has one site or multiple
sites around the globe, the Baldrige performance excellence criteria
help to assess and improve performance on a wide range of key
indicators.
For today’s competitive environment, the criteria have
been updated to help organizations respond to current challenges,
including
evaluating governance and social responsibility.
Of the 59 organizations
to date that have received the Baldrige Award, 34 are manufacturers.
These include large firms, such
as Motorola and Boeing Airlift and Tanker Programs, and smaller
manufacturing
businesses, such as Texas Nameplate Company, Inc., and Stoner
Inc. For all, the Baldrige Award process has proved to be an
effective
tool for continuous improvement.
“We applied
for the award, not with the idea of winning, but with the goal of
receiving the evaluation of the Baldrige examiners. That evaluation
was comprehensive, professional, and insightful. It reinforced where
we were strong, and provided valuable information on areas where
we could improve—making it perhaps the most cost-effective,
value-added business consultation available anywhere in the world
today.”—Bob Barnett, Executive Vice President, Motorola,
Inc.
Following the
Baldrige guidelines continues to pay performance improvement
dividends, not only
to the firms that apply for
the award but also for the thousands of non-applicants
that structure
their organizational quest for excellence around the guidelines.
MEP:
Partnering with Smaller Manufacturers
The Hollings
Manufacturing Extension Partnership at NIST is a nationwide network
of not-for-profit centers that assist smaller manufacturers in all
50 states and Puerto Rico. These local and regional organizations
provide small and medium-sized manufacturers with the help they
need to succeed. The centers are funded by NIST and by state, local,
and private resources. The shared funding arrangement makes it possible
for even the smallest firms to tap into the expertise of knowledgeable
manufacturing and business specialists all over the United States.
Beyond funding,
NIST plays an integrative role within the network. It links centers
to assure effective collaboration
and use of resources,
and it builds partnerships with organizations with particular
brands of expertise in manufacturing and business so that centers
everywhere
have access to crucial information and know-how. NIST also develops
programs and resources in key thrust areas, such as lean manufacturing,
industrial marketing, and pollution reduction.
Smaller manufacturers
(those employing 500 or fewer people) account for 98 percent of
U.S. manufacturing establishments and employ 11 million people.
Many, however, have been slow to adopt modern production technology
and practices. Productivity growth has trailed that of their larger
counterparts, creating a gap that threatens future competitiveness.
Many factors—from limited investment capital to lack of information
to pressing day-to-day demands on management—underlie this
widely recognized weakness in a strategically important part of
the nation’s
industrial base.
Each MEP center
works directly with area manufacturers to provide expertise and
services tailored to their most critical needs, which range from
process improvements and worker training to business practices and
applications of information technology. Solutions are offered through
a combination of direct assistance from center staff and outside
consultants. Centers often help small firms overcome barriers in
locating and obtaining private-sector resources.
Impact
and Results
Evaluation is
a key element of all NIST MEP programs and activities. In fact,
“Systematic evaluation studies have confirmed that the MEP
is having a positive effect on businesses and the economy,”
concludes a report from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s
School of Public Policy.
Results of evaluations
are used to assess the effectiveness of services and their impact
on the performance of client firms, and to help guide planning at
both the center and network levels. By measuring short- and long-term
impacts, the NIST MEP can assess economic returns on the federal
investment in manufacturing extension services. Many studies are
finding that small manufacturers who work with their local NIST
MEP center show dramatic improvements. For example, in a survey
completed in September 2004 of NIST MEP clients served in FY 2003,
4,865 companies around the country reported that, as a result of
NIST MEP services, they:
- created
or retained 50,315 jobs;
- increased
or retained $4.1 billion in sales;
- realized
$686 million in cost savings; and
- invested
$912 million in modernization, including plant and equipment,
information systems, and workforce
training.
Contacts:
NIST
Program Questions
Public Inquiries Unit
phone: (301) 975-NIST (6478)
e-mail: inquiries@nist.gov
NIST
Laboratories
Manufacturing Engineering
Contact: Howard Harary, Acting Director
phone: (301) 975-3401
Electronics
and Electrical Engineering
Contact: William Anderson, Director
phone: (301) 975-2220
Materials Science
and Engineering
Contact: Eric Amis, Acting Director
phone: (301) 975-5658
Chemical Science
and Technology
Contact: Willie May, Director
phone: (301) 975-8301
Physics
Contact: Katharine Gebbie, Director
phone: (301) 975-4200
Information
Technology
Contact: Cita Furlani, Director
phone: (301) 975-2144
Building and
Fire Research
Contact: Shyam Sunder, Director
phone: (301) 975-5900
Technology Services
Contact: Belinda Collins, Director
phone: (301) 975-4500
Baldrige
National Quality Program
Contact: Harry Hertz, Director
phone: (301) 975-2036
e-mail: nqp@nist.gov
Hollings
Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Contact: Roger Kilmer, Director
phone: (301) 975-5020
e-mail: MEPinfor@nist.gov
For more information,
visit the NIST Web site at www.nist.gov.
Snapshot
of NIST Programs
NIST
Laboratories—further the technical aims and
capabilities of U.S. industry—manufacturers and service
firms alike—and serve as an impartial source of expertise,
developing highly leveraged measurement capabilities, standards
services, and other infrastructural technologies. The NIST
Laboratories also serve as the ultimate U.S. reference point
for measurements, providing companies, entire industries,
and the whole science and technology community with the equivalent
of a common language needed at nearly every stage of a technical
activity.
Baldrige
National Quality Program—encourages and assists
U.S. businesses, educational organizations, and health care
providers in their performance and quality improvement efforts
through its management, with U.S. industry, of the Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award, and through its active dissemination
of the award program’s framework, core values, criteria,
and assessment methods.
Hollings
Manufacturing Extension Partnership—is
a nationwide network of technical and business assistance
centers
to help the nation’s
350,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers improve performance
and increase competitiveness. MEP leverages federal
support
by teaming up with state and local organizations that provide
a significant share of the funding. Services are locally
driven
so that they address the specific needs of area manufacturers.
Advanced
Technology Program—has supported cost-shared,
high technical risk R&D through a competitive peer review
process. ATP has been collaborating with U.S. industry to
accelerate greater economic growth at the national level. |
Standards
and Trade
Duplicative
testing, design-prescriptive standards, and other technical
barriers to trade are emerging as chief obstacles to achieving
a “level playing field” for international commerce.
Increasingly, access to markets is dictated by sophisticated
measurements, standards, testing and certification requirements,
directives, and other technical prerequisites that often are
incompatible with U.S. standards.
Considering
that 80 percent of world merchandise trade is influenced by
standards, eliminating needless incompatibilities in these
technical specifications could improve market efficiency and,
in the process, boost the volume of U.S. exports.
NIST is
expanding its work with the private sector, through the American
National Standards Institute and other voluntary standards
organizations, to promote international acceptance of U.S.
standards. It also helps to support “standards attachés,”
who assist U.S. exporters in three regional markets. In addition,
NIST staff represent U.S. interests in some 180 international
standards committees and international industrial consortia.
NIST information services also help to keep U.S. manufacturers
up to date on pending standards and regulatory developments
in export markets. For example, Export Alert, NIST’s
free Web-based service, provides U.S. industry with the opportunity
to review and comment on proposed foreign technical regulations
that can affect their businesses.
NIST also
designates qualified laboratories to test products to foreign
regulatory requirements in the European Union and Asian countries,
as called for under several trade agreements. |
In
a Capsule: NIST Services
NIST
measurement services and standards-related activities open
the way to competitive advantages: higher quality products,
more reliable and more flexible processes, fewer rejected
parts, speedier product development, more efficient market
transactions, higher levels of interoperability among machines,
factories, and companies. The ultimate U.S. reference point
for measurements, NIST has counterparts throughout the world
and is the nation’s hub in the international measurement
system. NIST is the U.S. National Measurement Institute.
NIST provides:
- More
than 1,200 different Standard Reference Materials (SRMs)
that are certified for their specific chemical or physical
properties. SRMs are used to help develop accurate methods
of analysis; calibrate measurement systems; and assure the
long-term adequacy and integrity of measurement quality
assurance programs. For example, U.S. steel makers rely
on more than 125 NIST SRMs to ensure the quality of starting
materials and finished products.
- More
than 80 electronic databases in chemistry, physics, materials,
building and fire research, speech recognition software,
and electronics. For many years, NIST has provided well-documented
numeric data to scientists and engineers for use in technical
problem solving, research, and development. Recommended
values are based on data that have been extracted from the
world’s literature, assessed for reliability, and
then evaluated for the preferred values. To improve access
and ease of use, a growing share of evaluated data and other
technical information is being placed on line, accessible
via the NIST Data Gateway at www.nist.gov/srd.
- Approximately
500 different calibrations, special tests, and measurement
assurance programs. Calibrations performed on nearly 3,000
instruments by NIST laboratories each year provide quality
assurance for a large private-sector activity that disseminates
transfer standards traceable to national and international
measurement systems.
- A voluntary
laboratory accreditation program, technical assistance to
U.S. exporters, and an Export Alert information service
that advises organizations and individuals of drafts or
changes to foreign regulations that can affect market access.
|
Working
on the Supply Chain
Many different
software and hardware systems are used throughout manufacturing
supply chains and even within individual companies. These
systems perform vital functions, but their usefulness is often
limited by a “lack of interoperability.” Incompatibilities
subvert exchanges of information. The output of one application
may be indecipherable to another—a serious deterrent
to supply chain integration through electronic channels.
Manufacturing
supply chain integration activities can be separated into
three distinct categories: design and engineering systems
integration, production systems integration, and business
systems integration. To date, NIST has focused primarily on
the design and engineering systems integration with excellent
return on investment. NIST work on integration of design systems
in the automotive industry is projected to reduce integration
costs by nearly $470 million per year. However, much remains
to be done in this area. Current NIST work continues to support
the applied research needed to meet advanced industry goals
for design and engineering systems integration.
However,
engineering systems integration costs are small when compared
to the costs of integrating production and business systems.
NIST is planning to begin that development of standards, technologies,
and infrastructure that will enable the building and testing
of integration-ready production and business applications.
As recommended by a variety of organizations, including the
Open Applications Group, RosettaNet, the Automotive Industry
Action Group, and several major manufacturers, NIST has conceived
a business-to-business (B2B) Interoperability Testbed to promote
unimpeded B2B supply chain integration.
The testbed
is but one example of many projects planned by NIST to remove
obstacles to true interoperability and efficient distributed
manufacturing operations—enterprise integration. While
several projects focus on impediments to supply chain integration
in specific industries, such as automotive, accomplishments
and lessons learned in these collaborations will apply to
many sectors. |
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