Article Abstract:
The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) are helping companies increase their level of quality and performance through the Baldrige National Quality Program (BNQP). Baldrige winners are required to help other companies develop and apply the Baldrige criteria to their operations via lectures, seminars and site visits. However, diminishing interests in long-term technology-oriented projects and the decline in funding for NIST called for the creation of newer programs. In 1990, the Advanced Technology Program was established to focus on facilitating communication among companies and between the industry and the research community.
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Article Abstract:
An increasing number of companies are pursuing the International Standards Organization's ISO 9000 certification instead of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Baldrige Award because it does not involve winning. Reports showed that over 6,500 certificates were issued from 1993 to 1995 while the number of companies which vied for the Baldrige Award dropped by 50%. Companies which have obtained certification claim that the costs associated with becoming ISO certified might be overwhelming at first but the payoffs are worth the effort.
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Article Abstract:
Manufacturers in the US can now be assured of a competent calibration laboratory with the emergence of the new ISO 25. The new ISO 25 lab-accreditation movement is a recognition of laboratory competence that requires a laboratory to have quality system similar to ISO 9000, an adequate equipment of a laboratory facility and competence of the laboratory staff. The movement is expected to benefit quality professionals who seek services of testing and calibration laboratories.
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