New UKAS Branding Heralds NAMAS Demise

The British accreditation agency has published details of the logo-types to be used by accredited organizations and which must replace use of the existing NAMAS and NACB marks by the end of the year 2000. The NAMAS acronym referred to the agency's name until 1995, but the logo continued to be used on testing/calibration reports which are widely known by industry as "NAMAS certificates".

So, if your quality manual explicitly calls for provision of this particular flavor of service from your suppliers, be warned that officially they'll soon be unavailable. The labs will probably know what you mean though.... we still hear of requests for "BCS certificates", which disappeared in 1985 !

The relevant logo that will soon appear on our (UK) calibration certificates is visually similar to the old NAMAS logo -- see our UKAS page for more detail.

• What is UKAS (NAMAS) ?

EU-US Trade Agreement on Metric Labeling

The European Union had scheduled to shortly outlaw any mention of non-metric measures (earlier story). However, the November 1998 meeting of the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) resulted in the following conclusion:

[Extracted from the meeting summary published on the European Commission website]
"TABD urges a 10-year deferral of the metric-only requirement in the European Union in order to prevent imposing additional costs on industry and to eliminate regulatory uncertainty. We call on both Governments to use this time to work with industry to pursue a permanent solution that will eliminate the current incompatibility of the US and EU product labeling regimes. This means equivalent action in the US and EU to amend their respective labeling laws to accommodate both metric-only labeling and dual units of measurement labeling Once the incompatibility of the two systems is eliminated the market should decide when supplemental units of measurement are necessary and when metric-only is sufficient."

Of course, the politicians will need to ratify the agreement but it seems likely that we can safely continue to use those customary, imperial units without fear of prosecution... or is it persecution ?

• Earlier Story : 19980415
• EU Trade Agreement Information

"Big 3" Car Makers Push for Guide 25 Compliance
...And Cause Controversy

The third edition of QS9000 (the quality management standard jointly developed for the automotive industry by Ford, General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler) has already triggered concern in the test/calibration market, just a few weeks after coming into effect on January 1^st 1999. Clause 4-11-2 urges that such suppliers be ISO/IEC Guide 25 accredited but acknowledges that services may not be available and defines acceptable alternatives. One is for the supplier to be appraised against that criteria by an organization recognized by the auto-manufacturer, such as a quality system certifier. Although this is a matter between the supplier and manufacturer concerned, such is the scale of the automotive business that outraged "accreditationalists" are predicting that phrases such as "ISO/IEC Guide 25 certified" or even "registered" will become widespread in promotional material as labs strive to differentiate themselves from their competitors. They warn of market confusion as buyers ponder the difference between accredited and certified / registered labs.. Principally, Guide 25 is a quality management standard focused on testing and, within that scope, quality system registrars are certainly capable of checking compliance. But to be accredited to make specified measurements requires assessment of technical competence which, it is argued, goes beyond the registrars' knowledge. It's a matter of conjecture whether this development is a radical reform of restrictive bureaucracy through self-policing, or a step towards industrial anarchy where the most powerful customers in the marketplace dictate the rules... wasn't it always that way ?

It's noteworthy that QS9000 calls for use of accredited suppliers but, significantly, this doesn't necessarily mean that the actual service is provided under the terms of the accreditation. Genuine, accredited measurements are generally recognized as authentic if reported on a certificate bearing the brand-mark of the accreditation agency.

"Luddites" Relax as LORAN-C gets Extension

Plans to extinguish the terrestrialy-based radio navigation system, that some die-hards continue to use as a frequency and time metrology reference despite the availability of superior GPS equipment, have been shelved. The worldwide transmission was expected to be discontinued at the turn of the millennium but the US Secretary of Transportation has now authorized its maintenance until 2008.

• Did You Know...?
  The original Luddites were organized bands of nineteenth century English handicraftsmen who rioted for the destruction of the textile machinery that was replacing their jobs in factories. The term is now used colloquially to describe anyone averse to technological advances.

ISO/IEC FDIS17025 Ready for International Vote

Following general consensus of the WG10 committee, the final draft (dated April 20 1999) has been published and has been distributed throughout industry and its representatives. Contact your region's standards body or your trade association to get one. We now enter the "end-game"; the FDIS will now be presented to ISO's international members for a simple yes/no vote during the third quarter of the year. It's expected to be approved and published, to a largely unsuspecting world, before 2000.

• And Finally...
  Thinking about the year 2000, trust the computer industry to shorten the "Year 2000" problem to "Y2k" -- that's the sort of thinking that led to the problem in the first place !

Europe Announces "No Delay" to Metric Law
...but you can safely ignore it !

The mass resignation of the European Commissioners earlier this year led to a work backlog and dashing the hopes of many hoping for confirmation of a further 10 year implementation delay (earlier story). In February the European Parliament decided that this matter would not be treated as a priority and the following crucial announcement was made at an 8^th June 1999 meeting of the EC Member States. Until the further ten year transition period proposal is considered by the Parliament, the following situation will remain:

• Use of metric only marking will effectively become mandatory on 1st January 2000 but
• Member States have unanimously agreed not to prosecute offenders but will not formally publicize this fact and also
• The Commission will not prosecute Member States who have not fully transposed the directive into their national legislation.

Swiss Company Aims to Oust UTC in Favor of "Internet Time"

Electronic watch manufacturer Swatch^® is hoping for global adoption of a new timescale with its "Beat" wristwatch promotion.

The turmoil of the French revolution is often cited as the birthplace of metrication and, believe it or not, one of the less successful campaigns of the age was for timekeeping to be metricized along with the units of length and mass. The proposal was to split the day into ten "new hours" of 100 "new minutes" lasting 100 "new seconds", meaning that a "new second" would have been 0.864 of the traditional period.

Of course it never caught on, proving that resistance to metrication is nothing new.

However, Swatch clearly believe that the time is now right (!) to revisit the issue and are marketing"Internet Time" which divides the day into 1000 "beats", each lasting the equivalent of 1 minute 26.4 seconds. Check their website and decide for yourself whether Internet Time represents a serious threat to Universal Co-ordinated Time (UTC) -- the existing "timescale of choice" for most engineers and scientists.

• Swatch Internet Time

Towards ISO9000:2000

A Committee Draft version of the pre-eminent quality management standard has been widely circulated for comment. When eventually published, the new ISO9001 (which will be complemented by a new 9004) will replace the current 9001, 9002 and 9003. November 1999 is the target date for release of the FDIS9001 which is the formal version for ISO-member voting and the actual standard being slated for publication one year later. A subcommittee of ISO's Technical Committee 176 (responsible for ISO9000) is providing information about this significant revision and advice on  transition planning (how to migrate from the 1994 version to the new standard).

• TC167 Transition Advice

FDIS17025 Voting Delay

There has been some delay in language translation and distribution of the official version for voting by the CASCO membership. Although the English version of the final draft was widely available in May, the distribution wasn't completed until early September. The simple yes/no vote casting formalities are understood to take place in mid-November and final publication as ISO17025 seems unlikely before January-February 2000.

Everybody's Doing It

Feeling a warm glow of self-satisfaction that your company has been awarded an ISO9000 certificate? If you've just told the marketing department to include the achievement as a "Unique Selling Point", the results of ISO's latest survey may cause you to reconsider. By the end of 1998, there were almost 272,000 such registrations worldwide, an annual increase of 22%.

• ISO Survey (PDF file)
• ISO

Metrology Mix-up Muddles Mars Mission

A classic confusion between metric and imperial (English) measurement units has been reported as the probable cause of the loss of the $125M Mars Climate Orbiter. The error led the probe to fly too close to the red planet, causing the spacecraft to burn up. It seems that a team at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Colorado submitted acceleration data in (imperial) pounds of force whilst the navigation team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California assumed the numbers were metric newtons. "It was embedded in the system from the beginning,"' said Tom Gavin, deputy director of JPL's space and Earth science program, "We're still looking at why it was not detected."

Two Become One

The next version of ISO9000 has apparently adopted the sentiment of the famous Spice Girls song as two standards become one.....

• Play tune

ISO has announced that Draft International Standard (DIS) versions of the ISO9000 Year 2000 revisions were released on 25 November, ready for international voting. This major update to possibly the world's most cited standard includes consolidation of ISO9002 and ISO9003 into ISO9001. There's a new ISO9004 too, which provides guidance for quality system performance improvements.

The draft standards have been circulated for a 5-month vote to ISO’s member bodies – the national standards institutes of 90 countries. Assuming three-quarters of the votes cast favor the DIS, they will go forward as Final Draft International Standards (FDIS) for circulation to ISO member bodies in the third quarter of 2000. Again, if 75% of the votes are positive, the new documents will be published in the fourth quarter of 2000 as fully fledged International Standards.

Database Aids Recognition of Traceability

BIPM and NIST have cooperated in the establishment of an Internet-accessible database that aims to facilitate recognition of international traceability. The International Comparisons Database lists the "measurement audits" that various countries' national metrology institutes have participated in, those that are currently underway and those that are planned. Its search facility includes the option to show status of particular fields of metrology or individual countries.

The results of such comparisons lead to Mutual Recognition Agreements between the participating nations concerning the equivalence of their respective national standards. That helps to remove technical barriers to trade and should drive users' and conformity assessors' acceptance of the validity of test results obtained in foreign countries.

• International Comparisons Database

British Premier Acts on Internet Time

Prime Minister Tony Blair has committed his support to the UK's proactive involvement in the development of the Internet with the launch of  Greenwich Electronic Time (GET) on January 1, 2000. The aim is to ensure that everyone conducting business over the Internet uses the same timescale so that transactions are clearly synchronized. Although e-mail messages and e-commerce transactions already carry a "time stamp" based on Universal Co-ordinated Time (the modern equivalent of Greenwich Mean Time), most computer software converts this into local time (as defined by the computer's own clock).

GET is being spearheaded by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), a European online retail body whose members include IBM, Microsoft Corp, Marks & Spencer and the UK Post Office.

Mr Blair said he was "delighted that UK Industry has taken the lead in building a key component of the emerging global electronic marketplace. The GET website will turn GMT into a user-friendly e-commerce tool. Because of the Greenwich connection, it will be clearly branded as a UK service to global business, underlining the leading role UK companies are playing in the online marketplace".

Earlier this year, fashionable Swiss watchmaker Swatch introduced its "Beat" wristwatch which promoted an Internet timescale centered on the Biel meridian and divides the day into 1,000 "beats" of 1 minute 26.4 seconds. But IMRG project development manager Gareth Donovan told The Times newspaper: "Everybody throughout the world knows and understands what GMT is. Simply adding GET allows people to extrapolate that intrinsic knowledge and trust into the e-business and e-commerce environment."

• Swatch Introduce Internet Timescale

Millennium Metric Martyrs

Great Britain's traders must label and sell loose goods using metric measures from January 1^st, 2000 or face fines of up to 2000 pounds (money, not weight ! ). Although dispensation was won from the European Union allowing imperial (English) units also to be shown until 2010, many  small businesses are likely to fall foul of the legislation by failing to convert weighing scales, dispensing pumps, etc..

Several newspapers have recently published articles which include examples of such shopkeepers and tradesmen who are refusing to abide by the legislation. Trading standards officials, led by the Department of Trade and Industry, have confirmed that these "metric martyrs" will be pursued through the courts. Meanwhile, the UK Independence Party has pledged legal support to anyone facing prosecution. Their spokesman Jeffrey Titford, who is a Member of the European Parliament was quoted by the Daily Telegraph: "We understand the pressures traders are under in facing this wicked legislation, which is attempting to wipe out centuries of British culture and tradition. Some will feel they have no option but to give way in the face of threats. But for those who remain defiant we will give every possible back-up."

The only imperial measures that will still be legal for sales purposes will be the pint for draught beer, cider and milk in returnable bottles, the troy ounce for precious metals, and the mile for road signs.