World Remains Stable

The International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) has announced that there is no need to insert a "leap second" into national timescales, at least until December.

The difference between Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, the basis of all national timescales) and the International Atomic Time (TAI) is currently -32 seconds. Leap seconds can be introduced in UTC twice a year, at the end of December or June as needed.

• IERS

What's a Leap Second, Anyway ?

Since the early 1970's these have been used to adjust UTC so that it's consistent with the Earth's rotation as determined by astronomical observation (Mean Solar Time). UTC is the basis of every nation's civil time and is maintained using a weighted-average of the performance of hundreds of atomic clocks around the world, the vast majority of which being Agilent 5071A's.

• US Naval Observatory Leap Seconds Explanation

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday Dear National Measurement Institutes....

NIST (originally known as NBS) was chartered by the US Congress on March 3, 1901 and throughout this year will be celebrating its one hundred years of technical contributions to science, industry, health and safety and environmental protection. But for those involved in measurement themselves, NIST is best known as the agency responsible for maintaining and developing the national standards of measurement.

• NIST Centennial Celebrations

Last year the UK's equivalent organization, NPL, also celebrated a hundred years since its inception. However, the conversion of its first home at Bushey Park didn't begin until May 1901 and wasn't officially opened until March 1902.

• 100 Years of NPL

Uncertainty Under Review
...or "I used to be uncertain but now I'm not so sure"

The International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC) is reviewing the documents used for the determination of measurement uncertainty in calibration to ensure coherency in the methodologies and results obtained. Comparability between the various accreditation programs in place around the world is a principal objective for ILAC.

All accreditation bodies refer to either the ISO Guide to Uncertainty of Measurement (the so-called "GUM" produced by ISO/TAG4/WG3), EA-4/02 (published by the European cooperation for Accreditation and which superseded EAL-R2) or their own local document such as the widely referenced UKAS(NAMAS) M3003. These regional or local documents generally claim to be in line with the GUM and, for accreditation by a minority of agencies, use of the GUM is mandatory although most consider it as only to be for guidance.

An ILAC task group will perform a comparative study of these various documents and make recommendations.

• EA-4/02

Revision of 17025 Initiated

Just as we are all beginning to get comfortable with ISO/IEC17025, which was published in late 1999, there's news of its revision !

The ISO9000 series was in revision during this standard's development but the work progress was not as advanced. Consequently, because there was pressure from laboratories to also be compliant with that better known quality system standard, the team responsible for 17025 incorporated the requirements of the, then current, 1994 version of ISO 9001.

Since then, the ISO9001:2000 revision was published in December and ISO's conformity assessment committee (CASCO) has recognised the need to review ISO/IEC17025 to bring it into alignment with the current ISO9001. The review work will focus on the necessary amendment of quality system requirements, without other substantive changes.

Meanwhile, in an effort to harmonize accreditation against 17025, the International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC) has published guidance specifically aimed at accreditation agencies which interprets some of the standard's requirements.

• ILAC Publications

"Introverted Experts" Fight Back with Campaign

The British accreditation agency, UKAS, has begun a promotional campaign aimed at raising awareness of its role and, more generally, the value of accredited certification, testing or calibration.

Market research involving the agency's direct customers (such as accredited labs), government departments and industrialists led to the decision to invest in a new promotional strategy. Whilst accreditation is often recognized as "A Good Thing" amongst those in the know, it's long been acknowledged by UKAS and its counterparts in other countries that understanding or even knowledge of accreditation amongst the wider population is poor.

Everyone who plays a part in accreditation, from assessors through to the providers of accredited services such as calibration labs, would do well to regularly remind themselves of one quotation garnered from a government official during the research.... "Accreditation as a process is understood and appreciated by those who need standards, but its meaning is muddled by the actions of an obsessive bunch of introverted experts."

Ouch !

• Accreditation Awareness Campaign

World Metrology Day Passes Quietly....Again

Last year's inaugural World Metrology Day passed with less than a thundering fanfare although organizations in a few countries did publicize its occurrence and held celebratory events.

But this year it's a different story -- having been even more muted !

You couldn't be blamed for not knowing that the special day has already passed, being on 20 May. Indications are that only the UK's NPL have publicly marked the occasion this year by injecting some fun into a special educational website.

• NPL WMD Experiments

Auto Industry Changes Gear on ISO9000

The International Automotive Sector Group (IASG) has released new interpretations of QS-9000 that include a January 2003 deadline for subcontractors of the automotive industry's "Big Three" to achieve "certification by an accredited certification body to a current version of the ISO9000".

An article in the June issue of specialist quality magazine The Informed Outlook, published in full on the American Society for Quality website (ASQ), assesses the profound impact that these new interpretations are expected to have on suppliers to Ford, General Motors or Daimler/Chrysler who have not previously been required to be ISO9000 registered.

• Big Three's subcontractors will require ISO9000 registration (link to ASQ)
  
  
• IASG Sanctioned Interpretations of QS-9000

New Standard Promotes 17025 Compliance

The work to revise ISO10012, which is cited in ISO9001 as guidance for managing measurement integrity, began a couple of years ago. The aim was to align it with the requirements of the current version of this quality management standard (published last year).

ISO10012 entitled "Quality assurance for measuring equipment", in fact, presently consists of two parts:

Part 1 - "Metrological confirmation system for measuring equipment" - published in 1992
Part 2 - "Guidelines for control of measurement processes" - published in 1997

DIS10012, which has the more concise title "Measurement control systems" combines these into a single document.

The cut-off date for provision of feedback to the respective national standards bodies varies from country to country but the official end to the members' 5-month voting period is September 12. Interest in the standard, as gauged by the amount of feedback in each country so far, apparently varies greatly which is surprising, given the high profile that ISO9000 registration enjoys. Working Group 1 of Subcommittee 3 of the Technical Committee 176 (!) will meet in October to look at the consolidated feedback from each country with the aim of drawing-up the Final Draft International Standard. If on schedule, the FDIS should be published for the concluding ballot of ISO members by early next year.

Compared to the current standard, the DIS is less prescriptive regarding documentation and so follows the new style of ISO9001. Its Introduction suggests where compliance with 10012 might be expected and its relationship with ISO/IEC17025, crucially stating that it is "not intended as a substitute for [requirements of] 17025". Many instrument users and service providers are presently confused about why ISO has two standards that seemingly address the same need; that is, calibration. The simplest distinction seems to be that 10012 provides generalized (it uses the term "generic") requirements for managing measurement processes and equipment and is aimed at instrument users (such as any type of manufacturer who may be ISO9000 registered). Conversely, 17025 is aimed at organizations who provide measurement services (i.e. calibration or testing). It's noteworthy that ISO9001 refers to ISO10012 (in para.7.6) but not 17025, while DIS10012 explicitly states that external suppliers of calibration "should be able to demonstrate technical competence to....17025."

Together with the increased interest in laboratory accreditation driven by sector-specific quality system clones like the automotive QS9000, the proposed new ISO10012 could have a more significant impact than seems yet to be realized by most in the calibration business.

World Standards Day

The International Standards Organization and other standards bodies in various countries around the world are gearing up to celebrate this year's World Standards Day on October 14^th. The aim of WSD is to pay tribute to the collaborative efforts of the thousands of experts worldwide who develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as international standards.

The theme on this occasion is the closeness of standards and the environment.

• ISO WSD

Liar Liar

Lies, damned lies and... résumés? There's a new twist to the familiar quotation attibuted to nineteenth century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli by American writer Mark Twain.

Research carried out by Wisconsin based business executive placement consultancy Jude M. Werra & Associates reveals an upward trend in the percentage of job-seekers that have not been absolutely honest on their application forms. Published since the mid-nineties, the trademarked Liar's Index now indicates that about one-fifth of the surveyed applicants have embellished their academic or business achievements.

It just goes to show.... there's a measurement for everything these days !

Does My Bum Look Big in This ?

Are you worried about your appearance? Luckily, the United Kingdom's National Physical Laboratory seems to have taken Arabella Weir's catch-phrase to heart with its latest research initiative. The English comedienne plays an insecure woman worried about her dress sense in BBC television's Fast Show sketches.

NPL will collaborate with several industrial partners in a project to establish traceable measurements of attributes that are correlated to human visual perception of appearance. An innovative goniometric instrument will be constructed to address, what is considered to be, the key to successful appearance measurement via development of visual scales.

The project will underpin future work on the design of special instrumentation for appearance measurement, modeling and traceability.

• NPL photonic research
• Arabella Weir