Industry Brief

Concurrent Engineering Bulletin Board Service Replaced with Gopher Server

The Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC) at West Virginia University recently stopped supporting its free electronic bulletin board service, CERCnet (ref. "Concurrent Engineering Network Offers Free Service" in "Industry Briefs," Spring 1993 issue of the Reliability Analysis Center Newsletter). Since then, CERC has placed ASCII versions of over 500 concurrent engineering-related abstracts that were on CERCnet, ASCII versions of the Concurrent Engineering Research in Review journal, and Postscript copies of CERC technical reports in a gopher server. To access these files, connect to Internet/Telnet. After normal login, type "gopher gopher.cerc.wvu.edu" (excluding the quotation marks). You must have the Gopher software, which is public domain and available from the University of Minnesota, to use this service. Directories for the above materials are "Abstracts Compiled for Concurrent Engineering," "Concurrent Engineering Research in Review," and "pub/techReports," respectively.

For those who do not have access to Gopher, Postscript versions of CERC technical reports are also available via Internet/Telnet using anonymous ftp. To access this account, ftp to babcock.cerc.wvu.edu (157.182.44.36), login as "anonymous," and enter your full email address when prompted for a password. The technical reports are located in the directory "pub/techReports." Each report is available as a compressed file (<filename> .Z), using the UNIX compress function, and an uncompressed file. To print compressed files, use the command "uncompress <filename> .Z". For more information contact: Mary Carriger, CERC at (304) 293-7226.

Services Issue New ISO 9000 Guidance

A joint action memorandum from the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force authorizes as an interim measure the use of the International Organization for Standardization ISO-9000 series and the equivalent American National Standards Institute-American Society for Quality Control (ANSI/ASQC) Q90 quality system series that are listed in the DoD Index of Specifications and Standards.

The March 8 memorandum cautioned that it was interim guidance and suggested "prudent use of these standards." It went on to say that application of the ISO and ANSI/ASQC should be supplemented "with other standards and contract requirements as needed" and they need to be "tailored where it makes sense." Contacts for the Quality Systems Standards memorandum are: Army, Mr. S. French, SARD-DE, (703) 697-2615; Navy, OASN (RDA)PI, (703) 602-2810; and Air Force, Mr. R. Bradley, SAF/AQXM, (703) 695-4980.

New Sources Named for Fulton Findings Software

As of January 1, 1994, Fulton Findings will discontinue direct retail sales of its trademarked analytical software: WeibullSMITH, Visual*SMITH, BiWeibullSMITH, MonteCarloSMITH and SuperSMITH. Buyers may obtain the software from SAE Professional Development, Attn: Brenda Bargo, 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA, (412) 772-7148 or fax (412) 776-5760; Innovative Software Designs, Inc., Attn: Keven P. Van Fleet, 2 English Elm Court, Baltimore MD, (410) 788-9000 or fax (410) 788-9001; or, after January 1, 1994, ASME Professional Development, Attn: Catherine Hernandez, 345 E. 47th Street, New York, NY. Tel: (212) 705-7448 or Fax (212) 705-7143.

Air Force Authorizes Handbook Sales

The Composite Failure Analysis Handbook (USAF WL-TR-91-4032, DOT/FAA/CT-91/23) containing procedural guides, fractographic data, material properties data and case histories gathered by Northrop Corporation is now available from the Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis (CINDAS). Sale of the handbook by CINDAS was approved by the Air Force under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA). Price is $315, including shipping and handling, for U.S., Canada and Mexico, and $420 elsewhere. Contact CINDAS/USAF CRDA Handbooks Operation, Purdue University, 1293 Potter Engineering Center, Room 316B, West Lafayette, IN, 47907-1293. Tel: (317) 494-7756 or Fax: (317) 494-2351.

Specialized TQM Texts Offered

St. Lucie Press has announced the publication of a series of Total Quality Management textbooks, covering specialized applications. Available in 1993 were "The Textbook of TQ in Healthcare," and "Total Quality in Higher Education." Promised by publication date of this RAC Journal are "Total Quality in Purchasing," and "Total Quality in Information Systems." Scheduled for January 1994 is "Total Quality in Research and Development." Each book is about 200 pages and priced at $29.95, except for "The Textbook of TQ in Healthcare" which is $39.95. Shipping and handling cost an additional $4.95 per publication. Contact St. Lucie Press, 100 E. Linton Blvd., Suite 403B, Delray Beach, FL, 33483. Tel: (407) 274-9906 or Fax: (407) 274-9927.

New Quality texts available from GOAL/QPC

GOAL/QPC has added the following new books to the TQM references they supply:

TQM: A Basic Text, by McClosky and Collet, 150 pages, $29.95
ISO 9000 and Strategies to Compete in the Single European Market, by Costin and Dargie, 675 pages, $125.
Baldrige Award Winning Quality, by Mark Brown, 475 pages, $32.95
The New Economics: for Industry, Government, Education, by W. Edwards Deming, 240 pages, $40.

Contact: GOAL/QPC, 13 Branch Street, Methuen, MA 01844-9916. Tel: (800) 643-4316 or Fax: (508) 685-6151.

Guide to European Product Certification Offered

The French National Standards Organization has published a guide to Product Certification for Europe. Called Certificat, the reference contains general information on certification procedures by country, certified products and certification agencies grouped by country, certified products grouped by certification system and by product category, and other information about the trade requirements of the European Community and European Free Trade Association countries. Certificat is available from NOREX USA Inc., Suite 120, 1054 31 Street NW, Washington, DC 20007-4403. Call (800) 841-3208 or (202) 337-6912. The price is $175 for U.S. orders, $180 otherwise, including shipping and handling.

ISO 9000 Certification Discussed in SME Videotapes

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) has announced the availability of a set of two videotapes (total length: 91 minutes) entitled Building Quality Excellence with ISO 9000. The tapes discuss what ISO 9000 is, what it does, why it is important and what one needs to know about the ISO 9000 audit. Price is $895 plus $3 postage and handling, which includes a copy of the book ISO 9000, 2nd Edition, by B. Rothery (available separately for $59.95). SME also offers several other books on topics in Quality. Contact: SME, PO Box 6028, Dearborn, MI 48121. Tel: (800) 733-4763.

Electron Beam Testing Technology Reference Published

The origins, fundamentals and limitations of electron beam testing of integrated circuits are presented in a text, Electron Beam Testing Technology, edited by John T. L. Thong of Cambridge University, England. 488 pages, $89.50 for U.S. and Canada, else $107.40. Available from Plenum Publishing Corp., 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013-1578. Tel: (800) 221-9369 or Fax: (212) 807-1047.

Marcel Dekker Announces New DOE Text

Reliability Improvement with Design of Experiments, by Lloyd W. Condra, is the latest publication in the Quality and Reliability Series by Marcel Dekker. Billed as a hands-on reference showing how to set up and operate a practical reliability program using design of experiments (DOE), the 384 page text sells for $65. Contact Marcel Dekker, Inc., 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Tel: (800) 228-1160 or Fax: (914) 796-1772.

SSS Handbook Exceeds Planned Size, Is Selling Well

The System Safety Analysis Handbook produced by the System Safety Society (SSS) is now in its second printing. Originally planned at 300 pages for $40, the July 1993 handbook runs 500 pages and costs $60. Shipping and handling add $5 per order for U.S. orders, $10 for Canada and $15 elsewhere. Order from New Mexico Chapter, Systems Safety Society, PO Box 9524, Albuquerque, NM 87119-9524. For further information, call Richard A. Stephens at (505) 881-9228 or Fax: (505) 881-9357.

IES to Present Symposium on Minienvironments

The Institute of Environmental Sciences (IES) will host an International Symposium on Minienvironments May 3, 1994, in conjunction with its 40th Annual Technical Meeting and Exposition (ATM) scheduled for May 1-6. The events will be held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare and Rosemont Convention Center near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Minienvironments are more economical substitutes for cleanrooms. Contact: IES, Attn: Julie Kendrick, Associate Director, Public Information, 940 E. Northwest Highway, Mount Prospect, IL 60056, (708) 255-1561 or Fax: (708) 255-1699.

Innovative Software Designs Updates Relex

Innovative Software Designs has announced the release of Relex Version 4.2. Added are coverage of the MIL-HDBK-217F Notice 1 and Bellcore Issue 4 Reliability Standards, and a number of enhancements including enlarged libraries of part data (over 25,000 integrated circuits are now supported), new user-defined part types, and the ability to import electrical stress data. New Relex 217 and Relex Bellcore packages are available immediately for all IBM and compatible PC's, including networks. Prices start at $1295. Contact: Innovative Software Designs, Inc., Attn: Kevin P. VanFleet, Two English Elm Court, Baltimore, MD 21228, (410) 788-9000 or Fax: (410) 788-9001.

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From the Reliability Analysis Center Webserver. Comments or questions can be submitted using e-mail or telephone at (315) 337-9933. (Last update: December 1, 1993, jmc)