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The International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission recently published a new version of ISO/IEC 17025, the influential standard for testing and calibration laboratories. ISO/IEC 17025:2005 was released, among other reasons, to ensure compatibility…
ASTM International recently established the Interlaboratory Studies program, an effort to remove administrative burdens from its technical committees. ASTM earmarked $4 million over five years for the initiative. The ILS program will help in the development of useful precision and bias statements…
The International Organization for Standardization recently published ISO CataloguePlus 2005, a listing of its published standards on one CD-ROM. The CD-ROM also includes a list of ISO members and their addresses, the titles of technical committees, a list of withdrawn standards, a full test of…
RABQSA International recently released AS9110, a new aerospace auditor certification scheme, in agreement with ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) and the Americas Aerospace Quality Group. According to the agreement, RABQSA will establish and maintain the approval and/or certification of…
The International Organization for Standardization recently welcomed its 150th member, FASONORM, the national standards body of the West African nation of Burkina Faso. Founded in 1946 by 25 countries, ISO’s steady progression in membership accelerated in the 1990s, when geopolitical changes…
Rockwell Automation recently began offering regulatory compliance services (RCS), a resource for life sciences original equipment manufacturers seeking to minimize project risk, accelerate system development and gain a competitive advantage. The service addresses a broad range of compliance issues…
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing are working together to develop a new standard for lean certification. The organizations are collaborating with industry and academia in the initiative, which…
An upcoming workshop will focus on the integration of ISO 9001 and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. The event, scheduled for May 4 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will show how the requirements of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 can be used to support the system of internal controls mandated by the standards, and how…
Comments on the updated draft of the United States Standards Strategy are due by April 18. A first draft of the USSS revision was released on March 7, 2005. The USSS will be the topic of a National Institute of Standards and Technology forum, scheduled for April 15 in Washington, D.C.
The draft…
The American Society of Safety Engineers recently released seven standards for public review. There are three new ANSI A10 standards in the release: construction standards on lockout/tagout, hearing-loss prevention and sanitation. Four other existing standards that need reaffirmation are also…
The Australian government recently announced that it will develop a standard by which to certify food safety auditors. RABQSA International and the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry recently signed a contract to develop and implement a National Food Safety Auditor…
Nearly 300 delegates attended the first meeting of the new International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group that will develop ISO 26000, the planned standard on social responsibility (SR). By the end of the meeting, the working group had formulated 32 resolutions, mainly regarding…
The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently launched a new Web site to increase the profile of international standards online.The new Web site is designed to help individuals and organizations find information about the use of standards in government. The site supports the…
Orion Registrar Inc. and Shenyang Auditor Training Center recently partnered to create Orion (Shenyang) Registration Inc., a bid to expand Orion’s business in rural northeastern China. “The establishment of Orion (Shenyang) Registration Inc. will make up for the shortage of registration resources…
RABQSA International and the National Quality Institute of Canada have joined forces to promote personnel training and certification throughout Canada. The agencies will temporarily allow people and organizations currently registered to standards by NQI to also be registered to one or more of…
The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently released a draft of its new Quality Plus standard. Comments on the draft are due by April 18. The standard, compliance to which is voluntary, identifies organizations that have adopted innovative practices or that promote quality care. It…
Mark W. Hurwitz, president and chief executive officer of the American National Standards Institute, will retire from the organization at the end of the year. Hurwitz, 64, was appointed to the post in 1999. He cited his desire to spend more time with his family, and their plans to move from the…
The International Electrotechnical Committee recently published a standard that limits the radio waves emitted by mobile phones. Limits on specific absorption rate (SAR)—the rate at which radio frequency energy is absorbed by the human body—are set by organizations like the International Commission…
Device features on computer chips as small as 40 nm can now be reliably measured, thanks to a new test structure developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The new test structures are the product of NIST’s more than four-year effort to provide standard “rulers” for measuring…
The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the American National Standards Institute will co-sponsor a public forum on U.S. standards next month.The event is designed to engage stakeholders in a dialogue about the United States Standards Strategy document and invite public comment. It…
Racal Instruments Inc. recently released newWave, a software toolset designed to facilitate compliance to the new signal definition standard, IEEE 1641. Developed to assist software and test developers use and implement the new standard, newWave enables signal definition exports into ATML, C++ and…
The National Committee for Quality Assurance and the American Board of Internal Medicine will offer a new program to physicians seeking to maintain their ABIM certification and the opportunity to more easily earn a new distinction: recognition from NCQA and its partners. The agreement will allow…
Omnex Systems LLC recently released EwQMS 2.0, a software suite aimed at allowing quality managers to quickly build, approve, manage and analyze critical quality documents for continual improvement. By using a centralized repository and interchangeable software modules, EwQMS users can tailor…
QualityWBT Center for Education and AQS Management Systems Inc. have partnered to offer a new ISO 9001 certified lead auditor class over the Internet. The RABQSA-approved class combines three days of training online and two days of face-to-face training. Students can access the online training at…
The International Organization for Standardization recently launched an online survey to examine the value of ISO 14001 to small and medium-sized businesses. ISO encourages all sm all- to medium-sized businesses to participate, whether or not they have implemented ISO 14001 or another environmental…
