LabNews 01/15/2010
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By Bill Murphy
Gene Morrison, VP for Strategic Accounts for BSI-Americas, in Albuquerque this week to present Sandia its certificate of registration for meeting ISO 9001:2008 standards, praised the Labs for it accomplishment.
The key factor in Sandia’s certification, Morrison noted in a presentation to the Executive Office, is that “you’ve integrated the [ISO] requirements into your business system rather than, as some companies do, change their business systems to meet the requirements. To us, your approach a best practice. You live this system every day, so this [ISO certification process] wasn’t a paper exercise for you.”
ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9001 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. (BSI-Americas is one such body.)
On Nov. 18, the Labs was formally notified it had met ISO 9001:2008 standards following a comprehensive ISO audit conducted by BSI-Americas. In late October, BSI auditors visited Sandia to assess the system of policies, processes, procedures, tools, and roles and responsibilities used to manage the Labs.
Sandia’s ISO 9001 scope of registration includes policy areas and mission activities.
Morrison congratulated Labs Director Tom Hunter, calling Tom’s support “instrumental” in moving the ISO 9001 certification process forward. Tom has made attaining the certification a priority since becoming Labs director in 2005.
Morrison noted that ISO certification doesn’t mean Sandia is perfect — “You probably know that better than I,” he said — but does provide a solid foundation upon which to continuously improve over time.
BSI, Morrison said, is “not a rubber stamp” organization that issues ISO certifications and then walks away. “BSI is going to challenge you” to make sure the ISO standards remain a vital factor in the Labs’ way of doing business and conducting its work.
Looking to the future, Morrison offered a suggestion that he said will keep the Labs on track in continuous improvement. “I would recommend that you always focus on the business metrics . . . Ask yourself, ‘Are we meeting our planned results?’ If not, why?”
Morrison singled out a number of Sandians in addition to Tom for their help in advancing the ISO certification process, including Chief Operating Officer Al Romig, Div. 9000 VP Joe Polito, Enterprise Systems 9001 Senior Manager Chuck Meyers, and staff member Tim Cohen (9001).
NNSA Sandia Site Office Manager Patty Wagner congratulated Sandia on its accomplishment, noting that NNSA is an advocate for third-party certification of an organization’s business practices. Wagner said that Sandia’s willingness to seek — and attain — ISO 9001 certification is a key reason why it has been asked by NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino to lead the complex toward a new business model. To that end, Sandia and the NNSA/SSO formed a Joint Reform Team tasked with changing the DOE/Sandia contract relationship. ISO 9001 registration is a key element in transitioning to industry standards. -- Bill Murphy Top of page
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By Patti Koning
Sandia’s Hub for Innovation in the Transportation Energy Community (HITEC) hosted its first workshop last November in San Ramon, Calif. The workshop, “Next-Generation Biofuels and Advanced Engines for Tomorrow’s Transportation Needs,” brought together representatives from the engine and fuels industries, academia, national laboratories, and other research organizations. The event was supported in part by Chevron Corp.
“What’s really fascinating and exciting for me is the demographics in the room,” said Div. 8000 VP Rick Stulen in his opening remarks. “Perhaps for the first time, we are seeing three communities represented that don’t always spend a lot of time together — the research community, the fuel community, and the engine community. It’s the conversations that happen in these group settings that, in my experience, often lead to very exciting results.”
Bob Carling, director of Transportation Energy Center 8300, noted the daunting challenges ahead for everyone in the room in terms of energy security and climate change.
“There are some strict and compelling regulations set for the 2050 timeframe. That probably seems like a long way off, but when you march back on how long it takes a set of vehicles to turn over, about 20 years, and take into account how long it takes new technology to become viable in large-scale production, we don’t have much time,” he said. “This workshop gives us a chance to look at engines and fuels as an entire system.”
Kathryn Clay, director of research for the Auto Alliance, gave a keynote speech on new vehicle, engine, and fuel source trends in the transport industry. She cited President Obama’s announcement of increased Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards last May as a sign that times have changed.
“The process that led to that May 19 announcement was not confrontational but collaborative and inclusive and included automakers, environmental advocacy organizations, states, and several federal agencies. This was a landmark achievement across many interest groups,” she said. “But the agreement is very daunting and challenging for automakers. We are going to need every tool in our arsenal to come at the problem.”
One tool might be a gasoline price floor, set at a level sufficient to motivate consumer behavior. The key to such a policy, she explained, is that it would remove volatility for both consumers in recouping the cost of advanced technology and the investment community in funding the development of those technologies. “This is more than energy policy — it’s innovation policy,” she said.
In his keynote address, Jay Keasling, chief executive officer of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and a University of California, Berkeley, professor, delved into the technical details of engineering microorganisms for the production of advanced biofuels.
“The technology we are developing at JBEI has tremendous power and potential for biofuel production and the kinds of molecules we can make,” he said. “We are developing metabolic pathways that are tailor-made to make fuels that are identical to the petroleum-based fuels in use in our automobiles and airplanes today.”
Participants then got into the heart of the workshop: panel discussions on topics like capitalizing on opportunities for biofuels in the transportation sector; the role of regulations, specifications, and standards in research and product development; and the interface between next-generation biofuels and advanced engines, followed by breakout discussions.
“As we had hoped, this workshop brought out divergent points of view on alternative fuels, the structure of the biofuel industry, and the interface between future fuels and engine development,” says Ron Stoltz (8302), manager of the Advanced Energy Initiative. “There were differences of opinion, but I think one theme that emerged is that the future is not going to be biofuels or oil, but biofuels and oil.”
Ron says a number of interesting questions came out of the workshop, like the definition of fungible fuels: Are they drop-in replacements for gasoline that you would get straight from the biofuels producer? Are they compatible with the existing fuel blending and distribution infrastructure or also with the refinery process? And what is the relationship between alternative biofuels development and traditional petroleum refiners?
“On the technical side, we found agreement that current specifications for alternative fuels are not sufficiently precise to cover all potential problems and opportunities. We need a more modern approach to fuel specifications,” says Ron. “On a higher level, the structure of how research is organized at the federal level could stand some review,” he says. “A more integrated approach to funding fuels and engine research might prove fruitful in the future.”
A report from the workshop will be published in the spring. The next HITEC workshop, scheduled for March, will focus on systems analysis. -- Patti Koning
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