ISO/TC 184/SC 4 is the ISO committee that governs STEP AP-242.

The official scope of this committee is the standardization of the content, meaning, structure, representation, and quality management of the information required to define an engineered product and its characteristics at any required level of detail at any part of its lifecycle from conception through disposal, together with the interfaces required to deliver and collect the information necessary to support any business or technical process or service related to that engineered product during its lifecycle.

Meeting summary:

• 793 published ISO standards from this committee … impressive
• The Cavalcade day of cross-domain sharing is an important event to support awareness of other standards and efforts in interoperability. The organizations represented are: Airbus, Siemens, OPC Foundation, UMATI
• There was a very popular Digital Twin Roadmap event held for the first time
• STEP AP-242 Edition 4 is working on the following updates
  o Domain model
  o PMI (Product and Manufacturing Information)
  o PDQ (Product Data Quality)
  o EWIS
  o AP Module 442 Integration
  o Composites
  o Hybrid Modeling
  o UUIDs – A very hot topic with discussions of interoperability from engineering to manufacturing to quality (native to CAM to QIF)
• Of particular note to DMSC:
  o ISO 10303-AP 238 (STEP NC) and the QIF Plan need harmonization

Jennifer’s takeaway:

I was also honored to represent the DMSC and discuss how QIF and STEP harmonize together. QIF filled the inspection domain space where ISO 10303 had a gap. Everyone is very friendly, very smart, and open to the opportunities the future holds. I’m looking forward to the October 22-27, 2023 Fall meetings in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Click Here for Jennifer’s presentation on What’s New with QIF … the current state of our Quality Information Framework (QIF 3.0|ISO 23952:2020) standard.

For more information about QIF 3.0, the work currently in progress to move to QIF 4.0, and other ANSI and ISO standards the Digital Metrology Standards Consortium is responsible for maintaining and developing, reach out to DMSC Executive Director, Mark Thomas.

The post Summary from the 85th Plenary for ISO/TC 184/SC 4 appeared first on DMSC.

ISO invites you to join them for a day of collaboration, dialogue and action as they bring industry, standards developers, and an international set of standards organizations together for Cavalcade Day on June 14th. Hosted during the Plenary sessions of its subcommittees and working groups, Cavalcade Day provides a rich backdrop against which important questions regarding the future roadmaps of industrial automation standards are considered.

Containing both a lecture and workshop format, Cavalcade Day is an engaging, high energy exercise.

Agenda will explore key questions regarding digital transformation:

• How is digital transformation different from what we are doing today?
• What do we mean by the digital transformation of an enterprise?
• What is the role of a standard in digital
• What is the role of quality in digital transformation?
• How will the digital transformation of standards support industrial needs ?
• How will the landscape of interoperability change after digital transformation?

DMSC will be represented: Jennifer Herron, Action Engineering CEO and DMSC Board Member, has been designated as an official DMSC Liaison to ISO.

For more details, visit the event website, or read the DMSC article on the ISO TC 184 event.

The post ISO TC 184 appeared first on DMSC.

The International Organization for Standardization is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organization of member countries. The organization develops and publishes international standards in all technical and nontechnical fields other than electrical and electronic engineering. As of February 2023, ISO has developed over 24,676 standards, covering everything from manufactured products and technology to food safety, agriculture, and healthcare.

In preparation for the event, Jennifer has been thoroughly briefed on the progress of the DMSC QIF 4.0 Working Group. QIF 3.0 is currently designated ISO 23952-2020.

Rosemary Astheimer, DMSC Treasurer and Board Member, will also be attending the event, representing NIST.

ISO in-person events of this sort are intended to collaborate across the membership and foster new ways of connecting and working on global standardization.

If you are attending, connect with Jennifer via email or LinkedIn to set up an in-person chat about the DMSC’s activities and our QIF Standard.

The post DMSC Representation at ISO TC 184 appeared first on DMSC.

With QIF-centric educational opportunities being sparse, DMSC sees new training options as key to future widespread adoption of the Quality Information Framework/QIF standard as industry continues its digital transformation.

Other industry organizations such as SME, ASME and ASQ have extensive focused training available. Many organizations offer certification of individuals who wish to show a high level of academic and practical competence. Arguably, the availability of more QIF aware individuals would be beneficial to further industry adoption of QIF.

The to-be-formed DMSC Task Group would operate in a similar manner to current Digital Metrology Standards Consortium/DMSC Working Groups and would be tasked with the mission of determining if a formalized commercial training program should be developed.

The DMSC expects this Task Group to discuss and determine:

• What are the benefits of developing a formalized training program?
• Who would be the target candidates for such a program?
• Would there be sufficient demand for this service to justify the level of effort for development?
• How would such a program be administered?
• Do the existing DMSC resources support the development and administering of such a program?
• If 3rd party organizations were involved (and most likely they would be), would their cost offset the benefits of the program?

All interested parties (including non-DMSC members) are invited to be part of this Task Group. A DMSC Member Chair and/or Co-Chair are yet to be named. The Task Group encourages individuals from industry, academia, advisory groups, and trade associations to offer their wisdom on how to proceed, and/or determine if this is a worthwhile endeavor. This is a blank piece of paper so you could be involved right from the beginning, if this effort moves forward.

If the future of QIF is important to you, your participation will help answer some of the important questions noted above! Reach out to DMSC Executive Director Mark Thomas by email to express your interest.

The post DMSC Announces New Exploratory Task Group appeared first on DMSC.

The MBC Working Group, launched in July 2020, is chaired by Mark Neilson (TechAzul) and vice-chaired by Curtis Brown (Honeywell FM&T). Participants, mostly from DMSC member companies, are engaged as a joint effort by multiple corporate and academic entities representing various manufacturing industries.

The Model-Based Characteristics Working Group’s intent is to complete a draft standard for submission to ANSI (American National Standards Institute), an American National Standards document that can be used to help industry identify and communicate model-based characteristics. Specifically to define a product characteristics with both a human readable component, a symbol or graphic with a corresponding common text string, and a computer readable universally unique identifier (UUID) component with specific structure and attributes that allow software programs and developers to uniquely interpret each characteristic for downstream use and additional functions. Characteristics shall be comprised of a product characteristic tag and UUID, and optional augmentations such as criticality classifications, quality plan requirements, and product requirement associations.

Currently, the document includes the following sections:

• Scope
• Normative References
• Terms and Definitions
• Characteristics Types
• Product Characteristics
  • Identification
  • Taxonomy
  • Data Structures
  • Data Objects
  • Applications
• Characteristic Augmentations
  • Criticality Classifications
  • Product Requirement Association
  • Quality Plan Requirements
• MBC Information Model
• Appendix

The WG is currently up to “Revision J” of a 71-page draft document with the intention of becoming a stand-alone ANSI standard. This would be totally separate from the DMSC flagship standard, ANSI/DMSC QIF 3.0 (ISO 23952:2020).

The ANSI process requires DMSC to re-convene their “Standards Committee” which will review and submit to ANSI a detailed summary of the scope and purpose of the proposed standard. This will allow for a public review period of the proposal. Finally, the DMSC Standards Committee will vote on the proposal, and with an affirmative vote, the proposal would be submitted to ANSI for approval. All DMSC members and interested parties are encouraged to consider becoming members of the voting body – the DMSC Standards Committee. It is anticipated the WG will begin to finalize the proposed standard and re-convene the Standards Committee in late-summer 2022. Look for future DMSC announcements if you’re interested in being part of this process.

The MBC WG meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at 11 am ET. Representatives from up to 20 global companies participate at any given meeting. Meeting details on this and other DMSC Working Groups can be found on the DMSC Events Calendar.

New participants (including non-DMSC members) are welcome to observe or participate in the Model-Based Characteristics Working Group. Please direct any questions about this WG or membership in the DMSC to our Executive Director, Mark Thomas: mark.thomas@qifstandards.org

The post Model-Based Characteristic Working Group Update appeared first on DMSC.

Presentation Topic:
QIF 101: Understanding QIF Basics

Presented by:
Curtis Brown, DMSC President/Honeywell
Daniel Campbell, DMSC Director/Capvidia

Watch Presentation Now: Click Here

Abstract

Digital Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC) presents an updated and refreshed version of its most popular webinar QIF 101: Understanding QIF Basics followed by a technical Q&A session.

Even if you think you know about the QIF Standard, consider refreshing your understanding of where QIF fits into the manufacturing work flow.
Please share this free live webinar registration with your new and/or long-time colleagues!

The critical first step in Implementing QIF:
One must understand the basics of the ANSI/ISO/DMSC Quality Information Framework (QIF) interoperability standard. DMSC President Curtis Brown discusses what QIF is, why it matters and how it provides benefit to the Model-Based Enterprise (MBE) and Digital Transformation in manufacturing. DMSC Director Daniel Campbell will join Curtis to answer questions following the presentation.

The original QIF Tutorial series developed in 2020 can be found on the DMSC YouTube Channel:
QIF 101 Tutorial Understanding the Basics
QIF 201 Tutorial Outlining QIF Schemas
QIF 301 Tutorial Beginners Guide to QIF3.0 Implementation
Watch for similar revisits of QIF 201 and QIF 301 in 2022.

These webinars were initially developed to coincide with the cancellation of the 2020 NIST MBE Summit. DMSC took the decision to make their planned QIF tutorials available to all. You are encouraged to download the QIF standard in advance of this 2022 webinar and contact us with your questions or comments.

Curtis Brown is a life-long champion of digital product realization. He is a lead mechanical engineer and MBE Focus Lead at the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) managed and operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technology. He is the chairmen for National Security Enterprise’s MBE Committee and a major contributor to the NSE’s next generation of the MBE Maturity Index. His “real work” history is as Quality Engineer supporting numerical controlled coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) and science-based manufacturing with a quality emphasis. He was the inventor of the model-based tolerance application Feature-Based Tolerancing (FBTol) Advisor tool. Curtis is the President of the Digital Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC) which develops and manages the ANSI/ISO standard Quality Information Framework (QIF).

Daniel Campbell is the VP of MBD at Capvidia. He has 18+ years of experience in the field of digital metrology, software design, and MBD (model-based definition). Mr. Campbell is the Chair of the ANSI QIF Working Group, a member of the Board of Directors of the Digital Metrology Standards Consortium, and a member of the Technology Advisory Committee for MxD Chicago.

Watch Presentation Now: Click Here

The Digital Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC) member QIF End Users & Solution Providers present QIF Tech Series topics monthly through November 2022.

The webinar series will focus on QIF-centric topics and related subjects related to Digital Manufacturing such as Model-Based Enterprise (MBE), Model-Based Definition (MBD), GD&T and more. The 20-30 minute presentations may be introductory level or more advanced content, and are intended to educate a broad variety of QIF implementers or future users. There will be a 15 minute Q & A session after each of the presentations.

Webinar technical content is provided by both QIF End Users and QIF Solution Providers with the goal of sharing real-life QIF or related implementations by advanced manufacturing operations.

Click Here for all QIF Tech Series Coffee Chats scheduled for 2022.

If you are interested in presenting a QIF implementation case study, please contact DMSC Executive Director, Mark Thomas by email.

The post QIF Tech Series Coffee Chat appeared first on DMSC.

Bob Brown presented on “Interoperability for Feedback Loops from Dimensional Metrology in Digital Manufacturing using QIF”. Interoperability in feedback loops is a very old problem within the digital thread and is an underserved aspect of the contemporary standards community and R&D initiatives in general. While downstream information data flows have received much attention, and have matured significantly over the last decade, this presentation highlighted many potential opportunities for interoperability standards such as the Quality Information Framework (QIF), to provide a transport mechanism for many use cases in digital manufacturing that require feedback loops.

The 2021 Quality Show had fewer attendees than prior years due to all the disruptions of COVID. However, we detected a clear increase in the level of enthusiasm of the attendees and more people at the show than we had expected. Attendees leaned more towards locals as compared to past shows which enjoyed more regional attendance.

As with many of the industry and trade shows the DMSC attends, we often have as much engagement with the exhibitors as with the attendees, and this year was no different. We were encouraged by our many vendor discussions around best practices for implementing QIF as well as interest in joining the DMSC as solution providers.

It was great to see so many of our current solution provider members at the show and witnessing active conversations with end user on their products and applications, including QIF integration.

If you have additional questions about our show takeaways or membership in the DMSC, please reach out to Ray Stahl, DMSC Board Member.

The post DMSC Reports from 2021 Quality Show appeared first on DMSC.

Elysium Major Product Update
Now Supports QIF 3.0

Software company Elysium has announced support for QIF 3.0 (Quality Information Framework) in the latest product update of their 3DxSUITE EX9, available August 1, 2021. This newest update offers primary support of QIF 3.0 with bi-directional translation and validation of the MBD portion. Elysium also supports change detection within QIF, as with any supported format.

Elysium’s inquiries for QIF have grown the over past couple of years and their level of QIF support continues to evolve, responding to increasing customer demand. Annalise Suzuki, VP of Technology and Engagement elaborates, “The MBE first-movers are increasing their MBE objectives from MBD visual aides to leveraging more from semantic information to achieve machine-readable workflows, which is where formats like QIF and STEP AP242 can add lifecycle value for automation. Based on the increased demand in this area, we are excited to add support for QIF 3.0, with continued collaboration from our innovative customers.”

DMSC President, Curtis Brown, reflects on this recent development, “We are very pleased to see continued demand by the MBD community as our valued DMSC solution providers, such as Elysium, respond to their customer’s requests to include QIF 3.0 support.”

“Our multi-CAD exchange and 3D interoperability expertise provide an ideal position to strongly support CAD & QIF connectivity, as well as validation,” says Kentaro Fukuta, Global Business General Manager at Elysium Japan.

As a current DMSC member, Elysium has been jointly working with both customers in industry and metrology vendors for QIF-supported workflows. For more information about Elysium support for QIF, click here.

The Digital Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC, Inc.), founded in 2005, is a non-profit consortium organization with the responsibility of developing and maintaining the QIF standard (ISO 23952:2020), and other metrology standards. The broader DMSC mission is to promote, foster, and develop interoperability standards and quality data frameworks for the manufacturing field of digital metrology. The purpose of these digital metrology standards is to positively impact the digital thread for the Model-Based Enterprise (MBE). The DMSC is an ANSI Accredited Standards Developing Organization, as well as an A-Liaison to ISO. The consortium invites participation within the consortium of other standards groups and activities that seek to resolve the technology and other issues of automated (digital) metrology.

Mark Thomas
Executive Director, DMSC, Inc.
mark.thomas@qifstandards.org
585-451-5800

Elysium is a software company that has been in the forefront of 3D geometry handling and data translation for over three decades. With the rapid spread of 3D data and move towards accomplishing MBD/MBE initiatives, Elysium has been providing industry leading 3D interoperability and point cloud solutions throughout the world including industry leaders such as Boeing, Daimler, Alpine F1 Team, Toyota and more than 3,500 other companies.

Elysium also has OEM partnerships with leading companies worldwide.

Elysium has its global headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan as well as R&D and marketing offices in the US and Europe. With more than 90 employees worldwide and a network of international partners and distributors, Elysium solutions have become the de facto standard for many world-class companies.

Annalise Suzuki
VP of Technology and Engagement, Elysium
annalise.suzuki@elysiuminc.com
248-799-9800

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The post Elysium Major Product Update Now Supports QIF 3.0 appeared first on DMSC.

Interoperability for Feedback Loops from Dimensional Metrology in Digital Manufacturing using QIF

Interoperability in feedback loops is a very old problem within the digital thread and is an under served aspect of the contemporary standards community and R&D initiatives in general. While downstream information data flows have received much attention and have matured significantly over the last decade, this presentation will highlight many potential opportunities for interoperability standards such as the Quality Information Framework (QIF), to provide a transport mechanism for many use cases in digital manufacturing that require feedback loops.

Robert Brown received a BS in Physics from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and an MBA from the Northern Illinois University. 25 years of experience in metrology and manufacturing specializing in MeasurLink application development for quality data acquisition, management, and analysis. He serves as a chair of the Digital Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC) Quality Information Framework (QIF) Statistics Working Group. Robert co-authored the book Information Modeling for Interoperable Dimensional Metrology. Current responsibilities include managing software research and systems development at Mitutoyo America Corporation.

Quality Information Framework (QIF) was elevated to ISO Standard Status in August 2020 (ISO 23952:2020).  Modern quality operations consist of complex cyber-physical systems that are required to constantly gather and use digital manufacturing data. Often multiple players throughout the supply chain employ one or more proprietary software products, resulting in a critical communication break between supply chain partners. The data relevant to each partner must be intelligently organized and communicated. Enter Quality Information Framework (QIF): an XML-based, CAD-agnostic platform and standard. QIF seamlessly defines, organizes, and associates quality information including: measurement plans, results, part geometry and product manufacturing information (PMI), measurement templates, resources, statistical analysis, etc.

For more information about the QIF standard please contact the DMSC Executive Director, Mark Thomas.

For more information about the 2021 Quality Show event, click here.

The post Interoperability for Feedback Loops at Quality Show 2021 appeared first on DMSC.

Jennifer Herron, CEO of Action Engineering (Golden, Colorado, USA), will present at the virtual 2021 Metromeet Conference March 25, 2021 on applications of the Quality Information Framework (QIF): “How this new ISO standard can be used for interoperability of 3D metrology data”.

At the 2018 ISO / TC 184 / SC 4 Committee meeting in Chicago, the ISO committee accepted the submission of Quality Information Framework (QIF) for the Fast Track Ballot process. In July 2020, ISO approved and entirely harvested the ANSI/DMSC QIF v3.0 standard. The new standard is called ISO 23952-2020, “Automation systems and integration — Quality information framework (QIF) — an integrated model for manufacturing quality information.” This standard is intended to help advanced manufacturers reduce costs, offer a common format for product measurement results, and is a critical enabler for digital transformation via MBE (Model-Based Enterprise).

Ms. Herron is on the DMSC Board of Directors, and is a subject matter expert in Model-Based Enterprise (MBE) for multiple CAD packages, such as Creo, NX, and SOLIDWORKS. Additionally, Jennifer is a contributing member of multiple industry standards committees, and is the author of the book “Re-Use Your CAD: The Model-Based CAD Handbook”.
More about Action Engineering

Metromeet is an International Conference on Industrial Dimensional Metrology since 2005 and a key meeting point for Metrology professionals. Traditionally held in Bilbao, Spain, the 2021 event will be held virtually on March 25, 2021.
More about Metromeet 2021 + Registration

DMSC, the Digital Metrology Standards Consortium, is the developer of metrology-related standards such as QIF and DMIS. DMSC is a nonprofit, member owned corporation with the mission to develop new metrology standards, support current standards, and coordinate and harmonize with other related standards efforts.
More about Digital Metrology Standards Consortium

Contact the DMSC Executive Director, Mark Thomas with additional questions on DMSC membership and our current standards development work.

The post Everyday QIF Explained at Metromeet 2021 appeared first on DMSC.