The post MBC Standards Committee Meeting appeared first on DMSC.

One of the goals of the recent MBE/QIF Summit was to encourage dialogue among proponents of two standards – the STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product model data) community and the QIF (Quality Information Framework) community. Individually, both standards are well-known in the industrial manufacturing universe, and each comes from different starting concepts on the design vs quality approach to manufacturing.

What Are STEP and QIF files?

STEP files are vendor-neutral CAD files that contain product data, including geometry, assembly information, PMI (product and manufacturing information), and other metadata. QIF also starts with CAD data but is focused on communicating manufacturing and inspection data.

Both ISO standards, STEP and QIF are standards that are accepted by companies that have moved ahead with a Model-Based Enterprise (MBE) as a strategy. However, such forward-thinking applies to a small number of large companies that understand the vision and the benefits of how MBE will benefit their bottom line. The decision to move to MBE is an important corporate strategy and has major effects on corporate critical processes and ways of thinking about the whole process as one, which leaves uncommitted companies cautious about starting the MBE journey.

Is One Better than the Other?

As essential as both STEP and QIF are in an MBE environment, there is confusion about which standard is the “right one.” In some cases, the decision is made using a specific point of view as the starting point, and a comprehensive understanding of STEP and QIF eludes some companies as they examine their own MBE implementation.

The confusion about whether to use STEP or QIF as strategic tools continues and has hampered the widespread implementation of MBE. Each standard has advantages and disadvantages, leaving companies feeling like they need to make the decision “either.” In reality, STEP and QIF can work together and, indeed, may be found to be complementary standards that support a MBE strategy.

Better understanding is the key. At the 2024 MBE/QIF Summit, experts started a conversation on harmonizing STEP/QIF functionality and usage within the manufacturing community. At this point, the formation of a discussion group is in the early stages. Representatives from PDES, Inc., DMSC, Inc., and the user community are forming a discussion group to work through technical issues and dispel misconceptions.

Sam Gambrel (Lockheed Martin and DMSC BoD member) is monitoring these early discussions on behalf of DMSC.

Expect to see future DMSC announcements about this important discussion group.

The post STEP – QIF Discussion Gains Momentum appeared first on DMSC.

After three years of effort by way of the Working Group process, a completed standard proposal was recently presented to the DMSC Standards Committee for approval as part of the DMSC development process. After a couple of days of “fine-tuning” at an in-person meeting, the Standards Committee vote was overwhelmingly affirmative, and the proposal now has moved on to the next step in the approval process.

The proposed standard, named “Model-Based Characteristics: Persistent Identification and Related Digital Practices” has been submitted to ANSI for inclusion in their public announcement publication, “Standards Action”. Standards Action is ANSI’s key public review vehicle for domestic and international standards activities. Published weekly and freely available by download or email subscription, it is intended to facilitate review and consensus by all interested parties.

The new DMSC standard proposal appeared in the August 25, 2023 edition (page 25) of the ANSI Standards Action, and according to ANSI procedures, will be available for Public Review for a period of 45 days (comment deadline: October 9th). Comments will be forwarded to DMSC, and a response is required.

After the Public Review period, the proposed MBC standard will be subject to an ANSI special audit to assure compliance with all DMSC procedures. An audit date is yet unspecified; we are waiting for confirmation of the ANSI audit schedule, potentially as soon as November 2023.

The last step in the process would be a final review by ANSI, at which point ANSI would approve the MBC proposal as an official ANS (American National Standard).

Read the latest edition of ANSI Standards Action

The post Proposed Model-Based Characteristics (MBC) Standard Takes Next Step appeared first on DMSC.

First, the DMSC had to revive the DMSC Standards Committee (SC), and invite any and all interested parties to review the proposal of the MBC WG. An in-person meeting was held in June 2023 at the University of Texas at Arlington (Ft. Worth). There were 19 participating companies at the meeting, most of which (but not all) were DMSC members. Those that could not attend in-person observed the meeting online. After several days of reviewing the proposal (180 pages), an in-person vote was held to “accept, abstain or reject” the proposal. Votes were also accepted from companies observing online. DMSC members that were not represented in-person, online, or by proxy were solicited by email for their vote regarding the proposal.

After considerable (and spirited) discussion, a final version of the document was agreed upon by the in-person and online group. Voting was recently completed with Ray Admire, Chair of the SC, tabulating all votes and reporting an overwhelming approval of the proposed standard document. The vote tabulation included all in-person, online, proxy, and email responses.

Still yet to be done are a few details such as proofreading the document, and preparation of the ANSI required BSR-8 form. One extra step required by ANSI is an audit of this entire process which will be scheduled once all documents are in a final state.

Assuming the audit process goes well, the final step will be submitting the proposal to ANSI via the BSR-8 form. ANSI will then announce the proposed standard in their “Standards Action” publication, which allows for comments from the public. The public review period will be 45 days. If there are public review comments, DMSC is required to respond in writing. Public Review comments are fairly rare but could potentially delay acceptance by ANSI.

Acceptance by ANSI means that the DMSC Model-Based Characteristics standard would be approved as an American National Standard (ANS). A three-year effort by DMSC, the completion date for this entire process is estimated at Fall, 2023.

The post Model-Based Characteristics Proposal Approved via DMSC Standards Committee Vote appeared first on DMSC.

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.

The process of moving the proposed standard from the MBC Working Group to the DMSC Standards Committee to ANSI is defined in the 2022 version of the DMSC-ANSI Procedures. New standards that are intended to ultimately be designated by ANSI as an American National Standard (ANS) must follow these procedures – and this is the intent for MBC 1.0.

Meeting Agenda

Invitations to participate have been published in multiple DMSC news articles and DMSC newsletters in 2022-2023.

Participation via Microsoft Teams is also available at this link:

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer, mobile app or room device

Click here to join the meeting

Or call in (audio only)

Phone Conference ID: 604 383 422#

Find a local number | Reset PIN

Start your meeting with a safety message (https://tiny.lmco.com/msm) and take credit in TZ Leader.

The post MBC Standards Committee Meeting appeared first on DMSC.

DMSC will be represented at the 35th Annual Control International Trade Fair for Quality Assurance in Stuttgart, Germany, 9 – 12 May 2023. DMSC’s Marketing Director, Ray Stahl, will be in attendance at the show, evangelizing QIF (Quality Information Framework) adoption and recruiting for membership in Digital Metrology Standards Consortium.

Multiple DMSC member companies will be among the 760+ exhibitors and Ray will engage with them regarding the successful promotion of QIF.  Zeiss, Renishaw, Metrologic, High QA, Innovalia, OGP, Mitutoyo, and InnovMetrics are just some of the DMSC member companies exhibiting QIF solutions.

The Control Show is the world’s leading trade show for quality assurance. Control presents a range of innovative technologies, processes, products, and systems with world-class solutions for industrial quality assurance.

Attendance for the 4-day show is expected to exceed 18,000 visitors, of which 85% will be looking for new metrology solutions.

DMSC is a member-funded, non-profit consortium responsible for developing and maintaining QIF 3.0 (ISO 23952:2020) and other industrial metrology standards.

If you are going to the show and want to talk about QIF or the DMSC, please contact Ray about meeting at the Control show:

Ray Stahl
DMSC Marketing Director
email ray.stahl@qifsolutions.org
Twitter @raystahl

The post DMSC Visits Control Quality Assurance Show in Germany appeared first on DMSC.

The next step in the process is a final review and approval (vote) by the Standards Committee of the MBC proposal document.

MBC 1.0 will include model-based definition with persistent identification. It will compliment the Quality Information Framework (QIF) standard by adding engineering requirements to the model including nomenclature, definitions, symbols, data structures, and practices for product definition. QIF was created by The Digital Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC). DMSC is responsible for the development, maintenance and support of the QIF standard, as well as the Dimensional Measuring Interface Standard (DMIS).

The DMSC Standards Committee is chaired by Ray Admire and consists generally of DMSC members and/or members of the MBC Working Group. However, in the spirit of openness (and an ANSI requirement), the offer to join the Standards Committee is extended to any and all interested individuals and companies. DMSC membership is encouraged, but not required for participation.

So far, the following companies have expressed interest in participating in the DMSC Standards Committee:
Note: you must specifically request to participate

• Hexagon
• Mitutoyo America
• Johns Hopkins APL
• Lockheed Martin
• Honeywell
• Action Engineering
• Pratt & Whitney

The DMSC Standards Committee will fine-tune the documentation before submission to ANSI. The Standards Committee will either: formally vote on the final document, affirmatively, negatively, negatively with comment, or abstain. Since the proposed new standards document is coming directly from the MBC Working Group, it is expected that the fine-tuning process will be minimal and expedient.

If the proposed new Standard documentation is approved the DMSC Standards Committee, it will be submitted to ANSI for Public Review. The Public Review phase typically takes around 45 days. Should public comments be received, the Standards Committee will respond. With the resolution of public comments, if received, then ANSI will complete a final review. The final step in the process will be acceptance of the proposal as a new ANS (American National Standard).

The entire submission process should be completed in one or two Standards Committee meeting sessions. The DMSC Standards Committee will convene roughly within the next 60 days (April-May 2023). The Standards Committee work may be done through an in-person meeting, or may be a hybrid meeting – details are yet to be determined. To participate in the process, you must make a formal request to join the Standards Committee.

If you’re interested in participating in the DMSC Standards Committee proceedings, please contact DMSC Executive Director Mark Thomas soon for more details: mark.thomas@qifstandards.org

The post Time is Now to Join Standards Committee appeared first on DMSC.

The goal has been to make WG documentation, and other DMSC activities, available to all. Despite a few minor issues with access, this mission has been completed. In keeping with the ANSI theme of “openness”, documentation for most DMSC activities is available to “anyone with the link”.

Each WG has its own folder on the DMSC SharePoint drive, and typically includes:
• recording of each meeting
• updated PowerPoint presentation for that meeting
• attendance list

Use the link below to easily access DMSC activities from the DMSC SharePoint drive:

DMSC recommends that you “bookmark” these links for future use.

If you have any questions or run into any issues accessing the above SharePoint folders using the links provided, contact DMSC Executive Director Mark Thomas for assistance: mark.thomas@qifstandards.org

The post DMSC SharePoint Offers Insight Into Working Group Activity appeared first on DMSC.

The QIF Community has shown high interest in the WG meetings, leading to spirited discussion with up to 20 participants. Additional participants are welcome.

As the WG team identifies and tackles documented QIF issues, a set of peripheral Subject Matter WGs have been initiated or re-activated. It is expected that content from these WGs will be integrated into the completed QIF 4.0 standard upgrade. These new/re-activated working groups include:

• Non-Contact Measurement WG – Chair; Larry Bergquist (SPD)
• QIF Plans WG – Chair; Curtis Brown (Honeywell)
• Process Control WG – Co-Chairs; Larry Maggiano/Peter Rau (Mitutoyo America)
• Measurement Resources WG – Ed Morse (UNCC)
• Model-Based Definition WG – Daniel Campbell (Capvidia)
• Functional Testing WG – Sam Gambrell (Lockheed Martin)

One of the new WGs is the “Functional Testing WG”.

This WG is currently seeking real-life user case studies as examples of specific solutions where functional testing specifications can be added to the QIF schema to communicate those specs as an addition to the MBD model. Individuals and companies that would be willing to share those user case studies are encouraged to join this WG and participate.

The DMSC QIF 4.0 Working Group meeting is open to all interested individuals and companies. Background research and documentation may be viewed on the DMSC Sharepoint drive using this link QIF 4.0 Working Group. Group lead Sam Gambrell is currently participating in the QIF 4.0 Working Group meetings. Once more Functional Testing user experiences have been brought forth, this group will break off into a separate date/time slot.

Join Us in the QIF 4.0 Working Group Meetings

GoToMeeting link: https://meet.goto.com/879374093
Meeting Date/Time: every other Monday, 2pm ET
The next scheduled meeting is Monday, 6 March 2023.
DMSC membership is encouraged, but not required.

For further information, please contact DMSC Executive Director Mark Thomas.

The post QIF 4.0 Working Group Update appeared first on DMSC.