AIAG says that metrology equipment provider Mitutoyo America Corp. was the first organization to get QMD certified. The company’s MeasureLink 6 product received the QMD Certification status on March 27, 2009 as MeasureLink 6, Conformance Class 3 – SPC with Traceability, says AIAG.
“AIAG is grateful for the early supporters of the QMD project when it was still in the concept phase,” says Akram Yunas, program manger at AIAG. “Their support and technical contributions, from concept to validation to completion, were a key factor in the successful launch of the QMD Specification.”
QMD Specification Explained
QMD is a generic, nonproprietary standard for variable, attribute and binary quality measurement data from any source. Until now, no single standard existed to address quality measurement data integration issues, says AIAG. The lack of standardization created considerable waste and redundancy for gage and reporting solution providers that had to integrate their data to meet more than 1,500 disparate proprietary formats.
The QMD specification resolves this issue, and virtually eliminates the cost of converting data, saving customers and their suppliers millions of dollars annually.
John Horst, metrology interoperability project manager for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), says NIST and AIAG collaborated to create a user- friendly, Web-based conformance test utility that:
1. Helps suppliers test the compliance of their QMD implementation prior to submission for certification; and
2. Allows AIAG to perform formal QMD certification on these products.
“All of this can give end-users of QMD-based products confidence that quality measurement software products are sufficient to solve their data needs and will enable interoperability between products from different suppliers,” says Horst. “Costly use of proprietary formats can now become a thing of the past.”
Why Become Certified?
With QMD certification, AIAG says that customers will have seamless data communication with total interoperability. It verifies that an organization adheres to XML best practices for data interoperability and provides validation that its quality measurement reporting tools are in compliance with the QMD specification, says AIAG.
The online QMD certification process is self-paced and completed directly from the AIAG Web site. Certification benefits include:
Advantages for the certified supplier’s customers include:
AIAG says customers will now benefit from systems that can read trading partner information-no matter the format being used-eliminating the risk of errors and waste and helping to reduce redundancy.
Applying for Certification
The certification process is completed electronically through a test harness accessed from the AIAG Web site. Software will be certified to one or more of the following conformance classes:
Suppliers can submit QMD-compliant data files to AIAG along with the process description and the level of QMD specification for which they are seeking certification. AIAG will review the submitted information and start the certification process.
To apply for QMD certification, visit www.aiag.org/sci. For more information, call (248) 358-3003 or contact Akram Yunas.
