CASE STUDIES: Increased Efficiency

Gerfer is a Columbian multinational company serving the plastics and synthetic fibers sector of the petrochemical industry. It is one of the leading South American companies in the production and commercialization of PVC and CPVC pipings and fittings for the construction and sewerage industries including tiles, covers, faucets, and solvent cement.

On a daily basis, Gerfer uses over 200 technical standards and management systems in the areas of research and development, product design, engineering, production, procurement, sales, purchasing, and marketing from national and international standards organizations like the Colombian Institute of Technical Standards and Certification (ICONTEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ASTM International, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Participating in standards development for more than 20 years has led Gerfer to achieve savings of over five million dollars annually. Using standards allows Gerfor to expand their domestic market, meeting and driving demand for quality products; access international markets by fulfilling market entry conditions; optimize internal operations increasing productivity and efficiency through continuous improvements of systems and processes; ensure the quality of supplies; and, build consumer confidence.

Gerfer CEO Jose María Escova explains, “Standards implementation has put us at the vanguard, and at the forefront of our competition. At an international level we could not be competitive if we did not comply with standards. We are sure that the application of standards opens us the doors of new markets. The benefits far exceed expectations.”

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HP, along with some of the world's largest printer, smartphone, and tablet manufacturers develop universal standards that support a simple and seamless way to print or scan from mobile devices via the Mopria Alliance. Along with the rise of mobile connected devices, the market has seen an uptick in the demand for mobile printing and scanning, which increases personal and business productivity.

However, up until September 2013, printing from Android mobile devices was a big issue for many users, as there was no standardized and easy way to print and scan from these mobile devices.

As part of a solution to this issue, and to improve the user experience, HP joined printer manufacturers, smartphone and tablet manufacturers, software companies, and mobile app developers to form the Mopria Alliance in 2013.

Mopria Alliance’s mission is to provide universal standards to simplify solutions for scan and print and ease the pain of printing from smartphones and tablets. Mopria develops standards offering a simple and seamless way to print or scan to any Mopria certified printer, multifunction printer, or scanner.

The creation of the Mopria Alliance has helped to expand the market access, and promote interoperability and an intuitive mobile print solution. In addition to a focus on standardization, the alliance also established a certification and conformance program to build consumer trust and assurance. This open industry initiative represents the value of standardization and the power of collaboration when there is a shared goal and need.

As per the December 2020 Mopria Alliance report, the Mopria print technology has been installed on more than 2 billion devices. There are currently more than 120 million Mopria certified printers from 24 printer companies with 5000+ certified printer models.

In the 1970s, hospitals began using computers to process digital medical images. Initially, most devices stored images in a propriety format and transferred these files over an internal network or on removable media. These incompatible systems made images inconsistent and sharing information difficult, expensive, unreliable and inefficient. In order for physicians, hospitals and patients to fully reap the benefits from digital medical images and information, the medical community called for interoperability and a standard method for transmitting medical images and their associated information.

In 1983, the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) formed a joint committee to create a standard method for transmitting medical images and their associated information. Within ten years the standard grew to utilize computer network standards and was renamed Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM). DICOM includes standards not only for images but also for patient records, studies, reports and other data groupings, and has contributed to improvements in image quality and presentation consistency.

The DICOM standard permits the transfer of medical images in a multi-vendor environment; provides a strong base for developing and expanding picture archiving and communication systems; and supports interfacing with medical information systems. DICOM is utilized in virtually every medical profession that uses images including cardiology, dentistry, endoscopy, mammography, ophthalmology, orthopedics, pathology, pediatrics, radiation therapy, radiology, surgery, as well as veterinary applications. As patient information transfers to digital forms, all Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems that include imaging information as part of the patient record will require DICOM.

Ultimately, the benefit falls to the patient. Physicians have better access to images and reports allowing them to make a faster diagnosis, potentially from anywhere in the world. As a result, patients can obtain faster, more effective care.

Immediately after the tragedies of September 11, 2001, the virtues of biometrics were debated by many. In response, a significant amount of research and development, testing, and education was launched for biometric applications within border control, document security, data integrity, and identity management. The need to achieve one-to-one verification for linking a passport to its rightful owner led the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to strive to utilize biometrics as a vital tool in combination with other technologies for global interoperability of e-passport specifications.

To facilitate the goal of global interoperability, ICAO Document 9303 Part 1, Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD), leveraged standards developed by International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 37, Biometrics, (ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 37). Data formats covering biometrics for face, finger, and iris images were published in ISO/IEC 19794, Information Technology - Biometric data interchange formats, and a logical data structure (LDS) instantiation in ISO/IEC 19785, Information Technology - Common Biometric Exchange Formats Framework (CBEFF), was used as a definition to contain the data. These standards supported ICAO’s selection of facial recognition as the globally interoperable biometric for machine-assisted identity confirmation for MRTD, with the option to incorporate specifications for finger and iris images as well.

More than fifteen years later, deployment of e-passports, considered to be the most secure in the world, is well underway. ICAO estimates that as of December 2012 there were 430 million e-passports issued by 108 nations using the JTC 1 SC37 standards. This program serves as a model for effective collaboration and cooperation - between industry through subcommittees of ISO/IEC JTC 1, and the governments of the world through ICAO.

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During the 1980s, the Army was using more than 350 different types of 1.5-volt to 30-volt batteries, consuming nearly 20% of a typical Army unit’s annual budget. In 1996, the Army spent $100 million on batteries and battery expenditures, and portable power requirements of the digitized battlefield were increasing the demand for more powerful primary and rechargeable batteries. A 1996 audit cited that, during a three year period, the Army could reduce expenditures 66% by using rechargeable batteries for training, and could save another $1.9 million if five selected units switched solely to rechargeable batteries.

Through standardization of primary and rechargeable batteries, the Army achieved a higher level of battery interchangeability and unit readiness within military units and across joint and combined operations. The Army decreased battery types used from more than 350 to 35, with a goal to standardize to 25. The Army now spends $75 million a year on battery purchases for all applications, a 25% reduction from its 1996 baseline. During the first four years alone, the Army saved more than $43 million, of that more than $30 million was related to rechargeable batteries. In the end, the Army met audit expectations by reducing expenditures on batteries by 66% over a three year period.

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CCP Composites is a world leader in the production and distribution of gel coats, composites polyester resins, coatings resins, and emulsions.  Between 1998 and 2005, the company’s Houston, Texas synthetic resin manufacturing plant experienced a dramatic increase in energy expenditures, with an escalation of more than 100% in annual energy costs.  And in 2008, energy was the second largest cost for the plant, accounting for about 20% of the plant’s operating budget.

To help control these exorbitant costs, CCP Composites partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (formerly the Industrial Technologies Program) to implement a management system for energy in accordance with the Superior Energy Performance (SEP) program.  SEP provides facilities with a roadmap for achieving continual improvement in energy performance while maintaining competitiveness by use of a transparent system for verifying energy performance improvement and energy management practices through the application of ISO 50001: 2011, Energy management systems – Requirements with guidance for use.

CCP Composites’ Houston plant achieved a 14.9% improvement in energy efficiency over a two-year period; 31,700 million British thermal units of energy saved; and $250,000 in cost savings per year.  The Houston plant became an SEP Gold Certified Partner in 2010 using ANSI/MSE 2000:2008, an American National Standard for Energy Management Systems, and has a management system in place to proactively manage the facility’s energy resources in the future so it will continue to sustain improvements in energy performance.  CCP plans to become recertified using ISO 50001.

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MedCentral Health System in Ohio needed to streamline its chart abstraction functions to enable it to efficiently meet increasing federal and state core measures reporting requirements. They were looking for a tool that would integrate seamlessly into their current clinical and financial departments and ancillary information systems.

Previously, MedCentral had no data mining applications; they relied on manual chart abstractions. Manually abstracting information buried in many different systems from many different departments can swamp healthcare organizations and poses a serious obstacle to calculating and reporting core measures in a timely manner. And when patient-quality issues are identified, isolating contributing factors can be an arduous task, dramatically slowing down and impeding the ability of a hospital to correct quality problems.

MedCentral looked to Siemens Soarian® Quality Measures for a solutions. Soarian® Quality Measures uses Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) and Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) interoperability specifications in its methods for obtaining patient clinical information, and then evaluates and reports on quality measures based on that information.

By adopting the HITSP specifications and initiating use of EHR technologies, MedCentral’s core measures reporting requirements became less burdensome to facilities and enhanced the reporting processes. In addition, MedCentral experienced improved accuracy of chart abstractions and is now positioned to more effectively manage patient quality issues.