CASE STUDIES: Innovation

Digital photos have advanced e-commerce and become an essential part of merchandizing opportunities. Image sharing is also one of the most popular modes of online social interaction, with millions of digital photos distributed every day via e-mail and on enormously successful social networking sites. The technology that enables digital photography is the industry adoption of the joint photographic expert group (JPEG) image coding standard, the baseline for which was published in 1992 in ISO/IEC 10918-1, Information Technology - Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-tone Still Images: Requirements and Guidelines. And the introduction of ISO/IEC 10918-5, Information Technology - Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-tone Still Images: JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF), made the popular file extension ‘.jpg’ synonymous with JPEG compressed images.

JPEG has continued to advance innovation via subsequent standards such as ISO/IEC 15444, Information Technology - JPEG 2000 Image Coding System: Core Coding System, a comprehensive imaging coding system addressing new requirements not included in the original JPEG standard; ISO/IEC TR 24800, Information Technology - JPSearch, addressing the need for image search and retrieval; ISO/IEC CD TR 29199, Information Technology - JPEG XR Image Coding System, covering extended range technology; ISO/IEC NP 29170, Information Technology - Advanced Image Coding (AIC), covering coding of audio, picture, and multi- and hyper-media information; and, most recently, the new work item ISO/IEC DIS 18477-1, Information Technology - JPEG Extensions HDR Image Coding System, addressing the needs of high-dynamic range imagery, currently under development.

The exceptionally successful JPEG standard and its descendants are utilized every day by millions of users worldwide, not only in the basic sharing and printing of digital images, but in digital cinema, remote sensing, image surveillance, digital culture imaging, archiving, image search and retrieval, and high-dynamic imagery.

 Want to learn more? Check out the full-length case study.

Aerospace has been at the center of America’s technological leadership for the last century.

Underpinning all these accomplishments is the vast wealth of technical data housed, maintained, and disseminated through standards.

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.

NAVSTAR GPS (Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging - Global Positioning System), the largest avionics procurement and installation program in the history of the Department of Defense (DoD), illustrates how strategic standardization can have global impact and revolutionize the way the world functions.

By using a standard radio navigation signal and code provided by the Air Force, the U.S. and its allies realized significant economies of scale through buying, leveraging, and lowering total ownership costs, and reducing acquisition costs while supporting interoperability and logistics readiness. GPS transformed military strategy and logistics, affected many commercial industries, and became the worldwide standard for navigation.

Initiated in 1983 and launched in 1989, GPS cost over $12 billion to develop and deploy. The current annual cost for DoD to operate, sustain, and modernize the GPS is about $500 million. However, the cost of strategic standardization that enabled a single technological solution to a shared problem was infinitesimal compared to the benefit. By making the GPS interface standard available to the entire world, the GPS program produced a global economic impact too large to calculate, and total dollar savings unknowable, but the benefits and potential for GPS is infinite.

 Want to learn more? Check out the full-length case study.

Since 1938, luxury automaker Bentley has housed their entire operations – from design to production to sales – in one historic location in Crewe, England. Throughout the years Bentley has faced the challenge of updating their famous plant to meet the standards of modern motor manufacturing, while at the same time leading the industry in engineering, skills, employment, and environmental performance.

To develop an energy monitoring system through a measurable, systematic approach, Bentley implemented ISO 50001: 2011, Energy management systems – Requirements with guidance for use, a voluntary international standard that establishes a framework for small and large industrial plants, and commercial, institutional, and government facilities to improve the way they manage energy, including energy performance, efficiency, use, and consumption.

By implementing ISO 50001, Bentley has been able to establish sophisticated energy monitoring systems, target areas of energy fissures, and create strategies for improvement in areas covering the use of their boiler and compressed air systems, technology, heating and lighting, insulation, and more efficient variable speed drives on new cars. As a result, Bentley reduced energy usage by two-thirds for each car produced and by 14% overall for the entire plant, delivering savings of 230 GWh of energy – enough to power 11,500 houses for a year.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council (DFWHC) faced the challenge of linking millions of records from numerous different facilities using various information systems to create a cohesive patient-centric view of information. DFWHC was previously limited to analyzing information at the encounter rather than the patient level. This made it impossible for DFWHC to look at all visits for a single patient within or across entities and limited the ability to analyze data and identify trends.

DFWHC worked in partnership with QuadraMed to implement QuadraMed’s Smart I/X EMPI (enterprise master person index) software for record matching. This resulted in the ability to link inpatient to outpatient hospitalization encounters, link multiple outpatient encounters, calculate readmission rates, link research data to inpatient and outpatient databases, support research activity to improve healthcare delivery, track infections, and develop episodic metrics and analytic capability to evaluate chronic illnesses models.

DFWHC was ultimately able to link 7.4 million records from 136 hospitals, achieving a patient-centric view of inpatient and outpatient clinical information for research and reporting that can be used to evaluate and improve patient safety and care across the region. These advancements have led to the beginning stages of a regional health information exchange (HIE). And because the regional EMPI conforms to Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) profiles, which organize and leverage the integration capabilities that can be achieved by coordinated implementation of communication standards, it can be expanded to manage a future HIE.

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.

 Want to learn more? Check out the full-length case study.

In the 1980s, a new pipe-joining technology called a mechanically attached fitting (MAF) was developed, promising substantial improvements including easier fabrication, higher reliability, and lower costs over existing pipe-fitting technologies such as welding and brazing. But the Navy needed a universal test standard to verify the integrity of MAFs before authorizing their use in the fleet.

The Navy chose to work with industry to develop a non-governmental standard (NGS) for MAF testing: ASTM F1387, Standard Specification for Performance of Mechanically Attached Fittings, a flexible but stringent commercial performance standard that addresses all potential MAF designs. These efforts enabled the Navy to adopt and use many MAF designs early and successfully with substantial savings, improved quality and safety, and increased productivity. By 1993, the Navy had used many approved MAFs with excellent results and saved millions of dollars in the first few years.

Several different cost studies show that the use of MAFs saves up to 50% of the installed cost compared with the use of welded or brazed fittings. A fitter/helper team can routinely install 50 to 60 fittings in a single shift, more than double the rate at which welded piping systems typically are shop fabricated. By eliminating welding, many overhead costs relating to safety, personnel, equipment and supplies, inspections, rework, and monitoring are eliminated or substantially reduced.

By expediting the development of the ASTM standard and engaging industry in validation, the Navy brought the new technology to the fleet faster, better, cheaper, and with greater choice of products. The Navy was able to leverage the industry resources rather than conducting the research, testing, and validating using its own resources resulting in a $1 million savings. As the Navy continues to qualify new MAFs and add new applications for MAFs, the recurring savings and cost avoidance continues to grow.

 Want to learn more? Check out the full-length case study.

Beginning in 1979, the DoD began to address two interrelated aircraft battery issues: first, the inefficiency of the development and acquisition process meant that procurement costs for batteries were higher than necessary; and, second, many of the batteries that resulted from this process were poorly designed. This problem was particularly evident in military aircraft, whose batteries required extensive maintenance and frequent replacement. Moreover, other flaws in these batteries were causing damage to the surrounding battery compartment and other aircraft components due to leaking electrolyte.

To combat these issues the DoD standardized government designed batteries that incorporated technological improvements, cost lest to acquire, lasted far longer, and had requirements for life-cycle, service life, transportation, handling, and environmentally sound manufacturing and disposal.

Standardization afforded an opportunity to improve design and performance while lowering costs. Total reported cost avoidances for the DoD’s battery standardization initiative amounts to $454,717,000, from an investment of $9,341,000 – a return ratio of 49 to 1. About 45% of the savings came from lower procurement costs (i.e., buying fewer and cheaper batteries and parts), and about 55% from reduced maintenance costs (i.e., less frequent and faster scheduled maintenance, and fewer unscheduled repairs), reducing the maintenance performed on aircraft engine batteries by 50%. In addition, major cost avoidances resulted from reduced damage to the battery compartment and aircraft structure.

 Want to learn more? Check out the full-length case study.

In the post-9/11 environment, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) faced public fears that a dirty bomb attack could cost billions of dollars, cause extensive environmental contamination, result in hundreds of fatalities and injuries, and take years of recovery.  In response, DHS dramatically increased efforts to screen the vast amounts of cargo entering U.S. ports daily.  While some of the equipment needed to monitor cargo was already on the market, it was not able to handle use in diverse settings, nor was it designed for use by non-specialists or first-responders.

In collaboration with DHS, industry, and other national laboratories, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) coordinated and integrated the work of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Radiation Detection Standards Program N42 Committee to address radioactivity measurements, homeland security, and protection instrumentation for increased port security.  The N42 Committee developed a suite of standards for radiation detection equipment from small, handheld detectors to massive, port-screening monitors that could be used easily by non-specialists and first responders to scan massive amounts of cargo for nuclear-radiological threats.

Today, users and vendors have access to standards that set performance requirements for radiation detection equipment based on homeland security needs; increase the effectiveness and efficiency of cargo, vehicle, and other screening processes; and reduce the risk of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

 Want to learn more? Check out the full-length case study.