Calibration Procedures - Government Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP)

[Ryan Wilde]

I've noticed in the past few months that there are a lot of requests for calibration procedures. Many of you probably already know about GIDEP (Government Industry Data Exchange Program), but from the number of requests, many do not. The program is run by the U.S. Government, and just about any calibration procedure you could dream of is online in PDF format, free of charge. The procedures that they have are a combination of the procedures used by the U.S. military, and some submitted by private industry. What you wind up with is a nice (and pre-proven) procedure that you can download, do minor alterations to, slap your company logo on it, and voila, you're a calibration procedure writing wizard. Then you can ask for greater salary compensation...

Rules of GIDEP are:
1) You have to be a U.S. or Canadian company that supplies either the U.S. government or Canadian Dept of Defense, or their suppliers . What this means is that if you supply GM, and they sell a car to the US govt, you qualify.
2) You have to fill out a yearly utilization report, telling them how much money you saved so that they can justify their existence.

The web address is http://www.gidep.corona.navy.mil/

Note: I don't work for them, so this isn't an advertisement. It is, however, a great program that will help you out.

Ryan, the unemployed (but happy in a new locale) metrologist

 

[Jerry Eldred]

ABSOLUTELY!!!!

I have a stack of about 18 or so CD ROM disks full of procedures from them. I go into the Navair procedures or T.O. (I'm ex-Navy, so of course, the Navair is best), use the edit mode and copy/paste entire procedures into MS Word format. Since this is not a profit making company, but a Government Agency, I don't have any apprehensions about putting in a plug for a good practice.

There is also another program (still Government agency) called MIDAS. This one costs money, a few hundred dollars a year, to subscribe to a CD-ROM service wherein you get, each few months, a complete set of Navair/T.O./Army cal procedures. One minor drawback with GIDEP is that they only have those procedures that the DOD has passed on to them for GIDEP participant use. So there have been times I needed a procedure, and it wasn't carried by GIDEP. This is, I repeat, a MINOR detail. GIDEP is great. Our company saves countless manhours of procedure writing. I am in the middle of a cal procedure overhaul for my lab. I have 2958 manufacturer/model combinations in inventory. I need an estimated total of 900 or so cal procedures. It could take me a few days a piece for some of the more complicated procedures. Using GIDEP or MIDAS, the same procedure might take a couple of hours to copy and paste, then submit to document control for approval/archiving, etc. I can't speak highly enough of them.

So to echo Ryan Wilde's comments, I encourage any U.S. based company that does any business with the U.S. government (as he already described above), to put in an application for GIDEP membership. It's free, and the procedures for the most part are very well written (I've run into very few from some of the private industry companies that weren't quite as good, but still pretty good). It saves your company money. When your company saves money, they can reduce their cost basis, and at least in theory, reduce bid prices for goods and services supplied to the U.S. Government. Subsequently, the U.S. Government reduces their operating cost and our taxes go down.

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[JerryStem]

I tried to go to the GIDEP site you mentioned but wouldn't/couldn/t connect. Is the spelling correct? (I cut/paste...)

Jerry

 

[Ryan Wilde]

Originally posted by JerryStem:
I tried to go to the GIDEP site you mentioned but wouldn't/couldn/t connect. Is the spelling correct? (I cut/paste...)

Jerry,

Government sites are notorious for being down, so you have to try back whenever you can't connect. Again, the address is:
http://www.gidep.corona.navy.mil/

Give that a shot, I put it on its own line this time, as I should have originally. Sometimes I forget that html markup is not universal in the business world.

Ryan

 

[Alf Gulford]

Ryan-
Thanks for the link. It worked great for me and I've passed the site on to our calibration department.

Alf

 

[CarolX]

Originally posted by Ryan Wilde:

Rules of GIDEP are:
1) You have to be a U.S. or Canadian company that supplies either the U.S. government or Canadian Dept of Defense, or their suppliers . What this means is that if you supply GM, and they sell a car to the US govt, you qualify.
2) You have to fill out a yearly utilization report, telling them how much money you saved so that they can justify their existence.

The web address is http://www.gidep.corona.navy.mil/

Randy,

I tried to register with GIDEP. I was asked to provide documents to prove that we were a supplier to a government contractor.
Personally, I think that is bs, those are my tax dollars hard at work. And the last thing I am going to do is send the Feds a copy of our customer's documents.

Regards,
CarolX

 

[Jerry Eldred]

When I registered to join GIDEP, I was asked for a government contract number. They didn't ask for any information about other companies. I suppose it may be a different story if you are not a primary contractor. I suggest giving them a call. They have normally been good to work with in my telephone contacts with them. They only want to be sure they are giving government documents out to those who have a legitimate right to them. If you are a secondary supplier to a primary contractor (I am not an expert in this area), you could also contact the primary contractor, tell them what you want to do, and ask them if they could provide some of the information.

I think one of the bottom lines here depends on how much of the information GIDEP has available would benefit a particular company. If a company only needs three of four procedures to do micrometers and calipers, it is probably not worth the effort to get registered. But a company with a large need for procedures (hundreds or more) can stand to save the government considerable money over time, and so it makes sense to pursue.

The other part of this is that GIDEP serves a number of other industry needs, such as reliability data, a resource for government contractors to search for obsolete parts, various technical documents on manufacturing processes, etc.

 

[Ryan Wilde]

We were not direct government suppliers, and had to provide at least one document proving that we were a second tier supplier to the government. The fine person at GIDEP told me to send a copy of a purchase order with most of the information blocked, and it basically only showed the customer name and us as the vendor. No sensitive information was requested or sent. It is no more than an auditor checking your contract review process, no more information is passed.

Another use of the GIDEP that applies here is for companies that are considering starting their own labs. The procedures even have those handy equipment lists, which makes it very easy to find out what equipment you would have to procure.

Even when we didn't use the gov't procedure, they are great training aids (hint to the other thread). The gov't procedures are almost always good laboratory practice. One great eye opener is attribute gages. They are simple gages that require some expensive equipment to calibrate for all but the least accurate. Calibrating to 1µm for the standard Class X plug gage requires 0.25µm M&TE accuracy, and after you do a few uncertainty studies you will find that it is nearly impossible to do for under US$75k - 100k. I've seen companies calibrating these gages with a CMM, and if they ask, I break it to them that they can only calibrate Class ZZ pin gages (5µm) at best.

One note of warning, though. Gov't procedures tend to take into account only those functions used by that particular agency. Calipers, for example, have an 'end face' calibration that the gov't procedures do not perform, because the gov't doesn't use that function. If the people on your floor use the end face, you need to add that to the procedure.

Well, it's nice out, and I'm going to the beach.

Ryan, still enjoying his unemployed status

 

[Atul Khandekar]

Anyone knows such a resource for someone who is not based in the US and does not supply to US government?
Thanks
- Atul.

 

[Ken K]

This might help Atul...maybe not.


http://astimage.daps.dla.mil/quicksearch/