They raise a wide diversity of crops up there-vegetable crops, canning crops, as well as larger wheat crops. We have all types of mountain recreational facilities in the State— summer and winter recreation. We have some of the best ski areas in the country. A favorite attraction, which I am sure some of you will see, is the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The Academy now is on 17,600 acres of land. Recently, I had an opportunity to go They are housed on 400 acres. We really spread them out in Colorado Springs. I think you would enjoy seeing that area. back to the Naval Academy. We again want to welcome you to Colorado and sincerely hope that you will come back later and spend a wonderful vacation in our Columbine State. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS-A JOINT VENTURE by J. P. EBERHARD, Director, Institute for Applied Technology, My father was a minister and since Reverend About 700 years before Christ, in fact, King She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. . . This addresses itself to today's technology. I read this to my wife and she was not impressed. I call this an early classic of performance standards, because it says nothing about the physical appearance of such wife; it does not say how she is to help the poor or how large a portion of meat she is to give to her maidens; but it does sug THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE gest that her performance will be characterized by willing actions, and kindness. These latter criteria for perform been universally recognized as desirable and, just as unive losophers have recognized the difficulty of measuring suc These characteristics of performance standards are still g for us today in the development of what I am concerned a neering performance standards. They should describe the requirements or effectiveness levels of materials, compone blies or systems, but not prescribe how these requirement met in terms of engineering design. In our Institute for Applied Technology, we are not resp developing performance standards for wives (although we c close because Mac and some of his boys are working on some for women's dresses), but we are interested in advancing t ability to write performance standards for buildings, for in systems, for electronic instruments, for computers, and a other areas, including weights and measures. Under new now pending before Congress, as Dr. Astin indicated earli be asked to provide the technical knowledge needed to writ ance standards for automobile safety, possibly for "fair pa labeling" standards, and, hopefully, one of these days, pe standards for what constitutes a good city. I thought it might be useful, therefore, to spend a fev exploring with you what we mean by performance standard culties inherent in trying to measure true performance, an of the relationship-and I must stress it is my view-betwe ment and industry in developing and using performance sta Almost every conference on research which I attend thes around to discussing the need for performance standards of An industry association will likely have a committee for lo a voluntary set of performance standards for the industry a consumer group will likely demand that higher performa ards be developed in some area to help raise the quality of turing; and almost every government agency is advocating ance standards in its area of concern. Even that august United States Senate, is presently considering performance relating to the ethics of its members. I would like to make several different attempts to shar some of the thinking we have done about what the term "pe standards" means. The first attempt relates to what we ca between "user needs" and performance standards. The reco analysis of user needs is the first step required for develop performance standard when we speak of engineering sta any product exchanged in the market place. We have pre a long time now that it is possible to write standards for us ing codes or to concern ourselves about safe automobiles by specifying the engineering properties of such products. We know now that we need performance standards in these areas, and that we will need to look at the user requirements in order to do that. In the building area, this means more research to explore how buildings are related to man's requirements; what functional, physiological, and psychological needs of man is the building expected to meet. Our knowledge in this area is extremely limited. Building research has been dominated by engineers, physicists, and chemists who concern themselves with the basic properties of the materials or equipment that went into the buildings, but very little with the basic needs of the people who would use the buildings. We are going to need a much larger contribution from the social scientists to building research if we want to get at true performance standards in the next few years. Once it is possible to state the user requirements for a product or system, there are several other stages of development. The next stage is performance criteria-those characteristics of the product that are observable and capable of being isolated. These need to be identified and then appropriate test methods for evaluating them need to be developed. Once performance criteria and test methods are available, then performance specifications can be written. Normally, only after the specifications have been tried is one of the procedures begun for reducing the knowledge and practice to a standard. Thus it is clear that performance standards require a long period for their successful development. Another aspect of performance standards that needs to be understood is that there is a spectrum of complexity to which they can be related. It is possible, for instance, to talk about performance standards for bathtubs and to do so by referring only to the required properties of the materials of which the tub is made. I would not call this a performance standard, but some people do. The next level of complexity would be to describe the performance requirements of a bathtub by including the tub in a broader performance requirement for the total plumbing system in the house. At this stage, its performance as one component of a larger system becomes important. The next level of complexity would be to describe the plumbing system for a house as before, but to include the required functional and physiological requirements for the people who will use the system. However, in my view, we are still short of a true performance standard as long as the requirements are related to a specific technological solution, and plumbing is a specific technological problem. Plumbing is based on water and gravity essentially. This is only one possible way of solving the technological problem to which the bathroom addresses itself. A true performance standard, therefore, states the user requirements and the needed performance levels without reference to THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRA gest that her performance will be characterized by willing w actions, and kindness. These latter criteria for perform been universally recognized as desirable and, just as univer losophers have recognized the difficulty of measuring such ance. These characteristics of performance standards are still g for us today in the development of what I am concerned a neering performance standards. They should describe the requirements or effectiveness levels of materials, compone blies or systems, but not prescribe how these requirements met in terms of engineering design. In our Institute for Applied Technology, we are not resp developing performance standards for wives (although we close because Mac and some of his boys are working on som for women's dresses), but we are interested in advancing th ability to write performance standards for buildings, for i systems, for electronic instruments, for computers, and a other areas, including weights and measures. Under new now pending before Congress, as Dr. Astin indicated earl be asked to provide the technical knowledge needed to wri ance standards for automobile safety, possibly for "fair I labeling" standards, and, hopefully, one of these days, I standards for what constitutes a good city. I thought it might be useful, therefore, to spend a fe exploring with you what we mean by performance standar culties inherent in trying to measure true performance, a of the relationship and I must stress it is my view-betw ment and industry in developing and using performance s Almost every conference on research which I attend the around to discussing the need for performance standards An industry association will likely have a committee for a voluntary set of performance standards for the industr a consumer group will likely demand that higher perform ards be developed in some area to help raise the quality turing; and almost every government agency is advocati ance standards in its area of concern. Even that augu United States Senate, is presently considering performan relating to the ethics of its members. I would like to make several different attempts to sha some of the thinking we have done about what the term " standards" means. The first attempt relates to what we between "user needs" and performance standards. The r analysis of user needs is the first step required for devel performance standard when we speak of engineering s any product exchanged in the market place. We have a long time now that it is possible to write standards for Because they provide a basis for sound or equitable judgment between alternatives, performance standards should be a tool of governments at the Federal, State, or local level when matters of public health, safety, or welfare are involved. Governments need not develop these standards, but I would argue that they have a responsibility, as a public trust, to assure the development of adequate performance standards and associated test methods in those areas which involve health, safety, and welfare. I believe, in fact, that true performance standards are the most democratic basis we have for assuring the public interest while allowing private enterprise to seek alternative design or engineering solutions through competition. I have sometimes been surprised at the way that private industry has resisted this shift to performance standards. It is not too surprising if a company that produces a single building material resists changing a building code that gives it a certain amount of market protection. But there are not many one-material companies of any size left. Most of them have diversified into new areas, and most of them claim to be doing research. Outdated specification type building codes, therefore, also make it difficult for this same company to introduce its own new innovations. I am confident that in the next few years most companies will come to realize that free competition in the market place is to their own long-term interest. As this begins to be realized, there will be even more interest in developing good building codes based on true performance standards, and our Institute for Applied Technology in the National Bureau of Standards wants to help in this area. Well, what does all of this mean to those of you who are involved in weights and measures? I think it means that you should not be sitting there dreaming with me about performance standards for buildings or automobile safety if you are not willing to look at yourselves. I think it means some changes for you in the next few years, just as it means changes for the rest of our friends in industry and government. You have been in business for a long time, longer than the National Bureau of Standards. During that time, the science and technology of measurement has gone through many changes. Only a century ago, we were lucky if we could get a bushel in New York to equal a bushel in Pennsylvania. Now your calibration tools are so accurate that you probably exceed the practical ability of the normal small businessman or his customers to fully utilize the accuracy you can demand of his weights and measures. I know we do in the Bureau. I doubt that extremes of accuracy very often come into your practice. But these are areas in which you are involved. Since I am a novice in your area, I can speak frankly. So let me. I read last night the proposed standard for milk bottles. It seems to me that as a consumer, I am not so much concerned that the container in which I buy milk be held to tolerances of nine-tenths of a |