Government/Military Trends
One Man's Vision Global's Founder and Author of the Drawing Requirements Manual
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More than 30 years ago, Global Engineering Documents was founded as a clearinghouse for frequently requested engineering specifications and standards. Today, Global offers a unique and practical solution to an ongoing dilemma for engineering, quality and purchasing professionals - where to quickly obtain vital technical information. Its founder, Jerome H. Lieblich, is the author of the Drawing Requirements Manual (DRM), a publication that interprets industry standards for the preparation of engineering drawings for commercial products and use in Department of Defense (DoD) contracts. The following interview provides insight into the transformation of a company, discusses the DRM, and provides a glimpse into one man's vision.
How did it all begin?
Since 1940 I worked as a mechanical and aerospace engineer for General Electric, Consolidated Aircraft (Convair), North American Aviation (Rockwell International), Hughes Aircraft, Firestone, Marquardt and Aerojet General. I was constantly accessing standards and specifications for a multitude of projects and obtaining those documents was often difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating. You see, I constantly had to contact multiple sources for the documents and often encountered long delivery delays that set back project timelines. I saw the need for a library that housed historical and current government and industry standards and specifications, regulations and more. Thus, I started Global Engineering Documents and was able to offer one-stop shopping and quick turn-around.
How did IHS become involved?
In 1980 Information Handling Services (IHS) acquired Global. It was a perfect partnership. IHS was able to offer technical libraries, primarily in microform in those days, to large corporate clients and Global could offer that single document to smaller customers and those in need of that solitary standard that wasn't included in their subscription. I remained active as president of Global until I semi-retired in 1984. At that time, I continued to author and update Global's best selling publication, the Drawing Requirements Manual.
Tell us about the DRM.
Well, the DRM has certainly evolved. I created Global's first edition in 1969 and it was initially developed for the preparation of engineering drawings for the Department of Defense (DoD). Now, in its Tenth edition, the DRM is primarily designed for the preparation of engineering drawings for commercial products. It interprets industry standards that are also mandatory for use in DoD contracts and includes access to military specifications when an industry standard does not exist nor comply with the performance required.
Why does Global prepare the DRM?
Government contracts often required contractors to maintain an internal Drafting Room Manual (DRM). In my position with Aerojet General as Corporate Specifications and Standards Engineer, I saw that each of their seven divisions was maintaining their own, unique manual. If a project involved more than one division, there was a lot of scurrying around to get all the divisions involved with the contract to comply with the manual of the division in charge or in "prime position." It was apparent that a corporate drafting manual was in order.
The initial DRM was prepared and coordinated by a committee of members from each division of the Aerojet Corporation. The DRM released in 1962 was renamed Drawing Requirements Manual. Later, when Global kept getting requests from customers to provide a list of related specifications and standards for the preparation of engineering drawings, I made an agreement with Aerojet to maintain and update their initial manual and was allowed to sell it commercially. The beauty of it is that once the DRM was made generic any company can use it as their basic DRM for the preparation of engineering drawings. Any procedures peculiar to a company can be added or removed by the use of supplements to the basic DRM.
Tell us about the first edition and what lead to its evolution.
Global's Drawing Requirements Manual (DRM) was published in 1969 and was truly a "how to" prepare engineering drawings to meet the requirements of Department of Defense (DoD) contracts. These contracts contained primarily applicable DoD military specifications and standards in support of those requirements. Few, commercial standards were used or even adopted for use in DoD contracts.
Beginning in the late 80's instances came to light about purchases made by the DoD that were exorbitant. For example, the price the government paid for a monkey wrench was $180.00 and it could be obtained from the off-the-shelf commercial market for less than $10.00. This brought on several studies to understand the situation and why this was occurring. It was determined that specifications and standards required for DoD contracts were selected by an "order of precedence" rule that military documents were used first, second were Industry standards and precedence continued downward until it was determined there was nothing available. When this occurred, a company had to prepare its own internal document to meet a performance requirement.
This prompted the Deputy under the Secretary of Defense to charter a Process Action Team to develop a strategy and plan of action to decrease reliance, to the maximum extent practicable, on military specifications and standards. Under the heading "Acquisition Reform" a Process Action Team report named "Blueprint for Change" reported the primary recommendation is to use performance and non-government specifications and standards in lieu of military specifications and standards unless no practical alternative exists to meet the user's need.
How did the transition from using military documents to the use of performance and commercial standards occur?
An on-going review of all government specifications is being conducted and they are canceled if an appropriate industry standard can replace them. Reviewing and reclassifying government specifications as Performance Specification gave the contractor latitude to meet the requirements of the end product. Or, they might reclassify a specification as a Detail Specification when DoD requires a specific design.
Why didn't the MIL-STD-100 get transferred to an industry standard initially?
The initial attempt to convert the DoD drawing practices standard, MIL-STD-100, to a non-government standard resulted in two drawing practices standards:
- ASME Y14.100M-1998 that consisted of basic practices common to industry and DoD, and
- MIL-STD-100G that consisted of those practices and requirements unique to DoD.
The community became confused, as it was uncertain when to use these standards alone or in combination with each other. The consensus was that one standard was needed. To accomplish this, ASME Y14.100M-1998 continued to be updated and appendices were added that contained practices for DoD requirements that could be used and tailored by DoD, making it possible to cancel MIL-STD-100.
The approval of ASME Y14.100-2000 is the driving force behind the recent update to the Tenth edition of the DRM. In addition, the latest DRM reflects changes (revisions, additions, or deletions) of 118 other specifications and standards that relate to the preparation of engineering drawings from the previous Ninth edition of 1995.
Do you foresee a need for an eleventh edition of the DRM?
The need for a DRM will continue as long as contractors are required to maintain a drafting manual per their contracts. Also, as the world changes and new standards become available and existing standards are revised the DRM needs to reflect that or it loses its value. What the next edition will look like or what media it will be on is a different question. With new technologies becoming available, who knows what medium the customer will require for this information.
Therefore, Global continues to introduce new standards, products and services to extend their capabilities and quality of service to those that have access to a CD-ROM drive or the Internet. Jerome Lieblich's vision has certainly taken off and he must be proud to have been the founder of this truly global organization that is constantly forging new frontiers in individual document delivery.