Posted January 30, 2002 Manufacturing News ASTM Int'l and UOP Collaborate Through New Business Development Unit ASTM International (W. Conshohocken, Pa.; www.astm.org) formed a New Business Development Unit to help organizations and business entities achieve their objectives by leveraging ASTM's multiple technology tools to develop business solutions. The new unit provides a neutral forum for developing solutions in the form of standards, guides, and best practices. It will also enable electronic collaborative authoring, editing and publication, global information dissemination, audit trail management and multi-format product delivery. Already New Business Development facilitated an agreement between ASTM and UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com), developer of process technology that it licenses to petrochemical producers around the world. To support the installation and operation of processes licensed by UOP, UOP has developed approximately 300 proprietary laboratory methods. Through the arrangement, ASTM will convert the methods, currently only available in hard copy format, to electronic format and also serve as the exclusive worldwide distributor of the methods for UOP. Future projects that are being evaluated by clients involve the outsourcing of ASTM's Internet-based, collaborative standards development software known as the Interactive Standards Development Forums and ASTM International's recently implemented electronic balloting systems. The Manufacturing Report © Copyright 2002 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. E-mail Editorial Dept: tmr-editorial@lionhrtpub.com Lionheart Publishing, Inc. 2555 Cumberland Parkway, Suite 299, Atlanta, GA 30339 USA Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com