Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation
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Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation |
| Number 19 January 15, 1998 |
Trivelpiece and Van Hook look to 1998 for changes
Benefit Plans update: Improving customer service aim of new help line
Staying with the pace
Lab Lines
Stealing energy in broad daylight
New pub has tips on avoiding the draft
Volunteers could again ease latest RIFs
Hospital in a box project hinges on a new product
For carbon data, Kyoto comes to CDIAC
In the System
FMO work team 'unclutters' Y-12, finds big savings
1997 tally: ORCMT reaches out to 4,000 businesses
Readers . . .
Trivelpiece and Van Hook look to 1998 for changes
by Al Trivelpiece, ORNL director
his month marks the second anniversary of the transfer of Oak Ridge National Laboratory to
the Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation. The Department of
Energy encouraged and supported the transition to this new stand-alone company that would have as its sole purpose the responsibility to better
manage and operate the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
This step was taken to give the Laboratory the opportunity to create an organization that would be better structured to meet the challenges it faces. That is, to create an organization that establishes and maintains a climate in which research and development are recognized and promoted as the primary functions of ORNL, consistent with the requirement to conduct work in a safe and responsible manner in meeting its obligations to support the missions of the Department of Energy.
We must not squander this unique opportunity to make the kind of changes that will make us more competitive by reducing costs of operation and becoming a more "user friendly" national laboratory. To meet our responsibilities, we have had to cast a critical eye on everything we do and how we do it. We have called this process reengineering. But no matter what it is called, it involves hard work, and the necessity to make difficult and sometimes painful decisions. We are by no means finished with this process.
Some of you might have expected that this would be a quick and easy process. The reality that it is neither quick nor easy causes frustrations and has eroded morale. Even so, we have no choice but to finish the job responsibly. Unfortunately, I can't even promise you that we will be finished with this process in 1998, but we should soon begin to see more benefits from your dedicated efforts to improve the ability of ORNL to continue to be a great national laboratory with a sound future.
I hope that funding to start construction of the Spallation Neutron Source will be in the President's budget submission to the Congress and that the Congress will appropriate the funds to begin the construction of this project in 1998. This new project should give the Lab a stable program of research and development that will generate challenging and interesting work for many years.
I also hope that the new year will find us with improved opportunities to obtain funding for our programs of research and development in biology and functional genomics, high-performance computing, energy research, and in all the other areas in which we have special knowledge and experience.
The collaborative arrangements with Energy Systems have been beneficial to both organizations. We need to expand and strengthen these ties through joint programs involving the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technologies, the National Security Program Office, etc.
It is unlikely that 1998 will be less difficult than 1997. Even so, keep up your sense of humor, keep up your objectivity and keep up the good work as we face yet another difficult year.
Also, please remember that the Department of Energy is also undergoing changes and challenges that are as complex and difficult as those that we are encountering. You might even guess that their problems and our problems are somehow interrelated, and conclude that perhaps by working together to solve some of them might be to our mutual benefit.
by Bob Van Hook, Energy Systems president
he past year has been truly remarkable for Energy Systems, filled with challenge and change. While Y-12 has
been working steadily toward resumption of full operations for three years,
we emerged in 1997 as clearly on an aggressive but achievable path.
Our conduct of operations, technical approaches, operator qualifications and management leadership have been integrated into a cohesive program. Our performance in cost control also has been recognized as a major accomplishment. In part, driven by these accomplishments, Y-12 now is recognized as having a long-term role in the defense of our nation, a conclusion that was in some significant doubt in the recent past.
Further improvements in cost performance will be critical to the survival of the Y-12 mission. Through the outstanding efforts on the part of everyone involved, we delivered the B61-11 ahead of schedule, exceeded goals for quality inspections, delivered necessary flight test units, stored enriched uranium with assured safety and are well on the way to full operational restart—casting our first uranium in December under full disciplined operations.
In spite of an increasingly competitive world and reduced federal spending, our Work for Others programs (DSRD, HAZWRAP and NSPO) grew at an outstanding rate-up forty percent from last year. With the outstanding performance of the Centers for Manufacturing in projects like the Advance Surgical Suite for Trauma Casualities ("Hospital in a Box"), Y-12 achieved the official designation as the National Prototype Center.
Substantial clarity has emerged in the EMEF program through the selection of the contractor to assume these responsibilities—Bechtel Jacobs. Credit should be given to our customer for adherence to the aggressive schedule in conducting the contract solicitation—a formidable accomplishment. Lockheed Martin's decision not to bid on this contract was based in part on our need to candidly discuss the implications of employee transition during the solicitation process with DOE and prepare for the implementation of an M&I approach. Bechtel Jacobs has expressed its intention to work closely with us in achieving a seamless transition.
Hardly a day passes without my personal thoughts of the loss of a fellow employee, Ron Wade, in February's tragic accident in K-33. This accident crystalized our attention to work planning and individual employee responsibility for safety in the workplace. The "I Care, We Care" program at ETTP serves as a model for employee-owned safety programs. I personally have taken the lessons learned from this accident to DOE and contractor management and employees at Hanford, Idaho and Sandia. A copy of our video was provided to all Lockheed Martin companies.
In 1998 we will experience even more change. In April, 2400 employees will transfer to Bechtel Jacobs along with the responsibility to manage the EMEF program. It is our objective to make this transition the model for other sites to emulate. We expect to continue to perform certain EMEF functions on behalf of the new contractor as well as continue to provide some services to both the M&I and ORNL. While our efforts to create an "outside the fence" company to provide services was not successful, we learned a great deal about providing competitively priced services. The cost pressure on services will continue into the coming year for us to retain these responsibilities.
It is imperative that we continue to focus on cost reduction and control as we complete our operational improvements at Y-12. A major continuing challenge is the restart of EUO, leading to full capability in December of 1998. This represents our pathway into the stockpile life extension program. The WFO area will continue to get more competitive and our programs will have a challenge in continuing their successful growth. Designation of Y-12 as a National Prototype Center is but the first step in securing new work utilizing the physical and personal capabilities established at Y-12 over the years, allowing us to maintain critical competencies for the future. Our excellent working relationship with ORNL in both the WFO and Manufacturing Center areas serves to significantly increase our competitiveness in these areas.
Although I see 1998 full of challenges, I am confident our people will meet those challenge with a repeat of successes of the past year.
Benefit Plans update
Stacey Strong, one of eight new help line service representatives, thumbs through a thick manual of benefits information to help a caller. Employees can reach the help line between 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. at 574-1500.
enefit Plans aims to please.
If you've ever started placing phone calls to ask questions, such as:
and had difficulty getting a quick answer, Benefit Plans, Payroll and Benefit Operations and Systems Operations have developed a help line with a staff of eight service representatives to answer employees' questions about benefits, payroll and time and attendance.
The help line number, 574-1500, is staffed from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
"With lots of recent changes in employee benefits, we realized the need to provide better service for employees who may have had difficulty getting their questions answered," said Jill Freeman, manager of Benefit Plans. "We're proud of working across departments to develop the most efficient way possible to get employees information they need about benefits. Several factors have contributed to an increase in the volume of calls, such as changes in the benefits package and the change of health plans."
Often, solving an employee's problem is just a matter of finding the right person to answer the question.
"Some of our benefits questions can get really specific, and that's when we track down an SME, a subject matter expert, to answer the employee's question," said Diane Watson, help line supervisor. "The help line will make finding that right person much faster."
In the past, Benefit Plans personnel have taken calls and then had to get in touch with SMEs in other departments to retrieve information for employees, which could end up being a long process if contact persons were slow to respond or if they were away for some reason.
Sally Jaunsen, manager of Payroll and Benefits Operations, says that in the past her team has worked with Benefit Plans to provide information for employees and that this reallocation of talent from human resources, business services and systems operations is much more efficient. "This new help line group will have direct access to appropriate data so they can answer employees' questions much quicker," said Jaunsen.
Now, as help line representatives take employee questions, the calls are logged into a call management system, and the representative will get back in touch with the employee within 24 hours with an answer to the question, a referral or an explanation of the delay. A supervisor for the eight service representatives will double-check "red-flag" reports automatically generated by the system for calls that have not been resolved within 24 hours.
The team has been training since mid-October. "We have been operating a limited pilot program for a month to allow service representatives on-the-job training to refine our operating procedures before implementing the program full-scale company-wide," said Watson. "So far, without any publicity, we have averaged 1,500 calls a day. We're eager to start helping employees, so give us a ring."
The help line is not intended to replace face-to-face customer service. If issues cannot be resolved over the telephone or if an employee prefers to speak to someone in person, employees may visit Employee Services at 701 Scarboro Road. Employees experiencing major changes such as retirement or going on leave probably will find scheduling a counseling session with a human resources representative easier than trying to solve all their issues by telephone.—T.M.P.
Staying with the pace
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| Associate Director of Computing, Robotics and Education Ed Oliver. Photo by Jim Richmond |
s the interview with Ed Oliver
begins, the photographer begins
shooting photos for the article with a heftier-than-usual camera. It's a new
digital camera, one that stores its image on a computer disk instead of film, and
Oliver wants to know all about it—he grills the photographer on how much it costs,
what's the resolution, how much memory storage it has, who makes it. Meanwhile, the
reporter begins to feel somewhat cast aside.
"That's what you get when you come to talk to a computing weenie," Oliver says.
Oliver's directorate actually comprises more than computing. He is the associate director of Computing, Robotics and Education, and all three facets involve the same challenge: keeping ORNL at the forefront of science and technology. In Oliver's groups possibly more than any others, keeping up with the pace of change and keeping the people to do the work, are the two most critical management tasks.
In computing, for instance, ORNL is beginning work on a bid for a new supercomputer, one that will be much more powerful than ORNL's celebrated Intel Paragon. A machine like the Paragon, which was state of the art a few years ago, in a few more years will be a relic. Such is computing's light-speed march toward obsolescence.
"Our proposal is to acquire a new supercomputer that will lead to a multiteraflop machine in the year 2000," Oliver says. "There are now supercomputers that are 12 times more powerful than ours. So it becomes a question of where do you want to do your computing—where your work comes back in one hour or in 10 hours?"
"In today's world, a supercomputer is only good for about three or four years. That photographer's laptop is three times as fast as the big Cray computer we bought in 1989 for $10 million!"
While it is, therefore, seemingly easy to be left in the dust in the technology race, Oliver sees ORNL as staying with the pace. The robotics activities under his charge at ORNL are an area in which Oliver sees parity—and challenge.
"Our span of capabilities in robotics research—from basic research through prototypes to robots actually working in the field—is the best in the DOE complex," Oliver says. He points out, in fact, that with Sandia National Laboratories' larger program and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory's robotics activities, the three Lockheed Martin labs have the top three robotics programs in the DOE complex.
"The three labs have great synergy in robotics and computing," he says.
Oliver came to ORNL in 1989 to mold the Lab's nascent computing organization into a strength. He has succeeded, but maintaining the pace may be the toughest thing yet.
"A multiteraflop machine can cost $40 to $50 million. They are physically bigger, so you need facilities, more space."
Likewise, the science that can be generated with these machines is also growing. Biology, climate change, astrophysics, groundwater—all involve complexities that require computer modeling or other computational applications. Computing and robotics, in fact, tend to find their way into most of the divisions' work at ORNL as computational and remote technologies become more prevalent in R&D.
"You need a strong computing capability in all divisions, and we must also provide facilities to do the work locally, not from afar. And that's a capital requirement that gets more, not less expensive," Oliver says.
Lack of funds has put the third in Oliver's triad, education, on a shoestring. DOE's budgets for educational programs have been zeroed out by Congress, and Oliver sees that as a big loss not just for education, but for the Lab as well.
"Thousands of students have come to Oak Ridge and study in our educational programs like the Science and Engineering Research Semester. These are top students, and sometimes they come back to ORNL as top researchers. Those programs are worth every penny, and we may be losing that."
Oliver sees the future of his directorate, and possibly the Lab, couched in terms of success in obtaining the hardware and in attracting and retaining the talent.
"It's my responsibility to provide leadership to get resources for computational sciences and chart where we're going, from the desktop to the highest performance machines," Oliver says. "ORNL is excelling at computational science across its divisions, not just in my directorate, from Fusion Energy to Metals and Ceramics. As long as we're healthy on that front, we'll be known for our computational science capabilities.—B.C.
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Phil Jardine among U.S. Jaycees' outstanding
By picking him for a TOYA award, the Jaycees have put Jardine in some pretty exclusive company. Past winners include John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Henry Ford II, Gus Grissom, Howard Hughes and Arthur Ashe. His nine cowinners for 1998 are:
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Lab Lines
Stealing energy in broad daylight
"Burning up daylight" is how our parents railed about lights left on in sunlit rooms. They had a point. Lots and lots of money and energy are spent in the United States lighting the insides of buildings that are bathed in bright sunshine.
Hybrid lighting, an energy-saving idea that's been explored during the spare time of some Engineering Technology Division researchers, has received an Industry Week magazine Technology Award. It's one of 25 new technologies the magazine's editors believe are worth watching.
Simply explained as a combination of natural and artificial illumination, hybrid lighting has been touted by the ETD researchers as a way for U.S. industry to reduce the cost of lighting the buildings we work in dramatically.
Mike Cates, Jeff Muhs and Art Clemons have done most of the looking into hybrid lighting's potential and mechanics. The concept is to collect light in solar collectors at the tops of buildings and use optical waveguides to channel the light into rooms inside the building. Sounds simple enough—sunlight is the best light, most would agree. However, the technology also deals with how to devise control systems to compensate for cloudy days and keep the light at desirable levels. Researchers must also explore the best types of waveguides to use—probably a gel-filled plastic fiber about as big as an electric wire. Storage systems might also be devised to save light from daytime for use at night.
Cates explained the concept in detail in ORNL Review Vol. 29, Nos. 3 & 4. In that article, he points out that lighting makes up about 25 percent of U.S. energy demand and peaks at about 40 percent during peak business hours—in the daytime. He adds that about 10 percent of cooling and ventilation costs go to clear out waste heat generated from conventional lighting.
As Industry Week has apparently noticed, hybrid lighting could become one of the future's most effective and ubiquitous applications of solar energy. With support from a growing list of industries associated with lighting, the ETD researchers are actively pursuing funding to develop and commercialize the concept.
New pub has tips on avoiding the draftThese cold winter nights are the times many of our thoughts turn to . . . insulation. With electric power rates on the rise and cold drafts creeping in from who-knows-where, R-values become a much more timely topic than they were, say, in September.
DOE, through its Materials and Structures program, is offering a newly updated publication, the Insulation Fact Sheet, that addresses nearly every question on insulation that a homebuilder or homeowner might have. It's being produced through ORNL's Building Envelope Research program and by the Metals and Ceramics Division, which has been doing studies on different types of insulation materials since the 1980s.
Home owners or home builders can refer to the fact sheet for answers to questions, such as, "What kind of insulations can I buy?" and "Can I do it myself?" The new zip codebased R-value recommendations feature is even regional specific; for instance, an insulation R-value of 38 is specified for the attic of a gas-heated home in the region of the country with "378" as the first three zip-code numbers (Oak Ridge). For homes in "500" country (Iowa), it's 49.
The first version of Insulation Fact Sheet came out in the 1980s; Therese Stovall in the M&C Division produced the latest reader-friendly revision, which includes the new zip code features. It's on the Web, on a site prepared by Ken Childs in the Computational Physics and Engineering Division, at www.ornl.gov/roofs+walls or you can request a hard copy by calling toll-free 800-363-3732.
Volunteers could again ease latest RIFsExpected budget shortfalls for fiscal year 1998 necessitated the January 5 announcement of a reduction-in-force at ORNL. Human Resources reported that the ORNL work force would have to be trimmed by about 85 positions.
That number falls in line with two previous work-force reductions in FY 1997, when the payroll was reduced by 93 last March and another 83 at the end of September.
The announcement included the opening of a voluntary reduction in force, or VRIF, program. VRIFs are designed to minimize involuntary notices by creating openings for surplus employees, and Human Resources Director Mike Willard's totals show that they've worked in the past: Sixty percent of ORNL's 1997 reductions were voluntary, reflecting employees who left voluntarily with severance pay and involuntary RIFs that were avoided.
Distribution of involuntary RIF notices is planned for January 29; those affected will leave the payroll by the end of March. The latest round of reductions includes the Waste Management and Biological and Environmental Research programs as well as support and service functions.
Through RIFs and normal retirements and departures, the Lab's employment level has settled to just more than 4,400.
The Lockheed Martin Career Center (576-4269 or www.ornl.gov/career) remains available to affected employees. Outplacement services at the Mitchell Road center include resumé preparation, job postings, assistance with cover letters, career assessments, job search and interview skills training and workshops and seminars.
Hospital in a box project hinges on a new product
ave Vandergriff knew that there had to
be a solution and he found one. When the U.S. Army
Natick, Mass. labs met with representatives of the ASSTC
project, they expressed doubt that a necessary gapless
hinge could be implemented on the large panels.
Upon hearing this during a Friday meeting, Dave went looking for a solution. After brainstorming through the weekend Dave came to work Monday with a possible solution that he soon proved viable by the use of sophisticated computer design and modeling equipment."
One requirement of the ASSTC, or the "hospital is a box" as it is more commonly known, is that the rigid composite panels of the 5' by 5' by 10' box that becomes the unit could be converted into the floor and walls of the surgical suite and at the same time be sealable so that outside contaminants could not infiltrate into the suite.
Engineers working on the box at Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology, a Y-12 Plant and ORNL collaboration, determined that a conventional two-pivot-point hinge left a gap that could trap material or allow infiltration from the outside. Not only did the Army not want infiltration, they also did not want an additional step in the assembly process such as sealing the opening with hurricane tape or other sealant.
Vandergriff, a mechanical systems design engineer from Energy Systems Central Engineering, was asked to come up with a double-position sealable hinge design.
"We were using a conventional hinge on the box panels because when it is converted, what is the wall of the box is the floor of the operating room. Alan Cantrell, project manager, contacted the Army's Soldier Systems Command at Natick, and discussed a potential solution to the hinge problem," Vandergriff said.
Vandergriff studied the problem over a weekend, and using computer aided design tools that allowed him both to see and manipulate the geometry of a two-position hinge, came up with a solution.
The Alpha 1 fabrication shops at Y-12 built a working model of the hinge that is now being used in the ASSTC unit.
The "hospital in a box" is a new concept in battlefield or emergency medical care that can be carried in a sling underneath a helicopter or inside a Marine Corps V-22 Osprey aircraft, yet opens up to become a surgical suite covered by a tent that protects against chemical or biological exposure.
Beyond its use in the hospital in a box project, the sealable hinge has other broader applications for such things as portable shelters, aircraft panels, seamless tailgates for vehicles, hazardous material handling equipment and recreational vehicles.—Bill Wilburn
For carbon data, Kyoto comes to CDIAC
he Kyoto summit has come and gone, but the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, ORNL's repository
of any and all data related to the global carbon cycle and
climate change, has been experiencing a wave of requests that began before
the conference and is likely to carry on for several more months.
According to CDIAC's Tom Boden, the center, part of the Environmental Sciences Division, continuously receives requests for CO2 data from all over the world—from researchers, students, national governments, and learning institutions to organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, World Resources Institute and the Sierra Club. The Kyoto summit simply meant CDIAC's data resources are even more in demand from an increasingly diverse audience.
"We've received requests from Kyoto delegates, those briefing delegates, journalists covering the Kyoto conference, and people simply trying to understand the issue," Boden says. "We have been very busy and we fully expect, and hope, to remain busy in the aftermath of the conference as treaty ratification efforts unfold."
Officials are using CDIAC's emissions data to determine, for instance, what the seven percent decrease in emissions agreed to by the U.S. delegates in the Kyoto treaty, which will be up for ratification, specifically entails.
The most popular item currently being requested from CDIAC is a 1751 to 1995 time series of global, regional and national CO2 emission estimates from fossil-fuel consumption, cement production and gas flaring. This database lies at the heart of the Kyoto discussions to limit greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the years 2008 to 2012.
ESD's Gregg Marland is the principal architect of the CO2 emissions database. He has been involved in energy-related emissions research for two decades and has directed CDIAC's involvement with the database since 1986.
The database effort has expanded in scope over the years, with the help of Boden, Antoinette Brenkert, Bob Cushman, Bob Andres (University of Alaska-Fairbanks) and many students to address specific data needs and scientific issues. Plans to address seasonal cycles, compile state-level emissions and produce detailed sectoral breakdowns promise to make the CO2 emissions database even more attractive, Boden says.
"People trust our data set because it is well documented and reproducible. CO2 emission estimates are sometimes hard to reproduce because you often don't have sufficient details on the methodology used or access to underlying energy statistics," he says. "With CDIAC's data you can take an estimate and trace it back to the finest statistical point.
"And that's data for every country in the world, done annually, back in time for some countries to the 1800s."
Requests come into CDIAC, recognized by the International Council for Scientific Unions as a World Data Center, in all forms, but the World Wide Web is a major vehicle for the information flow. "Web hits have gone through the roof in the past few months, particularly for data germane to the Kyoto discussions," Boden says. CDIAC's Web site is located at http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov.
"Build it and they will come," Boden said, referring to CDIAC's data set. "Build it and they will come," Boden said referring to CDIAC's data set. "Kyoto has proved that."—B.C.
Portsmouth Adopt-a-School agreement signed
Eugene Gillespie (right), DOE site manager at the Portsmouth
Plant, signs an Adopt-a-School agreement with Steve McCann, principal
at Piketon Junior High School. Under the agreement, DOE and its
contractors will provide employees to assist the school's
administrators and teachers in improving technical programs, providing speakers
and working to expand teachers' knowledge of scientific and
technical concepts. In addition, the program will provide a means for
distributing surplus instructional and computer equipment, establishing teacher
research programs during the school year and summer
research/learning experiences, scheduling field trips to the plant and supporting student science fairs. Also present were (back left to right) Dennis Thompson, superintedent of Scioto Valley Local Schools; Energy Systems Site Manager Dave Taylor; and Mike Dabbert, DOE financial and administrative officer.
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In the System
Ann M. Ward has been named associate general counsel and head of the contracts and procurement section of the Office of General Counsel.
Ward previously served as the acting head of the contracts and procurement section.
Ward began her career in Oak Ridge for Union Carbide in 1978. She then served in DOE's Office of Chief Counsel for two years. She has been with the Office of General Counsel at Energy Systems since 1995.
Ward was part of a team that received the Lockheed Martin Energy Systems President's Award for continuous improvement in April 1996. The award recognized the team's work to streamline the terms and conditions used by the Procurement Division in its subcontracts.
Energy Systems managers made a commitment to share the memories and the safety message with Energy Systems employees and other employees in the Energy and Environment Sector.
After Jay Hummer, corporate safety director, saw the video, he requested 50 copies to distribute to safety directors from all parts of Lockheed Martin, including sectors that serve customers other than DOE.
This, in turn, led to a request from the Knolls Atomic Power Group (acquired by Lockheed Martin from General Electric) for even more copies.
When Y-12 Mail Services moved its base of operations to Bldg. 9720-8 in
July, more changes were made than just location. New computerized mail
processing equipment was leased to aid Mail Services employees, such
as Darryl Justice, seen here, in looking up codes and weight charges. The new equipment and access to the Internet to ease address location are all part of an effort to lower costs and improve service, says Alston Hodge of Y-12 Materials Management.
FMO work team 'unclutters' Y-12, finds big savings
-12 Facilities Management Organization (FMO) found that cleaning
up years of accumulated waste and clutter is a complicated undertaking
that requires communication and team work.
FMO has found ways to remove both bureaucratic clutter and organizational obstacles while cleaning up several unsightly waste storage areas and cutting costs by $350,000.
In FMO Utilities, Joann Mathis formed a High-Performance Work Team (HPWT) composed of two hourly employees, Oneda Whalen and Dwayne Beaty, a dedicated contract Health Physics technician and herself. That team alone processed more than 2 million pounds of waste including these accomplishments:
In FMO High Voltage Electrical, a team composed of Brown, Arnold Watson, Gary Marlow of FMO Compliance Management and Ken Cooper of Waste Management worked through many bureaucratic obstacles and disposed of two million pounds of old transformers; Bob Hawthorne, FMO manager, said "Joann Mathis, David Brown, and Gary Marlow have done a great job of pulling together the people necessary to get the waste, clutter and excess material moving. We must take advantage of their leadership and expand the effort to clean and 'unclutter' Y-12.—Bill Wilburn
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NEED HELP WITH YOUR TAXES? FREE TAX HELP VITA, the Internal Revenue Service Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, starts Monday, January 26, at the Oak Ridge Mall. IRS-trained volunteers will be available to provide free tax assistance from 3 to 8 p.m. every Monday through Friday and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Free electronic filing is available. No appointment is necessary. Those seeking help in preparing their income tax returns should bring their tax package and their W-2 forms, their 1099 statements and other tax records, including last year's return, with them. John Murray and Mike Lundin are the Oak Ridge coordinators of this free public service program. |
1997 tally: ORCMT reaches out to 4,000 businesseshrough fiscal 1997, the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technology, an ORNL and Y-12 Plant partnership,
have worked with more than 3,000 businesses from 49 of the 50 states.
Combining the assistances with calls for information, ORCMT has reached nearly 4,000 businesses nationwide.
Since its creation in 1993, ORCMT has worked on projects or provided manufacturing information to more than 1,000 companies in Tennessee. California has the second highest number of projects in which ORCMT has been involved with a total of nearly 200.
Industries requesting technical assistance ranged from food product manufacturing to automotive part production, and from ceramic manufacturing and machining to precision measurement device development.
Private sector impact of these interactions through 1997 is estimated at nearly $700 million, based on information provided by the companies that worked with the centers.
The goal of the centers is to help industries save $1 billion and create 25,000 high-quality jobs by the year 2000. "It is a tremendous accomplishment and very satisfying to help our nation's manufacturers. The Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant was recently designated by Congress as a National Prototype Center. ORCMT is the gateway to that national center's expertise in precision prototyping," said Jack Cook, director of ORCMT.
Many of ORCMT's facilities and technologies were developed for manufacturing components for nuclear weapons, nuclear reactors and for energy-related research. Now these technologies are being adapted and applied to help make American industries be more competitive in the world marketplace and to help our nation maintain national security capabilities.
Manufacturing is a significant portion of Tennessee's economy, accounting for more than 21 percent of employment, according to the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee.
Ninety-eight percent of the businesses in Tennessee are considered small, with fewer than 500 employees, and a large percentage of these employ fewer than 100 people. The centers have mechanisms in place to work with all sizes of businesses. The centers are organized around four core technology areas that are based on needs identified by industry. Within these cores are specific areas of expertise.
ORCMT's motto is: "We Solve Tough Manufacturing Problems." For more information concerning ORCMT, call 1-800-356-4USA or visit the home page at http://www.ornl.gov/orcmt/.—Bill Wilburn
Check cashing gets a thumbs up
he next time you cash a paper check from Lockheed Martin at the bank, you'll be in the black,
but your thumb will be in the ink. Many banks, credit
unions, supermarkets and other check-cashing services in the
area are implementing a policy of requiring thumbprint
signatures on all checks cashed by the institution.
The signature is taken by having check owners press their
thumbprint onto a check using a non-toxic,
non-staining chemical.
During 1997, several counterfeit checks were drawn on the Energy Systems account and passed in the Atlanta area, and locally several have been stolen and later presented for cashing. Energy Systems banking partner, SunTrust Bank, along with other local financial institutions, established a policy to thwart those attempting to pass stolen checks this month. The bank now requires anyone not having a deposit account at the bank to provide a thumbprint directly on the check they are cashing.
"Neither the company nor the banks are trying to discourage anyone from receiving a paper check," said Karl Rapp, manager of Energy Systems Treasury Services. "This new policy has been implemented strictly to discourage check fraud and help apprehend anyone trying to commit this crime."
Rapp says the new policy only will effect some 17 percent of employees—those who receive a paper paycheck. The remaining use the Direct Deposit method to have their pay sent to a banking institution; 94 percent of all monthly and 70 percent of all weekly/hourly employees participate in the program.
Direct Deposit is "extremely easy" to use, says Rapp, and an employee wishing to sign up may enroll by accessing the Payroll and Benefit Plans Homepage at http://www-internal.ornl.gov/BMA/services/payroll_bene/payroll.htm or may download a paper form from "Just In Time Forms" (http://www-internal.ornl.gov/library/UCN/UCN-615.pdf) which may then be forwarded to Payroll Services. Rapp says direct deposit ensures checks will not be lost or stolen and will be deposited on time.
For those wanting to continue to receive paper checks, Rapp says some institutions will ask for the thumbprint signature with each check cashed. While this procedure does require a few extra steps from the customer, he says it is all done for the protection of the check recipient, which includes Energy Systems employees.
If you have any questions concerning thumbprint signatures, contact Treasury Services at 576-1796.—E.B.
Readers . . .
One of David Oden's several nicknames is "Clobberhead," which arose from a horseshoe pitching mishap many years ago. Oden, who lives in Oliver Springs and works in ORNL's Receiving Department, has since given up the sport.
The U.S. Junior Chambers of Commerce have selected
Environmental Sciences Division researcher Phil
Jardine as one of its Ten Outstanding Young Americans
for 1998. He was cited for his environmental research
and commitment to the health of the environment. He'll
pick up his "Silver Hands" trophy January 17.