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Delphi and Los Alamos National Laboratory Receive Prestigious R&D 100 Award

24 September 1999

Delphi and Los Alamos National Laboratory Receive Prestigious R&D 100 Award

    CHICAGO, Sept. 24 -- Delphi Automotive Systems
and Los Alamos National Laboratory are recipients of a 1999 R&D 100 Award for
their joint work on developing PREDICT (Performance and Reliability Evaluation
with Diverse Information Combination and Tracking), according to William S.
Warren, director of Engineering for Delphi Energy & Engine Management Systems.
    PREDICT is a set of formal, structured techniques and processes for
helping to estimate the performance of a product when test data are sparse or
nonexistent.  PREDICT's calculations guide product development before, during
and after prototyping.  It documents the product's lifetime performance from
concept to customer use, tracking it through changes that increase its
reliability while decreasing uncertainties.
    "We expect our team's contribution -- PREDICT -- to join the ranks of
innovative products like Polacolor film, the liquid crystal display, the fax
machine and Taxol, the anti-cancer drug, just to name a few," Warren said.
"PREDICT allows our customers to leverage our company's greatest asset -- the
expert knowledge of our people."
    "Our reliability process is state-of-the-art," said William J. Kerscher,
Delphi program manager.  "Traditional winners of this award, referred to as
the Oscar of Invention, are typically new product developments like laser
technology.  Being recognized by R&D Magazine for our efforts to design
reliability into our products is an honor," Kerscher said.
    "At the National Weapons Laboratories, we can't apply textbook reliability
methods to determine system performance because the required test data is
sparse.  We helped develop PREDICT when we discovered that the need for
evaluating reliability at Delphi was similar to Los Alamos," said Dr. Jane M.
Booker, principal investigator.  "PREDICT allows us to characterize
reliability and performance during all phases of product lifetimes for weapons
and automobiles."
    R&D Magazine established the coveted R&D 100 Award in 1963 to recognize
technological advancements that organizations, research institutions and
universities make to enhance everyday life.  This year's event, the 37th
annual celebration, was held on Thursday, Sept. 23, 1999, at Chicago's Museum
of Science and Industry.
    Delphi Automotive Systems, with headquarters in Troy, Mich., USA, is a
world leader in automotive component and systems technology.  Delphi's three
business sectors -- Dynamics & Propulsion; Safety, Thermal & Electrical
Architecture; and Electronics & Mobile Communications -- provide comprehensive
product solutions to complex customer needs.  Delphi has approximately 201,000
employees and operates 168 wholly owned manufacturing sites, 38 joint
ventures, 51 customer centers and sales offices, and 27 technical centers in
37 countries.  Regional headquarters are located in Paris, Tokyo and Sao
Paulo.  Delphi can be found on the Internet at http://www.delphiauto.com .
    The University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy operates
Los Alamos National Laboratory, located in New Mexico.