Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
1998 Award Recipient, Manufacturing Category
Boeing Airlift and Tanker (A&T)
Programs
| Highest Official: |
Dr. E. David Spong
Vice President and General Manager |
| Public Affairs Contact: |
Rick Fuller
Director of Communications
(562) 496-5195 |
Boeing Airlift and Tanker (A&T) Programs designs, develops, and produces C-17s,
military airlift aircraft used by the U.S. Air Force, the company’s primary customer.
A&T’s share of the airlift market is 84 percent, almost eight times larger than
its nearest competitor. The company also provides support services for in-flight refueling
tankers, and it makes the C-32 and C-40, both military derivatives of commercial aircraft.
Sales in 1997 exceeded $2 billion.
A unit of the Boeing Company, A&T employs 8,700 people in the United States. In
addition to its headquarters in Long Beach, Calif., the company has sites in Macon, Ga.;
St. Louis, Mo.; Seattle, Wash.; and San Antonio, Texas; as well as at Air Force bases in
Oklahoma (Altus), California (Edwards), and South Carolina (Charleston). In addition to
other awards, A&T received the California Governor's Golden State Quality Award for
management in 1996 and its Macon, Ga., facility received the Georgia Governor's Employer
of the Year Award in 1998.
Quality and Business Performance Achievements:
- Overall customer satisfaction has increased significantly over the past five years. On
the Air Force’s C-17 Contractor Performance Assessment Reports, ratings of
"exceptional" have increased tenfold from 1995 to 1997.
- As a result of its Process Based Management System, a key company initiative, A&T
has improved overall performance for its 50 key processes. From 1994 to 1998, performance
on key quality measures has improved by 50 percent. Over the same span, A&T cut cycle
time by more than 80 percent and improved efficiency by more than 70 percent.
- Trends in key measures of financial performance parallel gains in quality and
operational performance. A&T’s return on net assets was nearly seven times better
than the next best competitor in 1997. Net asset turnover has improved by a factor of
seven since 1994, while the return on sales has improved nearly threefold.
- Since 1992, time spent on rework and repair of the C-17 has been reduced by 54 percent,
a solid indicator of quality improvement. The mean time between corrective maintenance has
increased eightfold since 1993; the C-17’s current level of performance is nearly
four times better than that of the next best competitive products.
- Over the past three years, A&T has delivered all C-17s on time and according to
contract specifications. This record of 100 percent on-time delivery has earned A&T a
rating of "excellent" from the Air Force.
- A&T places a high value on employee empowerment and involvement, realized through
teams. Examples include integrated product teams, functional teams, and self-directed work
teams. The company credits its team structure with a better than 60 percent improvement in
productivity, measured as revenue generated per employee. Productivity has increased from
$200,000 per employee in 1994 to a projected $327,000 in 1998. For three of the last four
years, A&T’s productivity levels have topped those of its best competitor.
- In partnership with its unions, A&T has created a seamless environment that enables
union and non-union workers alike to participate and contribute. Members of the senior
leadership team are assigned responsibility for involving unions in the Leadership System
and for meeting with union leaders on a regular basis. Noteworthy is union involvement in
consolidating job classifications to improve workplace flexibility and in creating reward
and recognition approaches.
- A&T’s efforts to partner with its suppliers have paid off with improvements in
supplier rejection rates—dropping from 0.9 percent in 1994 to 0.08 percent during
1998. Likewise, the supplier on-time delivery has jumped from 75.9 percent in 1994 to 99.8
percent during 1998, significantly better than the airframe industry average.
