The Defense Manufacturing Technology Achievement Award recognizes and honors those individuals from government and the private sector most responsible for outstanding technical accomplishments that further the achievement of the vision of the Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) Program. That vision is to "realize a responsive world-class manufacturing capability to affordably meet the Warfighters' needs throughout the defense system life cycle." Sponsored by the Joint Defense Manufacturing Technology Panel (JDMTP) the award was established in 1999.
Award recipients are selected based on the following three criteria:
For Advancement of 3D Technical data package and data certification standards that will reduce defense system lifecycle support costs.
The Air Force's "Customer/Supplier Interoperability during Collaborative Design (CSI)" and OSD/DMS&T’s "3D Technical Data Package & Certification" projects have greatly reduced time to mission for weapon systems by enabling the seamless transfer of product data throughout the system's lifecycle - getting the right data to the right people in a format that they can use. Through side-by-side comparisons with current best practices, these two programs generated projected cost savings of ~$50M per year when fully adopted by a single, large defense supply chain. Both of these programs significantly benefitted from OSD Defense-wide Manufacturing Science & Technology funding.