Hard work pays off
F-15SG team earns honor after massiveand successfuleffort
BY DEBBY COYNE
What does it take to win a major strategic sale with a foreign
government? Try this: A great team and
* Coordinating between dozens of Boeing, U.S. government and
supplier organizations.
* Responding to extensive engineering, logistics and programmatic
inquiries, some of which were so complex they required hundreds of
hours to complete.
* Gaining an unprecedented series of approvals from the U.S.
government.
Piece of cake? No, but thats just what the St. Louis F-15SG
Singapore Team did to make the F-15SG Singapores choice for its
Next Fighter Replacement (NFR) Program.
Thanks to this effort and the sale, the group was named the 2005
Air Force Systems Team of the Year.
With the flattening of the U.S. defense budget, international
programs are a major part of the Integrated Defense Systems growth
strategy. Singapore, because of its economic influence and
technical expertise, is considered a major influencer throughout
the world and especially in Southeast Asia.
All of these factors make the NFR program win a strong strategic
sale for IDS businesses.
"Because of the rigor and complexity demanded by Singapores Best
Offer request in May 2005, the F-15SG Singapore team was actually
faced with a great challenge to provide both technical and price
updates to our March 2004 proposal, which was itself the result of
several years of dedicated effort by the collected team." said Joe
Hoerter, Boeing F-15 Program vice president.
The team created a lean and focused organization that performed
within budget and provided the customer with detailed, compelling
program clarifications on time. The core team of F-15 program
personnel engaged other groups such as the IDS International
Contracts and Pricing, International Business Development,
Washington, D.C. Operations, TACAIR (Tactical Aircraft)
Engineering, Logistics Support Systems, the Joint Helmet Mounted
Cueing System, and dozens of domestic and international Boeing
suppliers to help them respond to the many inquiries they
received.
The team was also able to gain an unprecedented series of key
approvals from the U.S. government. "A dozen classified and
unclassified licensing and policy actions, some requiring review
and approval at the highest levels of the Department of Defense,
were undertaken and successfully completed by the team," Hoerter
said.
AFS honors teamwork with award
In 2004, Integrated Defense Systems Air Force Systems (AFS)
business unit began a program to recognize the importance of
Employee Involvement and High Performance Work Teams to AFS
success. The result was the AFS Team of Year award program.
"The benefits and value of teams are profound," said Ed Schaniel,
director of Employee Involvement for AFS. "Each year, Air Force
Systems selects a team or teams that embody our culture. This level
of results achieved by these teams is extraordinary and represents
the astounding capabilities of our people."
Awards are based on the following:
Level of teamwork and collaboration
Ability to drive profound business results
Ability to model team behaviors
Level of ownership team members have in their work
Ability to create and maintain outstanding metrics
Innovation
Process improvement
Demonstration of effective communication
Sixty-eight teams were nominated for the 2005 awards. The winner is
the F-15SG Singapore Team from St. Louis.
Other 2005 winners:
Second place: C-17 Advanced WirelessOpen Data Systems, Long
Beach, Calif.
Third place: Boeing Young Engineers Team, Huntington Beach,
Calif., and the F-22 Affordability Team, Seattle (tie)
