Boeing

Boeing has awarded a Gold Supplier award, the company's highest recognition of supplier performance, to Northrop Grumman's Electronics Systems sector facility in Baltimore.

Bill Stowers, vice president of supplier management for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, presented the award on Sept. 13 to Robert Iorizzo, Northrop Grumman corporate vice president and president of the Electronic Systems sector, during a ceremony in Baltimore.

The Northrop Grumman unit is only the 21st of more than 12,000 Boeing suppliers to achieve gold certification in the Boeing preferred supplier certification process. Other preferred supplier certifications are silver, which has been awarded to 195 suppliers, and bronze, which has been awarded to 507 suppliers.

The preferred supplier certification program "enables us to identify and recognize high-performing suppliers strategically important to Boeing," said Stowers. "Suppliers account for more than half the cost of our products. How well our suppliers do their jobs directly affects how well we do our job. That's why we're committed to developing long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships throughout our extended family of suppliers."

The Electronic Systems sector of Northrop Grumman had to deliver all parts and reports -- in this case, more than 2,500 items -- on time with zero defects over 12 months to meet the standards for gold certification.

The unit provides Boeing with military radar systems and defense electronics for such programs as the AWACS airborne surveillance aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, NATO and several foreign governments; the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor air dominance fighter; U.S. Army RAH-66 Comanche and AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopters; the 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft; the U.S. Navy Harpoon anti-ship missile and the U.S. Air Force B-1B long-range bomber.

02-83