Boeing

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) today honored Boeing [NYSE: BA] and its supplier partner, Precision Machine & Manufacturing (PMM) of Grove, Okla., with a prestigious Nunn-Perry Award at the annual DoD Mentor-Protégé Conference in Alexandria, Va.

The award recognizes outstanding mentor-protégé teams formed under the auspices of the DoD Mentor-Protégé program. The program was established in 1990 to encourage DoD contractors to help small disadvantaged businesses, organizations that employ the severely disabled, and women-owned small businesses to develop technical and business capabilities.

"Diverse, skilled suppliers are key to our ability to be agile and innovative. Mentor-protégé programs like this are vital in helping us build a high-performing team," said Norma Clayton, vice president, Supplier Management for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. "We're honored to have been selected a Nunn-Perry Award recipient."

Tony Caudill, vice president, PMM said of the program, "It's been a very positive experience. We've had nothing but benefits from the mentor-protégé program. We're confident that the training we have received will help us better serve Boeing and the DoD."

PMM is a Native-American owned, small disadvantaged business providing Boeing with machined parts for a wide variety of its military products including the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and the C-17 airlifter.

As mentor, Boeing provides on-site training to help PMM become more productive and more profitable. It includes training in high speed machining of aluminum and performance machining of titanium from Boeing Phantom Works, the company's advanced research-and-development organization, as well as other Boeing training. The Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence provides training in techniques including lean manufacturing, value stream mapping and in ISO, an international quality management system.

Five professors from Alabama A&M University, a historically black university, provide training in principles of supply management, cost-effective supply chain management, purchasing and material management and negotiations.

Awards are determined by the success of the mentor-protégé teams achieving cost efficiencies, enhancing the protégé's technical capabilities, and increasing new business opportunities for DoD suppliers. The Boeing-PMM team is one of 11 teams honored with Nunn-Perry awards this year. The award is named for former Senator Sam Nunn, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry, who were instrumental in creating the DoD Mentor-Protégé program. The agreement between Boeing and PMM is one of five current Boeing mentor-protégé partnerships under the auspices of the DoD.