Hard work pays off
F-15SG team earns honor after massive—and successful—effort
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 thatÂ’s just what the St. Louis F-15SG Singapore Team did to make the F-15SG SingaporeÂ’s 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 SingaporeÂ’s 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 SystemsÂ’ Air Force Systems (AFS) business unit began a program to recognize the importance of Employee Involvement and High Performance Work Teams to AFSÂ’ 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 Wireless–Open Data Systems, Long Beach, Calif.
• Third place: Boeing Young Engineers Team, Huntington Beach, Calif., and the F-22 Affordability Team, Seattle (tie)