Boeing soars at ASQ Team Excellence Competition

The Boeing Company took top honors, winning gold in the 22nd International Team Excellence Competition at the American Society for Quality World Conference on Quality & Improvement held recently in Orlando, Fla. A rigorous finalist competition included 22 teams from around the world, vying for international recognition and the ASQ Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards. For the first time in the competition’s history, three silver awards were presented.

"Boeing’s teams were absolutely thrilled to be recognized by the ASQ World Conference and all of our C-17 teammates share in their excitement. The teams worked hard, utilizing Boeing's Employee Involvement principles to guide them. It was exhilarating to see their efforts rewarded," said Mark DeVoss, director of supplier and materials management for Boeing and executive sponsor of the Boeing teams.

In a ceremony at this year’s conference, all the award winners were announced:

2007 International Team Excellence Awards

Gold Winner
Company: The Boeing Company – Boeing C17 Program – Long Beach, Calif.
Team: The Boeing C17 Stuffed Tailcone Team
Project: This team used problem-solving tools to generate solutions that eliminated unsafe conditions on the factory floor during installation. These improvements resulted in improved quality, cost and schedule with direct impact on organizational goals.

Silver Winner
Company: The Boeing Company – Boeing C17 Program – Long Beach, Calif.
Team: The Boeing C17 OBIGGS II Improvement Team
Project: Using teamwork, innovation and dedication, this team developed the On-Board Inert Gas Generating System II (OBIGGS II) which replaced the existing system that protects fuel tanks from explosion by filling the volume above the fuel with nitrogen-enriched air.

Silver Winner
Company: The Boeing Company – Boeing C17 Program – Long Beach, Calif.
Team: The Boeing C17 World Class Safety Team
Project: Through benchmarking ‘best in industry” companies, employing expert safety practices and using root cause analyses, this team developed an integrated safety management system that resulted in a dramatic reduction in injury rates and high worker’s compensation costs.

Silver Winner
Company: Department of Children and Families, Suncoast Region – Largo, Fla.
Team: Social Services/Quality and Innovation Team ScanIt
Project: Team ScanIt developed, piloted and implemented an electronic imaging system for receipt, storage and retrieval of all paperwork associated with the region’s 190,000 public assistance cases saving $269,816 the first year and $310,126 annually thereafter.

Bronze Winner
Company: CSX – Jacksonville, Fla.
Team: Process Improvement/Six Sigma Team
Project: Incorporating a variety of project management tools, this team increased shutdown time of idling locomotives, reducing fuel consumption across CSX and generating a savings of more than 14 million gallons of fuel worth $28 million.

Since 1985, more than 800 teams from Canada, China, Costa Rica, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Singapore, Colombia and the United States have participated in this outstanding process. Well-known companies such as Baxter Healthcare and Honda have showcased proven results with long-term implications, resulting in cost-savings of millions of dollars. This year’s team finalist savings resulted in a combined total of more than $104 million.

Next year’s International Team Excellence Final Round Competition will be held at ASQ’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. For information on how to participate in the 2008 International Team Excellence Competition, visit http://wcqi.asq.org or e-mail gbalagopal@asq.org.

The American Society for Quality, www.asq.org, has been the world's leading authority on quality for 60 years. With more than 93,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners, and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, the 60-year-old organization is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.