The U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center of the Picatinny, N.J., Arsenal has been selected for a top honor previously given only to private sector companies in recognition of organizational performance excellence.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology manages the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award along with an independent board of examiners. Congress established the award in 1987 to drive competitiveness of U.S. businesses, and since then non-profits have become eligible.
According to NIST, the ARDEC is the research and development center for armaments used by the Army, Special Operations Command, and other organizations. Over the past 10 years it has developed and released over 20 products superior to their equivalents in foreign militaries and other U.S. defense organizations, which is one of the reasons for the award, in addition to the following:
It has a workforce of about 3,000 and revenues of $1.2 billion.
ARDEC has had approximately 75 percent of its technology projects transition from research into customer-funded development since fiscal 2005.
Job satisfaction increased from 84 percent positive from fiscal 2004 to 92 percent positive in fiscal 2007, and diversity for scientists and engineers has increased in six of eight target groups from fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2007.
The five recipients this year were selected from a field of 84 applicants after a being evaluated for leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results.