[The following article appears in the June, 1994, edition of
_Public_Sector_Quality_Report_, pages 5 and 6.]

                        NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND
                     EARNS TOP-FLIGHT QUALITY AWARD

     The winner of the Federal Quality Institute's 1994
Presidential Award for Quality is...the Naval Air System Command
(NAVAIR), Arlington, VA.  

     NAVAIR, with 47,000 employees at 18 locations throughout the
United States, was named in June as only the third winner of the
Presidential Award-and the first repeat winner-since the Malcolm
Baldrige-like award was established for U.S. federal agencies in
1989.  

     NAVAIR provides aircraft and weapon systems development and
support to the U.S. Navy, chiefly for the aircraft and weapon
systems which operate from the decks of U.S. aircraft carriers. In
announcing the award, Federal Quality Institute (FQI) Director
Michel Hunt commended NAVAIR for pursuing quality aggressively
while undergoing a major downsizing. Plans call for NAVAIR to
eliminate as many as 14,000 employees by 1999. Yet, through what
Hunt describes as a "total systems change" within NAVAIR, the
organization has managed to:  

     -- Reduce the number of days needed to approve a weapon
     system engineering change from 150 to 65.  
     
     -- Shave processing time for major procurement requests by 59
     percent.  
     
     -- Reduce maintenance costs on F14 planes by $400,000 per
     aircraft, and reduce a 52-week service backlog to two weeks
     at the Naval Aviation Depot in San Diego, CA.  
     
     -- Eliminate ozone depleting substances at the Naval Aviation
     Depot in Norfolk, VA. The effort reduced wastewater by 35
     percent and hazardous waste disposal by 61 percent, saving
     NAVAIR more than $600,000 in treatment costs.  
     
     In all, four organizations (three military, one civilian)
from within the federal government applied for this year's award.
Nineteen quality experts from public and private organizations
(including two who were judges for the private sector's Baldrige)
participated in the examination process.  

     NAVAIR will receive its award during FQI's Seventh Annual
National Conference on Federal Quality, in Washington, DC, July
13.  

     The only other organizations to have won the Presidential
Award are the Air Force Logistics Command, Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, OH (1991), and Internal Revenue Service Center, Ogden,
UT (1992). NAVAIR won the very first Presidential award in 1989.

CONTACT: Amy Brascamp, NAVAIR (703) 604-2822, ext. 4604. Dick
O'Brien, administrator, Presidential Award for Quality, Federal
Quality Institute, (202) 376-5047.

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