Original Date: 11/12/2001
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

In 1973, Peggy and Ed Shreve formed Frontier Engineering as a part-time electrical engineering consulting firm based in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the home of Oklahoma State University. By 1981, the company’s reputation for excellence in the engineering services and high technology electronics design business resulted in a corporate decision to initiate full-time operations with four employees. The following year, Frontier won a three-year, multimillion dollar contract to provide engineering services and support to U.S. Navy operations in California. Things changed quickly after that with the company earning Navy, Air Force, and FAA contracts for developing electronic instrumentation and providing engineering services at 14 locations nationwide. In August 1997, the company was renamed Frontier Electronic Systems (FES) after it spun off its services and basic research components to focus on its core business of electronic product design, development, manufacture, test, and support for Aerospace, Sensor Distribution, and automated test systems.

Today, FES is a multimillion dollar, high technology engineering and manufacturing leader in the design, qualification, and production of innovative aircraft avionics, maritime signal distribution systems, satellite electronics, and commercial-off-the-shelf based test systems for government and industry customers throughout the world. Ms. Shreve, FES CEO, and her team have built this ISO 9001-qualified corporation on a solid foundation of engineering and business expertise. The Stillwater facility staffs 110 employees representing a mix of electrical, aerospace, and mechanical engineers, manufacturers, support technicians, and business professionals. The corporation also has a facility in Midwest City, Oklahoma which provides product engineering and avionics system support to Tinker Air Force Base. Although FES is categorized as a Native American, woman-owned, Small Business Administration (SBA)-certified Small Disadvantaged business, its business success is focused on delighting its customers with high quality, exceptional delivery performance, innovation, and affordable products. Among the best practices documented were FES’ Cellularized Test Flow; Illustrated Work Guides; Configuration Management/Repair History Database; Status Whiteboards; Continuous Improvement Process; and Quality Policy/Quality Plan.

FES is ranked among the top 500 woman-owned businesses and has been nationally recognized for its innovative technology, affordability, and excellence in customer support. Among its honors are the 2001 and 1997 DOD Nunn- Perry Mentor-Protg Awards; NASA Special Recognition Awards for its Audio Control Electronics aboard the International Space Station and Power Control Electronics on Aura and Aqua Weather Satellites; Boeing Avionic Supplier of the year for 2001; Northrop Grumman World Class Team Award and Boeing Preferred Gold Supplier Certification; SBA Southwest Region VI Subcontractor of the Year; and Oklahoma Academy Technology in Business Award. The BMP survey team considers the practices in this report to be among the best in industry and government.

TABLE OF ACRONYMS
The following acronyms were used in this report:

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.