Original Date: 05/08/1995
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA)-St. Louis recognizes that many of its suppliers have attained levels of proficiency in processes and techniques which are efficient and effective, some which may have application at MDA or be used to improve the overall supplier base. Teams perform Business Process Assessments as part of MDA's Preferred Supplier Certification process and observe many of these processes and collect the information. No proprietary or confidential company information is collected, only that information which can be used to improve MDA-St. Louis and which its suppliers are willing to provide and share. These practices and processes are observed and validated first-hand by an assessment team.

Before data is collected, the guidelines are discussed with the supplier to determine any objections to documentation of the process for benchmarking and/or identifying the firm to other MDA-St. Louis suppliers as a possible contact for benchmarking. Participation is strictly voluntary and no pressure is applied to the supplier. Processes receiving a high score by the MDA-St. Louis assessment teams are considered as opportunities for formal benchmarking. Unique processes may be considered if they have application external to the firm being reviewed. Processes scoring slightly lower but viewed as outstanding may also be considered for benchmarking. These often include recent processes which appear to have very good results but are not yet proven.

Approximately 16 supplier best practices were documented, and interest and participation was growing. The program offers a unique and effective way to improve the capabilities of MDA-St. Louis and also offer improvement opportunities to its supplier base.

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