John Eagles has served as the Public Affairs Manager for Raytheon Company’s Louisville, Kentucky, facility for the last seven years. Mr. Eagles is responsible for all media relations, community relations and communications outreach and works with congressional liaisons for the Louisville facility. Prior to joining Raytheon, Mr. Eagles was a career Army office in the same capacity. Mr. Eagles now serves as the point of contact (POC) for the Best Manufacturing Practices (BMP) Program after the Louisville facility hosted a survey in March 2006. In his capacity as the POC for Raytheon-Louisville, Mr. Eagles receives and responds to inquiries about the facility’s best practices that are posted on the BMP Web site, which receives approximately one million hits monthly from individuals interested in new industry practices.

Raytheon’s Louisville facility is part of Raytheon Company’s Missile Systems division and is the company’s only site that manufactures and overhauls the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CWIS), the SeaRAM weapon system, and the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Guided Missile Launching System for a customer base that includes the U.S. Navy and 24 allied navies. By combining lean manufacturing and Raytheon Six Sigma methodology to eliminate waste and reduce cost, the Louisville facility has successfully produced a quality Phalanx system that carries an industry-unique one-year warranty on each system. All employees and many suppliers are trained in Raytheon Six Sigma, which has had a significant impact on the company's success.

A team of eleven BMP subject matter experts spent five days reviewing, validating and documenting 25 of the facility's processes, 80% of which were classified as best practices. The facility’s 350 employees rely on a unique and robust Six Sigma methodology to provide continuous improvements and cost savings for its legacy weapon system and to uphold their motto, “What we do is important: Soldiers', Sailors' and Marines' lives depend on it." According to Mr. Eagles, “The facility’s motto is something all our employees take to heart knowing that their work, both individually and collectively, affects the lives and safety of the Armed Forces.”

Mr. Eagles describes the BMP Survey as a “customer look” — an external process assessment by a Navy-sponsored team of independent experts: “We wanted to make sure that what we are doing is what we say we do and that BMP, as a Navy-sponsored program, sees what we do because the Navy is our customer. BMP validated our processes and gave us another chance to review our processes. We were basically being surveyed by our customer.” Mr. Eagles also described a recent internal review by a team from Raytheon Missile Systems headquarters in Tucson, Arizona, who asked if the facility had any new best practices to show. Review team members were then handed a copy of the Louisville site’s BMP Survey Report that documents the survey team’s findings and lists the facility’s best practices. Mr. Eagles says that “Raytheon-Louisville is organized for success. If someone gives us a pop quiz, we’re going to pass it. The BMP Survey prepared us for the Shingo Award,” which the facility recently won. “If anyone is thinking about applying for Shingo,” says Mr. Eagles, “a BMP Survey is a great way to prepare.”