DAU Team Shares in Hammer Award - Defense Systems Management College - Brief Article

Program Manager, March, 2001

Dr. Anne Marie SuPrise, representing the Office of Naval Research Best Manufacturing Practices (BMP) Program team, presents a replica of the team's recent Hammer Award to Frank J. Anderson Jr., Defense Acquisition University President. Anderson accepted the award on behalf of the Defense Systems Management College (DSMC) Manufacturing Management Department team in a ceremony at Fort Belvoir, Va., Feb. 28.

Dr. SuPrise said that the BMP team's Hammer Award is a reflection and recognition of eight years of fruitful strategic partnership efforts the team had enjoyed with DSMC. "We are convinced that our partnership with DSMC was a decisive factor in our organization winning this prestigious award. We are honored to have you [DSMC] as a partner" she said.

Expressing his gratitude for this special recognition, Anderson said that the only way to achieve success in identifying and implementing best practices is by aligning with teaming. He also emphasized that DSMC's role of contributing to the acquisition community can't be limited just to educating students attending classes. Stressing the importance of strategic partnerships and alliances, he told Dr. SuPrise, "We are thrilled to be your teammates - to have you as partners in our acquisition educational efforts."

The Hammer Award is former Vice President Al Gore's special recognition of teams that have achieved excellence in "reinventing" government in support of the president's National Performance Review principles, which are:

* Putting customers first.

* Cutting red tape.

* Empowering employees.

* Getting back to basics.

The Hammer award was named after a defense program that came to represent what was wrong with government procurement - the $400 hammer. Today, the Hammer Award represents what is right about government -beating down the old system and building up a new one.

The work of the DSMC team and the work of all Department of Defense (DoD) Hammer Award winners pose a challenge for everyone in the Department to accelerate their efforts to overhaul the way DoD is doing business in the 21st century