At General Dynamics’ 2024 Supply Chain Excellence Awards at corporate headquarters in Reston, Virgina, the corporation rolled out the red carpet for BIW Supply Chain Senior Program Manager Eric Kruger and a group of other procurement professionals from 12 GD business units from around the globe.
Kruger’s project applied sophisticated market analysis to the timing of BIW’s energy purchases, slashing the shipyard’s utility bill by millions of dollars and reducing our carbon footprint. BIW is the second or third largest electricity user in the state so a price change of even a penny can have a major effect on expenses.
In the most recent awards competition, BIW submitted six projects to the phase one portion of the process and three were voted into phase two, which represented the top 20 projects across all of GD. Each portion of the process is voted on by representatives from each business unit. The electricity procurement strategy made it to the top 12, which resulted in Kruger’s project receiving a Supply Chain Excellence Award trophy and the opportunity to present to executives from the other businesses and corporate leadership.
In the end, the BIW project took third place overall and was less than a point off from winning the top prize. The experience, however, was priceless, Kruger said.
“There’s so much networking opportunity there and knowledge sharing,” Kruger said. “It’s really where great supply chain practices are exchanged.” “Supply chain management is an evolving science and acquisition strategies need to continuously evolve as well,” he said.
Other projects included a steel project at NASSCO that involved procurement analytics; EB’s Supply Chain University; and GD Mission Systems-Canada with AI-assisted buying.
“I was extremely pleased with the projects submitted in 2023,” said Materials Management Director Shawn Perkins, who is entering his second year on the Supply Chain Excellence Awards committee. “Out of 42 projects submitted, getting three into the top 20 shows our supply chain is thinking outside of the box to meet company goals of reducing cost and clawing back schedule.”
“I look forward to helping create connections with teams from other business units so BIW can harvest these best practices for future cost savings,” he said.
The 2024 call for nominations was recently sent out and Supply Chain management is soliciting projects for this year’s event. Please contact Shawn Perkins if you have a project for this year’s awards or if you want information on starting work on a long-term project for a future submittal.
