The Business Operations (BizOps) unit of Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), the management and operating contractor for the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), has earned the Pioneer Award for Excellence, the second highest honor granted by the Southwest Alliance for Excellence (SWAE).
The SWAE Performance Excellence program is modeled on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which was won by the Kansas City Plant in 2009.
The Pioneer Award recognizes organizations that demonstrate effective, systematic approaches that are aligned with the organizational needs. It indicates organizational results that show good performance, and that comparative and trend data are available for several important results areas. It also indicates that, while some beneficial trends are evident, sustained excellence has not yet been achieved.
MSTS President Mark W. Martinez said, “Congratulations to the entire Business Operations team on earning this prestigious award and demonstrating why the NNSS is a leader in its field. This award recognizes our outstanding Business Operation team and its support of critical functions that make our mission possible. I am so proud of what our employees do every day to help keep our nation safe and secure.”
“This is an amazing accomplishment, especially considering that, as its own organization, Business Operations was stood up just two short years ago,” added BizOps Senior Director Neile Miller. “I want to recognize every member of the BizOps team, not only for their role in supporting our application for this award, but for their extraordinary commitment to enabling the mission every single day.”
To help achieve sustained excellence, SWAE’s site visit team will provide BizOps with a written assessment detailing a pathway for improvement. The feedback report is one of the most valuable features of the SWAE Performance Excellence Program process as it contains specific strengths and opportunities for improvement, based on the criteria for performance excellence.
“As team members directly supporting this journey, we want to let our colleagues know how grateful we are for their contributions to the application submittal and to a successful site visit,” said Performance Excellence Senior Manager Misti Duplex. “Thanks to their hard work and dedication to performance excellence, we have achieved a major milestone.”
The BizOps SWAE Performance Excellence Program journey started with the submission of the Performance Excellence Level 4 application to SWAE during the summer of 2021. In November, BizOps received word that they were selected for a site visit—a major step in the award selection process, as only a handful of applicants move forward to this step. During the site visit, SWAE examiners spent three days interviewing the BizOPs leadership team, subject matter experts, and individual employees. SWAE notified BizOps they had been selected to receive the award just a few short weeks later.