AlliedSignal Greer Repair & Overhaul in Greer, South Carolina is the recipient of the 1999 South Carolina Governor's Quality Award, which will be presented at the Governor's Quality Award Conference on April 29 at the Columbia Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Columbia, South Carolina.  The South Carolina Governor's Quality Award recognizes exemplary performance in incorporating Baldrige criteria in business, government, education, and non-profit organizations. 

McDevitt Street Bovis, located in Columbia, South Carolina and Wackenhut Services, Incorporated, located in Aiken, South Carolina will receive Gold Achiever Awards for outstanding progress toward implementing the Baldrige criteria at the Governor's Quality Conference. The Silver Achiever Award will be presented to Operations Associates in Greenville, South Carolina and the Savannah River Operations Office for significant progress toward implementing the Baldrige criteria. The Medical University of South Carolina Medical Center will receive the Bronze Achiever Award . 

The Governor's Quality Award process was developed by the South Carolina Quality Forum, established in 1991 as an affiliate of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. The purpose of the South Carolina Quality Recognition Process is to promote economic and human development by raising overall quality performance.  Applicants for the Governor's Quality Award, which is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria, must complete an extensive application process, and then each finalist must undergo an extensive site visit from the Governor's Quality Award examiners. "The main purpose of the award process is self assessment and determining areas for improvement, not just winning an award," according to Kerry Norman, Chair of the Awards Subcommittee of the Governor's Quality Forum. "Each organization receives a feedback report on how to improve the organization's efficiency, and this is the truly important part of the process." 

Greer R&O is part of the parent company, AlliedSignal Inc., head quartered in Morris Township, New Jersey. Allied Signal, Inc. is an advanced technology and manufacturing company, serving customers worldwide with aerospace and automotive products, chemicals, fibers, plastics, and advanced materials.  Greer R&O is a one-stop shop for module repair and overhaul for aircraft engines. The ISO 9002 certified stand-alone facility is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) repair station dedicated to aircraft turbine engine repair. The 250 associates at Greer R&O attribute much of their success to the fact that associates are cross-trained so they can move from operation to operation and team to team if necessary. 
On being notified about the prestigious Governor's Quality Award, John P. Murphy, Site Leader for AlliedSignal Greer Repair & Overhaul stated, "Given the quality heritage in this state, we are simply delighted to be recognized as South Carolina Governor's Quality Award winners!  Using the Baldrige framework as our road map, we will continue to strive to exceed our customer's expectations. All associates at Allied Signal Greer Repair & Overhaul have contributed to our continuous improvement journey." 

Jack Long, Senior Vice President for McDevitt Street Bovis (MSB) said that the Gold Achiever Award is "testimony to how far our people and organization have traveled on a 10-year quality journey. The award reminds us that continuous improvement is not a destination which is reached as much as an ideal culture which is pursued." MSB is an 81-year old national construction services firm operating in Columbia, South Carolina. Core business functions include sales/marketing, pre-construction (estimating), and construction operations. MSB-South Carolina primarily works in the southeastern United States, specializing in health care, commercial buildings, sports and entertainment facilities, senior living facilities, as well as light manufacturing and distribution facilities. Several of the signature projects of MSB include the Richland County Public Library, South Carolina State Museum Renovations, Columbia Metropolitan Airport, Springs Industries, Greenville Hospital System, Leiner Health Products, and Tuomey Regional Medical Center. MSB is a member of the U.S. based construction operations of Bovis Construction Corporation, which is ranked #1 in the July 1998 issue of Building Design and Construction's top 300 construction managers. 47 full time employees manage over $70 million in construction projects. 

Wackenhut Services, Incorporated (WSI) located in Aiken, South Carolina is a subsidiary of The Wackenhut Corporation, one of the world's largest and most diversified security and investigative organizations.  WSI is a paramilitary organization that provides access control, property protection, law enforcement, criminal investigations, traffic control, aviation support, and river patrol at the 310-square mile Savannah River Site, a government nuclear facility, which has approximately 15,000 employees. The explosives and dog canine teams have earned national honors, and the law enforcement department is one of only two percent of all agencies in the United States to be certified by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.  Dr. Lawrence Brede, Jr., Senior Vice President and General Manager, commented that the employees of Wackenhut Services, Inc.-Savannah River Site, "search out best-in-industry standards, continuously improve operations, and give back in meaningful ways to the community. They come to work each day with the idea of making Wackenhut a better company." 
 Operations Associates is a management consulting firm focusing on information technology, facilities master planning, and operations. Among the services offered by Operations Associates include Supply Chain & Logistics Systems, Business Information Systems, Computer Systems Integration, Manufacturing, Warehouse, & Distribution Facilities, Materials Handling Systems, Time Based Flow Strategies, and Human Resource Development. Industries served by the 30 professionals include aerospace, apparel/textile, automotive, chemical, electronics, film and packaging, industrial products, printing and publishing, and retail.  Mike Rigg, Principal, states that "Operations Associates places a high value on organizational excellence and customer satisfaction, and it continues to use the Baldrige criteria and the state quality award process to improve the company." 

 Savannah River Operations Office is one of the largest employers in South Carolina with an annual budget of $1.5 billion. Currently, 14,000 people work at Savannah River Operations Office, including site operating contractors, numerous subcontractors, and approximately 500 Savannah River Operations Office federal personnel.  The site includes the Defense Waste Processing Facility, two chemical separations facilities, high-level waste storage facilities, tritium recycling and reloading facilities, Savannah River Technology Center, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Consolidated Incineration Facility, effluent and other waste treatment facilities, nuclear material management facilities, and other support facilities. Greg Rudy, Department of Energy Manager of the Savannah River Operations said that the Silver Achiever Award is recognition of the hard work and skill of all the employees of the Savannah River Site. "We are proud of our corporate commitment to excellence to service to the Nation." 

According to Stuart Smith, Vice President of Clinical Operations and Executive Director of the MUSC Medical Center which will receive the Bronze Achiever Award, "The health care industry has been slow to adopt quality management practices. At the MUSC Medical Center, we have worked particularly hard over the past two years to develop an infrastructure that supports databased, team-based approaches to improving our processes in a way that exceeds our customer's expectations. We will use the feedback we receive from this application process to help make this structure and our organization even better." The Medical University of South Carolina is rated among the top 40 hospitals in the nation for five areas of specialization, and it is dedicated to innovations in medicine and patient care, and the Medical Center is the core of that dedication.  The Medical Center employs the widest range of specialists in the state. 
Governor Jim Hodges will present the South Carolina Governor's Quality Award and the five Achiever Awards at the Governor's Quality Award Conference on April 29 in Columbia. The conference includes presentations by the award winners, and an opening presentation by Robert Bradshaw, President, Solectron Technology, Inc. At the conference, the Milliken Medal of Quality will be presented by Governor Hodges to Dan Hargett, Vice President for Microelectronics and Director of Southwest Operations for Lockwood Greene in Spartanburg, South Carolina. 
For more information about the South Carolina Governor's Quality Awards or the South Carolina Quality Forum and to register for the South Carolina Governor's Quality Award Conference call 1-888-231-0578.