Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
2007 Award Recipient, Nonprofit

U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC)

Type of Work: ARDEC is the R&D center for armaments used by the U.S. Army, Special Operations Command, and other organizations. ARDEC’s purpose is to provide battlefield supremacy for U.S. troops through “overmatch capabilities.” Over the past 10 years, ARDEC has developed and released more than 20 products that have provided U.S. troops with “world’s best” capabilities, compared with products from foreign military and other U.S. defense organizations.

Web site: http://www.pica.army.mil/PicatinnyPublic/organizations/ardec/index.asp

Revenues: $1.2 billion

Workforce: 2,971

Locations: Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.; Watervliet, N.Y.; Rock Island, Ill.; Adelphi, Md.; and Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

Highlights

• Efforts to diversify ARDEC’s revenue stream have led to a growth in non-Army revenue from about $60 million in FY 2001 to $140 million in FY07. Overall revenue has increased from approximately $600 million in FY 2001 to around $1.2 billion in FY 2007.

• Designated as the benchmark for the Army in technology transfer, ARDEC has had since FY 2005 approximately 75 percent of its technology projects transition from research into customer funded development.

• ARDEC has received awards and recognition based on customer satisfaction and perceived value including Value Engineering Accomplishments of Merit. Over the past five years, ARDEC has won 13 of the Army’s “10 Greatest Inventions of the Year” awards. Additionally, ARDEC has won the “Army Research and Development Lab of the Year” award for two of the last four years.

• Results for workforce engagement were more than 84 percent positive and job satisfaction increased from about 87 percent positive in FY 2004 to 92 percent positive in FY 2007, exceeding government productivity and quality benchmarks. Diversity for scientists and engineers has increased in six of eight target groups from FY 2005 to FY 2007 with several exceeding the National Science Foundation benchmark.

• ARDEC’s SWORDS robot was named one of the “most amazing inventions of 2004” by TIME magazine.

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