Tops in Quality

The Army's infantry training center will receive the government's top award for quality this week.

Office of Personnel Management Director Jim King will present the U.S. Army Infantry School and Center at Fort Benning, Ga., with the 1997 Presidential Award for Quality at the 10th Annual National Conference on Federal Quality in Washington on Thursday.

Modeled on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, awarded annually to top-performing private companies, the presidential award is given each year to a highly productive federal organization that provides excellent customer service and saves taxpayers money.

A panel of government and private sector quality management specialists picks the winner.

Every Army infantry soldier trains at Fort Benning. The base also manages several weapons programs, including the development and modernization of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the Javelin Antitank Missile. In addition, Fort Benning was recognized for its quality of life program for the fort's 21,000 soldiers.

The Army's quality improvement initiative, Total Army Quality, was introduced at Fort Benning in 1989. Since then, more than 1,200 managers and supervisors and 10,000 military and civilian employees have received quality training. Since 1993, the base has twice won the Commander-in-Chief award for best army installation in the world and four times received the Army Chief of Staff award for best large installation in the continental United States.

In addition to the top winner, eight federal organizations will be recognized at the quality conference with Quality Achievement Awards:

• The Army's Communications-Electronics Command Acquisition Center at Fort Monmouth, N.J.
• The Communications-Electronics Command Logistics and Readiness Center, also at Fort Monmouth.
• The Army's Rock Island Arsenal in Rock Island, Ill.
• The Navy's Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity in San Diego, Calif.
• The Veterans Affairs Medical and Regional Office Center in Togus, Maine.
• The General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service Northeast and Caribbean regional office in New York, N.Y.
• The Defense Logistics Agency's Defense Contract Management Command in Garden City, N.Y.
• NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.