EVERETT — Three Washington-based companies were among 13 recipients of Boeing’s 2016 Supplier of the Year awards this month.
The companies beat out thousands of competitors for top honors from the aerospace giant. Last year, the Boeing Co. spent nearly $60 billion for parts and services from more than 13,000 vendors in all 50 states and 48 countries.
Boeing’s success depends on having the “best team, and our supply chain is absolutely vital to those efforts,” the company’s chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, said in announcing the winners.
Orion Industries won the Supplier of the Year award in the community engagement category. Orion is a supplier with a social mission.
The non-profit organization aims to help people who often struggle to find long-term jobs.
Working with the state, Orion seeks to get clients away from relying on jobs that are often short term and pay low wages.
The non-profit provides training and other services to help clients launch higher paying and more stable careers, such as machining and manufacturing for the aerospace industry.
Orion bids for work like any other supplier. It provides parts for every Boeing commercial jet. It has plants in Auburn and Mukilteo.
Boeing honored Orion for making “strategic investments, engagements and advocacy to strengthen the communities where we live and work.”
It is Orion’s third Supplier of the Year award. It won the outside manufacturing category in 2011 and corporate citizenship in 2015.
Seattle-based Hoffman Construction Co. won the safety category. Hoffman built two new sprawling factory buildings at Boeing’s Everett plant. Both buildings are tied to Boeing’s new 777X jetliner. One is the Composite Wing Center, where Boeing is already making early production parts of the new jetliner’s advanced technology wing. The other houses Boeing’s new, highly-automated system for assembling fuselages for the 777 and 777X programs.
GMN Aerospace, also based in Seattle, received the award for the alliance category.
The company helps Boeing succeed by “sharing risk and through long-term relationships that support and advance Boeing’s strategic objectives,” Boeing said.
The other category winners were:
Environment: Nabtesco Corp., Gifu, Japan
Collaboration: NIPPI Corp., Yokohama, Japan
Support and Services: Victory Solutions, Inc., Huntsville, Alabama
Production and Design: The EnCore Group, Huntington Beach, California
Outstanding Performance: AVIC Xi’an Aircraft Industry (Group) Co., Xi’an, China
Global Supplier Diversity: Gary Jet Center, Gary, Indiana
Pathfinder: American Semiconductor, Boise, Idaho
Technology: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, Australia
Advantage: AT&T, Dallas, Texas
Innovation: University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, Rotherham, United Kingdom
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