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August 3, 2007
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Attendees of the Chairman's Awards for Innovation recognition dinner posing at the Rose Cliff Mansion in Newport, RI |
“The extraordinary talent of our workforce reminds us that greatness starts with each of us," said Lewis B. Campbell, Textron's chairman, president and CEO.
Textron’s top innovators for 2006 came together for an elegant night at the Rosecliff mansion in Newport, RI on July 24th. They were there to accept the Chairman’s Award for Innovation – one of the highest recognitions given to Textron employees.
"It wasn't easy to become a winner here tonight because the competition was steep," said Campbell upon handing out the awards. "Out of 136 entries, 35 finalists were selected and 15 emerged as winners."
The number of entries for the past year increased by 32 and were submitted from each of the Textron business units - representing countries across the globe.
On hand to honor the 53 award winners and their innovations were members of Textron’s senior leaders.
"This award is a personal milestone in my career," beamed Wayne Chappell, one of a team from Greenlee recognized for The Sidekick Plus, an innovative field diagnostic instrument for telephone repair technicians. "It's nice that Textron recognizes innovations by its engineers."
For Olympia Martin, director of strategic sourcing at Kautex, it was an extraordinary event. "Really great; I didn't expect this at all."
Martin's team earned an award for Continuous Improvement Transparency, which is designed to help develop the Textron Six Sigma Lean Culture by allowing effective partnering with both suppliers and customers to reduce cost and improve collaboration.
"I am really proud and so very thankful to the Six Sigma team because they inspired and supported us!"
Campbell pointed out that the 15 innovations have already resulted in considerable cost savings.
"But the real impact of our winners goes beyond these monetary figures. These innovations benefit everyone – customers, employees, and the company.
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Wayne Chappell from Greenlee |
For example, several of the winning innovations take an existing system or assembly of parts and simplify it. This helps our company – because we reduce costs by using fewer parts and materials; our employees – because it's easier to put things together when processes are simplified; and our customers benefit because we're providing them with more value by passing the savings along."
Brian Adlawan and his team represented Textron Systems. Their innovation, the ARAM Rad Truck, detects radioactive materials quickly and cost effectively. "This award is special for us in that Textron bought our company, Innovative Survivability Technology (IST), a year ago this week. It's exciting to be recognized for this achievement."
"With your creativity, your ability to think differently, and your curiosity, you're driving innovation at Textron and providing an outstanding example for all of us."
Each winning team member received a $5,000.00 cash award, a custom-designed trophy, a Chairman’s award pin, and they will have their names engraved on a plaque at Textron’s headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island.
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