Two KCNSC Teams Win NNSA Infrastructure Excellence Awards
Two teams from Kansas City National Security Campus were recently honored with an Excellence Award by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Infrastructure.
NNSA’s national security missions depend on a modern, flexible, and resilient nuclear complex, and the Office of Infrastructure manages the growing infrastructure needs of the enterprise as existing facilities and buildings at Department of Energy (DOE) sites, plants, and labs continue to age over time. The NNSA Office of Infrastructure Excellence Awards program was established to recognize teams who performed beyond expectations to build coalitions to achieve mission success, lead change by anticipating challenges and creating new, scalable solutions, and deliver timely, meaningful results.
The Supply Chain Management Center (SCMC), managed by KCNSC, won a Gold Award, while the Kansas City Short Term Expansion Plan (KCSTEP) team received a Bronze Award.
Gold Award: KCNSC – Supply Chain Management Center- Construction and Infrastructure Services Support
The SCMC is dedicated to providing supply chain solutions to the DOE. The program works with 25 different NNSA and DOE Environmental Management sites across the enterprise. The SCMC’s shared commodity agreements are a key attribute of the program, which can be used by all 25 sites, saving time and money at the local level.
Over time, many SCMC partner sites have had a hard time getting construction-related firms to bid on projects. To meet this need, the SCMC launched a multi-year construction and infrastructure services support strategy, awarding more than $2.26 billion worth of shared commodity agreements related to architecture, engineering, and infrastructure services. These agreements provide valuable options for sites as they anticipate additional construction and facility management activities in future years, saving them the work of negotiating their own individual agreements for these services.
In a virtual award ceremony hosted in late May, Ken Sheely, NNSA’s Acting Associate Administrator for the Office of Infrastructure gave remarks as he announced the winners. “The Supply Chain Management Center’s efforts made it easier for sites across the enterprise to quickly find suppliers who are ready, willing, and able to complete the work needed to upgrade aging facilities,” Sheely said. “Your streamlined framework to immediately engage vendors saves time and money that would otherwise be spent negotiating site-level agreements.”
Bronze Award: KCNSC – Kansas City Short Term Expansion Plan – Exhaust Ducts
The Kansas City Short Term Expansion Plan (KCSTEP) represents a series of multi-year projects designed to provide the necessary factory capacity to support existing programs. The core project team is comprised of staff members from Infrastructure and Facilities, and Manufacturing, with support from KCNSC procurement, Facility Engineering Services (FES), and other departments within the organization.
Recently, this team worked together to facilitate the replacement of exhaust ducts in the plating room. The fiberglass exhaust ducts, which are manufactured by a single supplier, were slated to be replaced during a week-long annual winter plant shutdown. However, the supplier continued to experience supply chain delays, putting the project at jeopardy.
“Failure to replace the exhaust ducts in a timely manner would have resulted in a major safety hazard,” said Sam Couch, Senior Manager, Infrastructure and Facilities. “It would have meant a complete loss of production capabilities in the flax flex plating room.”
KCNSC’s procurement team was able to intervene, coordinating with the manufacturer to immediately ship the required parts to meet schedule deadlines.
In a true display of dedication, teamwork, and collaboration, team members worked together diligently to create a synchronized plan over a seven-day period, working tirelessly both on and off shift to complete the needed repairs.
“We were able to replace the exhaust ducts with no negative impacts to production schedules,” said Sam.
Congratulations to the SCMC and KCSTEP teams for this well-deserved honor.
