NEWS RELEASES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 2006

Sandia recognizes local businesses with outstanding service awards

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories recently presented awards to several Albuquerque businesses for outstanding service to Sandia as part of its Just-In-Time (JIT) procurement system.

JIT is a purchasing system that permits Sandia employers to electronically purchase a line of items or services directly from a designated supplier. Items range from office supplies to pager airtime.

The multi-year contracts require suppliers to deliver goods or services within as little as 24 hours of Sandia’s request. The contracts are awarded on a competitive basis.

Awards for calendar year 2005 include:

Bronze Award — OfficeMax was recognized for consistently meeting the needs of the Sandia Contracting Representative, Sandia Supply Chain, and the Sandia Requesters. OfficeMax partnered with Sandia’s Affirmative Procurement to achieve one hundred percent compliance in binder purchasing. This initiative was so successful that the increased demand for recycled-content binders by Sandia exceeded the regionally available supply from the manufacturers.

Silver Award — Sandia Service Company received this award for its commitment to total customer satisfaction, continuously offering value to customers by researching hard-to-find products, or offering alternatives to products no longer available. Some products offered are custom to Sandia Labs. The company has spent much time finding suppliers of these custom products to ensure they meet the Lab’s specifications.

Gold Award — Commercial Data Systems excelled in the areas of customer satisfaction and cost savings. CDS achieved this by having a customer friendly staff and constantly staying in contact with their customers from initial order placement to delivery, as well as consistently being proactive in helping Sandia control costs.

Innovation Award — OfficeMax was presented with this award for incorporating innovative strategies into their business processes that exceeded the Sandia contract obligations. OfficeMax dedicated considerable programming resources and countless hours to implement a custom bar-code labeling system that assists Sandia Receiving with the tracking of orders.

Sandia established its JIT procurement system in 1985, saving approximately $10 million annually through reduced administrative costs.  Sandia estimated that out of 53 current JIT contracts, 94 percent were placed with local businesses.

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Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

Sandia media contact: Michael Padilla, mjpadil@sandia.gov, (505) 284-5325