At Raytheon, supplier diversity is something we own and embrace. Each day, we challenge ourselves to become more inclusive — and to do our everyday jobs in ways that reflect our company's values. We follow a deliberate diversity strategy that combines an acute focus on the specific solutions suppliers provide with a stratified approach to include companies of various sizes. This strategy brings to our supply chain diverse experiences, perspectives and knowledge of materials use.
We continue to reach out to more suppliers and work closely with them to help them succeed. Our strong relationships with the National Minority Supplier Development Council, the Women's Business Enterprise National Council and other organizations provide a valuable source of new contacts — and an opportunity to share knowledge, advice and information with prospective partners. For example, in 2016, we hosted a Cyber Resilience workshop with the WBENC Women's Forum to educate small business owners on how to protect their businesses. We've also made a strong commitment to reach out to the LGBT community and to companies owned by people with disabilities.
"In 2016, we participated in 68 customer, local and national outreach events to identify and provide access to potential small business partners."
In 2016, Raytheon received several awards for our supply chain performance. We were recognized as one of America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises, earning a silver award from the Women's Business Enterprise National Council.
Minority Business News USA also named us to the 2016 Corporate 101: America's Most Admired Corporations for Supplier Diversity.
Raytheon doesn't just do business with suppliers — it invests in them by helping them become better supply partners to other companies, and more engaged members of their communities.
In 2016, Raytheon won a prestigious Nunn Perry award from the Department of Defense for one such partnership — a mentor/protégé relationship with Mentis Sciences of Manchester, New Hampshire. The award, given by the Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, honors participants in the Pentagon's mentor/protégé Program, which aims to help small businesses.
With our guidance, Mentis Sciences successfully addressed a number of its supply chain challenges: integrated technologies, achieved ISO 9000 compliance, established an Enterprise Resource Planning system, assured product conformity, built a company website and met rigorous testing requirements.
Our efforts helped Mentis Sciences secure a designation as a value-added supplier, enabling it to support one of our key defense contracts.
One to manufacture custom prosthetic devices for wounded warriors and a local community effort to promote STEM education.
Mentis hired 17 high school students and gave them valuable exposure to its engineering environment. Mentis engineers teach STEM classes on-site, and the company developed a tool kit used to teach engineering principles in local schools. It also recruited and trained veteran volunteers to use this tool kit for classroom experiments. Raytheon helped expand this program's reach by donating tool kits to the Legacy Academy Charter School in Florida and to a charter school in Tucson, Arizona.