Lockheed Martin Corp. MS2 Tactical Systems -- Clearwater Operations, Oldsmar, Fla.
Employees: 417, non-union
Total Square Footage: 208,000
Primary Product/market: ruggedized computing, data and signal processing equipment
Start-up: 1974
Achievements: Silver Recipient of Boeing's Performance Excellence Award since 2003; Northrop Grumman Platinum Source Preferred Award since 2005; 46.9% reduction in scrap/rework costs from 2004-2007
If you didn't know any better, the antistatic wristbands connecting many workers to their stations at Lockheed Martin's MS2 Tactical Systems -- Clearwater Operations might look like an odd way to improve productivity. In fact, they serve the same purpose as the smocks everyone wears and the rubber mats that guard entry to each highly sanitized work cell.
Watching each machine hum along in this spotless environment, making unfathomably meticulous movements to fasten microchips the size of a speck of pepper onto newly imprinted circuit boards, it could be easy to forget where these delicate pieces of electronics finally end up. On the floor, though, one thing is certain -- no one ever does.
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