On Wednesday, September 9th, Marotta Controls hosted its first annual Supplier Summit. This year’s summit objective was to bring together our supply chain in an open forum to share information relative to Marotta’s current and future growth, potential opportunities, important industry trends and to define clear expectations for our suppliers as we move forward.
Marotta has recently developed an evaluation system for our suppliers to assess which areas specific companies need to improve upon. This new level of assessment demonstrates our desire to build long-term relationships with our suppliers by working together to improve their processes. The Supplier Summit proved to be an effective way to communicate this new structure and our future expectations.
The summit included a networking breakfast followed by presentations from Patrick Marotta, Michael Leahan, Mike LaVaglia, Walt Gilmore and Kevin Latchford. In addition to the Marotta team we were able to include several of our key customers to come speak to our suppliers. Customers included:

  • Ray Rampi (Lockheed Martin): Director, Global Supply Chain Management
  • Paul Oettinger (Lockheed Martin): Senior Supply Quality Manager Tactical Missiles
  • Mike Bazzy (SpaceX): Buyer – Valves, Burst Disks, Regulators

Our customers delivered the message that while our suppliers may be further up the supply chain their work and contributions are crucial to their programs, including defense applications that have a high impact on our armed forces lives. The presence of Lockheed Martin and SpaceX reinforced  Marotta’s messaging and allowed our suppliers to interact directly with the customers.
To show our appreciation and dedicated relationships with our suppliers Marotta presented a Supplier of the Year award for best performance during 2014. This year the award was given to Phoenix Precision, Inc., a small business that has been a supplier for Marotta for over 20 years. In addition to maintaining the highest performance rating for every month in 2014, Phoenix provides an open line of communication, rapid response times, and “stop the line” manufacturing practices to ensure the highest quality of products for Marotta.
After the Supplier Summit presentations guests and Marotta employees participated in a networking luncheon followed by tours throughout the facility. Suppliers were able to get an inside look on our operations and our growing infrastructure.
The Supplier Summit successfully provided an excellent opportunity to bring our employees, suppliers and customers together to ensure that we align our vision of quality and excellence as we all move forward successfully.