Quality and Operations prove the standard is the standard

Members of Quality stand with the W88 team awarded the inaugural "The Standard is the Standard" award.

The standard is the standard.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin is widely credited with coining the phrase. During a press conference, Coach Tomlin was asked where that particular maxim came from. His response:

"I don't know."

There might be no better answer to that question. Such a credo isn't born off the cuff or from inside a fortune cookie. It just... is.

When excellence is the standard, the room for error is marginal at best. And now, thanks to a collaboration between Quality Product Verification (PV) and Production Operations, deep within the margins is now where the standard seems to be.

"During our review of unit folders submitted from Weapons Operations, we wanted to focus on the incidental defects that can potentially lead to nonconformances," PV Manager Jesseca Cook said. "We really believe that if we take care of the smaller things that the bigger things will take care of themselves."

Quality Assurance Specialist Nate Tucker went to work creating a tool. The result was a tracking system that allowed PV to identify and organize the type of defects that the Quality Assurance inspection technicians were identifying. PV then presented this data to Weapons Operations management who embraced the opportunity to effect change and reenforce the standard of excellence.

“We knew there had to be a better way," Tucker said. "My personal goal was to get to the root cause of these issues by really drilling down and tracking individual defects. And the impact? It's been incredible, not just for Operations, but for Quality too."

"Now we are able to evaluate incidental defects and associate the contributing factors to determine leading issues and reduce nonconformances," Cook said. "We've seen a 73% reduction in our incidental defects since we started this initiative. We're now down to just minor details which alleviates frustrations for both organizations."

The resulting data of the new initiatives is undeniable with the entire plant achieving a 0% total defect rate for November 2025, the first perfect month for Pantex in over three years. PV was also able to achieve its goal of reducing nonconformances by 20% for fiscal year 2025. This improved performance directly contributes to the success of the plant by reducing downtime, increasing production efficiency, and setting the standard for new technicians who will soon join the Production team.

The rapid improvement led the PV team to create "The Standard is the Standard Award," given to a team deemed to align with the standard of excellence and the commitment to a quality culture. A W88 team consisting of Production Technicians Thomas Havery, Steven Hernandez, Juan Hinojosa, Michael Jarocha, Brian Johnson, John Kelly, Isaac Rich, Paul Rodriguez, Brandon Sena, Brandon Shedd, and Austin Stashi was selected as the first recipient of the award.

"Even if you think no one is paying attention, doing the right thing, having that questioning attitude, and checking each other's work to ensure everything is done to the highest quality is always the way to go," Production Technician Isaac Rich said. "Support your team to your best ability because everyone on our team plays an important role in our end goal which is delivering working, high-quality product to our nation for its defense."

Coach Tomlin might not know exactly where his famous catchphrase came from, but the standard set by these two Pantex teams is the standard – unmistakably so.

"This award is an acknowledgement of the standard set by both Quality and Production Operations, and the amazing technicians we have here that rise to the challenge," Cook said. "I think it really gives confirmation to our NNSA customer, the Department of War, and our nation that Pantex is setting a high standard. It proves the excellence of the two organizations.”