Jamaica Bearings Wins Defense Supply Award

Jamaica Bearings Co. (USA) was recently honored with an Automated Best Value System Award (ABVS) by the U.S. Defense Supply Center in Richmond, Virginia. As the U.S. Government's largest bearing distributor supplier, Jamaica last year shipped bearings, seals and related components to hundreds of government locations worldwide. The Defense Logistics Agency's ABVS award is based on a delivery score, a quality score, and adherence to the contract's terms. The scores are stringently determined, based on the criteria established by the government: The delivery score reflects all lines shown as delinquent during the rating period. For ABVS, delinquent lines represent shipments not shipped and/or received in their entirety by the contract delivery date. The quality score reflects validated contractor-caused product non-conformances/lab test failures and packaging non-conformances during the rating period. There are eight different quality measurements. Contractor caused discrepancies, regardless of corrective action, will be reflected in ABVS as an indicator of past performance. The repair, replacement or reimbursement of quality and packaging defects will not provide relief of negative ABVS data. To qualify for an ABVS award, a supplier must reach a combined score of 98% or better; this is Jamaica's fourth consecutive ABVS award. Michael Mayer, Jamaica's Director of Corporate Development, reviewed their award for eBearing. Jamaica's score this year, he said, was 99%. But more impressive is how difficult this level of performance is to achieve for a supplier with Jamaica's diversity. "The main separator here was the amount of line items shipped," Mr. Mayer told eBearing. "You can qualify for this award with just a handful of orders. However, to gain this award with 15,000 contract line items and with such a technical product is unique, and this was mentioned at the ceremony." Established in 1925 and now distributing products from more than 60 manufacturers, Jamaica Bearings covers the aerospace, rail, industrial and government markets. Although the company has been supplying bearings to the U.S. Government almost since the first day, for the past 17 years Jamaica has had a dedicated sales group, trained in government sales and contract administration.