Sandia has transferred management authority for the production of four nuclear weapon product families to the Kansas City Plant. NNSA agreed with Sandia’s suggested move to better align production responsibilities to each site’s core competencies.

Sandia President and Laboratories Director Paul Hommert and Chris Gentile, president of Kansas City Plant contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, signed the agreement June 24 at the National Security Campus in Kansas City, launching a one-year transition period. Sandia transferred production authority to Kansas City for four devices and assemblies.

Better alignment with core strengths

“This is a self-started and collaborative initiative we have developed together and fully endorse,” Paul said. “We believe it better aligns core strengths at each site and that it creates added value and efficiencies through the consolidation of resources and the leverage of existing supply chain management systems and infrastructure.”

The shift in workload represents about $100 million over 10 years, running through fiscal year 2024, said Org. 2500 Director Anthony Medina, who is in charge of Sandia’s External Production Program.

During the transition, Sandia will familiarize KCP with requirements for each product — about 50 individual parts in all — and the operation of the testers that collect data to make sure those requirements are met, said Org. 2600 Director David Plummer, whose organization is responsible for three of the four transferred product families and who attended the ceremony along with Paul and Geoffrey Beausoleil, manager of the NNSA Sandia Field Office.

Sandia retains design authority for those components. It also will continue managing external production for four other families of products whose production needs better align to Sandia capabilities.