Lockheed unit in Moorestown receives rating upgrade

Lockheed Martin Corp. said its Maritime Systems and Sensors business unit, based at Moorestown, has been upgraded to the second-highest quality rating after an independent process audit under a global standard-setting program.

"In short, the ranking defines us as a business that has disciplined processes in place to assure customers that we do quality work, particularly in software engineering," Lockheed spokesman Kenneth B. Ross, said today.

The Moorestown site is where 5,500 of the defense-and-aerospace company's 13,500-plus Philadelphia-area employees work. Its primary customers include military forces of the United States and its allies. It develops and manufactures the Aegis ballistic-missile defense system and other complex software-drive products.

The entire Moorestown-based enterprise has been rated "maturity level four" by the global Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) program, and this is a significant improvement, Ross said.

Previously, the Moorestown operation itself, and several sites elsewhere that report to it, had been rated "maturity level three." Some of the unit's sites had not been rated at all.

The CMMI process audit was developed by the Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded research-and-development center at Carnegie Mellon University. It has gained global acceptance as a standard for evaluating large-scale systems engineering, integrated product and process development, supplier sourcing, production and other programs.