ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Department of Defense announced the winners of the fiscal year 2011 Department of Defense Value Engineering Achievement Awards.

A ceremony was held to recognize the recipients' outstanding achievements through the application of Value Engineering at the Pentagon.

"Value Engineering is an important contributor to the "Better Buying Power" program of continuous improvement in defense acquisition. By reducing cost throughout the life cycle of U.S. defense systems, value engineering delivers more capability at reduced cost to the taxpayer," said the Honorable Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.

"Defense acquisition professionals across the Department, including the ones that we honor today, use Value Engineering techniques to identify and implement innovative ideas that provide better solutions at lower costs. DoD's Value Engineering Program has achieved more than $51 billion dollars in savings and cost avoidance since 1980 and it's increased use can pay even greater dividends in the future," he continued.

Awards for 2011 were presented to the following individuals and teams from AMC in the following categories:

Individual Award to Leonard Darbyshire of U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command in

Warren, Mich.

Team Award to the Joint Attack Munition System Value Engineering Team of U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

Special Award to Maintenance Engineering Division of the Aviation Engineering Directorate

of the U.S. Aviation & Missile Research Development and Engineering Center in Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

Value engineering is a systematic process to identify functions that can reduce cost, increase quality, and improve mission capabilities across the entire spectrum of DoD systems, processes, and organizations.

The Value Engineering Awards Program is an acknowledgment of exemplary achievements.

Award winners from each DoD component are selected from one of the following five categories: program/project, individual, team, organization, and contractor. Additionally, joint Service and special awards are given to recognize innovative applications or approaches that expand the traditional scope of value engineering use.

For more information about the Value Engineering Awards Program, visit: http://ve.ida.org/ve/ve.html.