The Department of Energy (DOE) has recently named an employee from the Savannah River Site (SRS) as the 2023 Small Business Advocate MVP at the annual Supply Chain Management Center’s event.
Lisa Tanner, Small Business Liaison Officer for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), was recently honored with this title for her performance in procurement practices.
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“In fiscal year (FY) 2023, I collaborated with Rachel Boyd, Deborah Tyler, and the SRNS Supply Chain Procurement team to improve the visibility and performance of the supplier-onboarding process with the pending implementation of the supplier portal and risk assessment software,” said Tanner. “Our team is vital in supporting SRS missions, and I remain focused on the deployment of these tools for future onboarding efficiencies.”
DOE’s Small Business Awards Program honors individuals and organizations that promote and expand small businesses. SRNS has created 15,700 local jobs and 82,800 regional jobs since 2018. In FY23, SRNS granted $732 million in total small business awards, which is a 70% increase from FY22.
“Lisa and the team are key in establishing our Supply Chain Center of Excellence by consistently assessing and evaluating supplier performance,” said Dave Dietz, SRNS senior director of procurement. “Weekly monitoring of supplier on-time delivery, performance meetings, and automated reports have led to success with our small business contractors.”
Tanner oversees the SRNS acquisition forecast, continuous improvement program, and the Mentor Protégé Program, which is a DOE program to help small businesses in improving their capabilities.
“Lisa also supports the ‘Small Business First’ policy by guiding our various buyer teams to consider small business suppliers whenever possible,” said Dietz. “These efforts have been extremely successful with some buyers awarding over 80% of work in any given month to small businesses.”
Tanner and SRNS Supply Chain Procurement ensures diversity in procurement and long-term subcontract agreements in three ways: participating in trade fairs, establishing relationships between the small business community and buyers, and developing government subcontract plans in compliance with Federal and DOE Acquisition Regulations.
“The SRNS Small Business Program is pivotal in nurturing companies for DOE missions and is a model for supplier development,” said Jay Johnson, SRNS deputy vice president of contracts and supply chain management. “Lisa has been an excellent advocate and makes it her business to raise our level of commitments, resulting in record highs in protégé and small business awards.”
The DOE tries to reach its Small Business Administration-established goals each year for four different socioeconomic categories: Small Disadvantaged Businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned, historically underutilized business zones (HUBZone), and women-owned small businesses.
“While this award may be an individual honor, success in Procurement is often a collective effort,” said Tanner. “I am delighted by this recognition that shines light on the entire team’s dedication to maximizing small business opportunities.”
