Quality Award Programs
Seven Win 2010 Baldrige Award
Five businesses were among the seven organizations that will receive the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The last time this many businesses won the Award was in 1992, when the Award was only given to businesses.
The 2010 winners are (click on the organization to read its profile):
- MEDRAD, Warrendale, PA (manufacturing)
- Nestlé Purina PetCare Co., St. Louis, MO (manufacturing)
- Freese and Nichols Inc., Fort Worth, TX (small business)
- K&N Management, Austin, TX (small business)
- Studer Group, Gulf Breeze, FL (small business)
- Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove, IL (health care)
- Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, MD (education)
MEDRAD is a two-time winner, having received its first Award in 2003. K&N Management follows Pal’s Sudden Service as the second winner in the food services industry. Montgomery County Public Schools demonstrates that the Baldrige model can be deployed across a large Pre-Kindergarten to 12th Grade school district: It is the sixteenth-largest school district in the United States with more than 11,600 teachers and 144,000 students.
To read more about this year’s recipients, check out this blog post by Harry Hertz, director of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (click here). Harry takes aim at those who have argued that Baldrige is too tough for a large school district to integrate and too…
23Nov2010 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedBaldrige FAQs: The Baldrige Award
What is the Baldrige Award?
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive. Congress established the Award in 1987 and the first Baldrige Awards were presented in 1988.
Who can apply for the Award?
By law, the Baldrige Award is open to any U.S. organization or subunit or to any U.S. subunit of foreign organizations. Organizations must meet eligibility requirements in one of six categories: manufacturing, service, small business, nonprofit, education, and health care.
How often is the Award given?
The Baldrige Award is presented annually to organizations recommended by the Baldrige Panel of Judges and approved by the Department of Commerce. Applications must be submitted by the end of May, with Award winners announced near the end of the year.
Who has won the Award?
Through 2009, 84 organizations had earned the Baldrige Award. You will find a complete list of the recipients, along with profiles that summarize their achievements, award application summaries, and contact information, at the Baldrige program’s web site here.
How do you win a Baldrige Award?
To be eligible for a Baldrige Award, an organization must submit an application that responds to the questions in the Baldrige Criteria. Baldrige examiners…
18Nov2010 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedJoseph Juran, Baldrige, and the Heroic Effort
The cover story of the November issue of Quality Progress, which is available to members of the American Society for Quality, describes the contributions of six quality gurus, one of which is Joseph Juran. It reminded me of the first time I met him.
I was doing research for my first book on Baldrige. Among quality gurus, Juran had been a vocal supporter of what was then a fledgling Baldrige program. I arranged to interview him at his office at the Juran Institute in Wilton, Connecticut.
I arrived a few minutes early for the interview and was told that Dr. Juran would be with me shortly. As I waited in the lobby, someone announced over the speaker system, “Dr. Juran, Peter Drucker on line 2.” I thought: He’s going to talk to Peter Drucker and then he’s going to talk to me?
Their phone call didn’t last long because Dr. Juran fetched me within a couple minutes. It was early autumn, a cool day in Wilton, and he wore a plaid flannel shirt that reminded me of his Minnesota roots. We talked for an hour about the Baldrige program. It was just three years old at that time—it was still only for businesses—and…
17Nov2010 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedBaldrige Site Visit Time
It’s site visit time in the land of Baldrige, the two weeks in fall when teams of Baldrige examiners descend on a select few organizations deemed worthy of further scrutiny. Health care, manufacturing, and service site visits take place next week (October 10-16), while education, small business, and nonprofit finalists will receive their visits during the week of October 17-23.
A “visit” sounds all quick and casual but a site visit is far from either. Examiners spend several days on site clarifying and verifying the information in the organization’s Baldrige application. They interview every subject matter expert they can corral and talk to any employees who cross their path. They come armed with questions and they will not be satisfied until all of them have been answered.
If you think that puts pressure on an organization, you’re right, but in my experience, the organizations that are qualified to win the Baldrige Award welcome the scrutiny. They are learning organizations and a site visit is a great learning opportunity. Sitting down with a skilled examiner who wants to understand how you do what you do is often an enlightening experience because it helps you take a more objective and systemic view of your…
6Oct2010 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedThe “New” Malcolm Baldrige Award
The Malcolm Baldrige Award is the new name of the Award, shortened by the Obama Administration and the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s Congressional oversight committee—and, yes, that’s a new name for the program as well. Gone is the word “quality,” not because the focus on quality has lessened but because more than quality is needed for an organization to excel.
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award came into being by act of Congress in 1987 at a time when the quality of many American products suffered by comparison to that of the Japanese. The criteria for the Award aligned with the teachings of great quality gurus like Deming and Juran. The goal was to improve quality so that American businesses would be more competitive.
Today, the Baldrige criteria address all of the elements that contribute to an organization’s success and sustainability, including quality, and are not limited to use by businesses. In fact, business accounted for just over 14% of this year’s Award applicants. Perhaps the new name will cause business leaders to consider Baldrige the latest, newest, coolest program and inspire them to give it a try. (I remain an optimist.)
The name change precedes changes to the Baldrige criteria that the…
5Oct2010 | Steve George | 2 comments | ContinuedMalcolm Baldrige
Today’s news that the governor of Nevada was hurt when he fell off a horse reminded me of how the Baldrige program got started. In 1981, Malcolm Baldrige was chairman and CEO of Scovill, which made consumer, housing, and industrial goods, when president-elect Ronald Reagan picked him to be the Secretary of Commerce. By all accounts, he was an effective leader, particularly on trade practices with the Soviet Union, China, and India. He led reform of the country’s antitrust laws and reduced the Commerce Department’s budget by more than 30% during his tenure. He was also one of Reagan’s closest friends.
Baldrige was an avid horseman, named Professional Rodeo Man of the Year in 1980 and enshrined in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1999. He was killed on July 25, 1987, when the horse he was riding fell on him.
Baldrige had been an advocate for quality management during a decade when Japanese manufacturers had become the global quality leaders. Throughout the 1980s, U.S. business executives, quality professionals, and political leaders had been meeting to try to figure out how to make U.S. manufacturing more competitive. The Japanese had a quality award, the Deming Prize, that recognized quality excellence. The…
22Sep2010 | Steve George | 0 comments | Continued16 Finalists for 2010 Baldrige Award
Sixteen organizations have been awarded site visits for the 2010 Baldrige Award including 2 in manufacturing, 1 in service, 4 in small business, 1 in education, 1 in nonprofit, and 7 in health care. This is the first year that at least one organization in all six categories has received a site visit.
The purpose of a site visit is to clarify and verify the organization’s application. A team of Baldrige examiners interviews subject matter experts at the organization and reviews documentation, including updated results. The team then submits its site visit report to the Panel of Judges, which nominates the Award winners. According to the Baldrige Web site, “examiners will provide 300 to 1,000 hours of review to each applicant receiving a site visit, and all applicants will receive a detailed report on the organization’s strengths and opportunities for improvement.”
- To find out more about how the Baldrige Award works, click here.
- To learn how a Baldrige application is scored, click here.
- To see how many organizations applied for this year’s Baldrige Award, click here.
- To understand why organizations apply for the Award (Hint: They get results), click here.
- To see what a Baldrige Award-winning application looks like, click here.
…
14Sep2010 | Steve George | 0 comments | Continued
