The quote comes from a report by Accenture on the results of a Web-based survey completed by 178 companies in the US, UK, and Germany. The authors could have been advocates for Baldrige: Companies that have integrated Baldrige have shown that combining the right operating model with superior execution delivers world-class results.

A key reason for that is that Baldrige does not allow you to ignore the role of process. The Baldrige model is a process model. Integrating it compels leaders, managers, and all employees to identify their key processes, understand those processes’ requirements, and design, manage, and improve their processes to deliver results, which include value to their customers.

The authors of the report, David Toth and Hundley Elliotte, suggest four steps to improve process performance:

• Link strategy with execution. Identify which processes differentiate your company from your competitors and work on understanding and improving those processes first.

• Eliminate unnecessary complexity. The authors target three fronts: (1) duplication across business units (i.e., HR functions in every channel); (2) a bloated product portfolio; and, (3) processes hampered by multiple handoffs and overwhelming volumes of reporting.

• Transform the right way. “Some 80% of an organization’s processes are core to supporting execution—and standardizing them can cut operating costs by close to 10%.” Transforming processes means addressing both structure and execution, both the design or redesign of the process to eliminate waste and improve cycle time and quality and the consistent execution of the more efficient process.

• Sustain process improvement. This requires “a formalized process improvement capability in the workforce; an appropriate structure to guide employees’ efforts, maintain competency, and track value; and the right technology to monitor progress.”

Companies that integrate Baldrige address all four of these steps. They have identified their core competencies and key work processes. They have simplified their processes, products, and reporting. They have streamlined processes and improved consistency to transform their processes. And they have sustained process improvement, as evident in the improvements they have made on the key process performance measures they track.

The Baldrige model is a process model. Integrating Baldrige helps companies become winners in good times and bad.

To read more about process management, click on these articles:

• Smart Question #1: What’s the Process
• The Benefits of Process Thinking
• Baldrige and Process Improvement
• What Process-Centered Looks Like
• Make Change Happen: 10 Questions

1. Have we set clear and high targets? Will the target cause us to change our behavior?
2. Have we provided education/training to all involved in designing or improving the process? Are we over-communicating the “why” behind the intended behavior or improvement?
3. Has leadership made it clear that the behavior or new/improved process is mandatory, not optional? Studer Group research of over 2000 healthcare leaders indicates that when you use the word MANDATORY, 98% of employees understand that they MUST do the behavior (or follow the process). When you use the word REQUIRED, only 68% recognize that they MUST do it, and when you use the word EXPECTED, only 26% understand that they must do it. So be clear: This is mandatory!
4. Are leaders being role models of the desired behavior? Not modeling it gives employees permission not to follow it either.
5. Have we practiced behavior using role-play?
6. Do we have a good measure of success?
7. Can we report results of the verification of success transparently? Transparency reveals who is succeeding and who needs to improve.
8. Are we giving positive feedback when we see the behavior done correctly? Research shows that recognized behavior gets repeated.
9. Do we correct poor performance quickly and on the spot, if necessary?
10. Are there consequences for noncompliance, up to and including termination? Either you’re on the bus or you’re not. Some people will not change their behavior unless you tell them the consequences of noncompliance and they know you mean it.

To read more about making change happen, click on these articles:

• Is Baldrige Right for Your Organization?
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• Baldrige Model: How do you implement your strategy?
• Go to the Gemba
• Making Change Happen

The client was in the United Kingdom. Here’s a synopsis of how Firstsource tackled the problem:

1. It used data to define the problem: Over a nine-week period, the client offered mortgage loans in 14 days or less 69% of the time, well short of the 75% target.
2. A financial benefit estimation exercise determined that improving performance on TAT to 80% would increase revenue by six million pounds annually, create a more efficient process, and provide faster service to applicants.
3. Firstsource formed a team to improve TAT. The team received training on the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology and quality tools.
4. The team started with a supplier-inputs-process-outputs-customer (SIPOC) exercise to create a high-level process map and identify stakeholders.
5. The team produced a three-stage analysis road map to assess the current situation and identify possible root causes and improvement activities. It used the road map to agree on five causes of the longer TAT.
6. The team brainstormed possible solutions and then assigned a relative rating for each solution to eliminate half of the original possibilities.
7. The team validated the impact of the solutions through a one-week pilot study with a metrics dashboard that was shared with all stakeholders involved in developing solutions. Based on their feedback, the team decided to proceed with full implementation.
8. The team used PDCA to roll out the solutions, which were grouped into three areas: process changes, automation, and performance management.
9. As a result of the improvement project, TAT improved from 69% to 83%, producing additional revenue of 6.9 million pounds and improving the application-to-loan conversion ration by 1.4%.
10. Customer satisfaction ratings rose 17% from pre- to post-project.
11. The projects’ findings were replicated in other areas of the client’s business, resulting in an additional half-million pounds in revenue.
12. The team introduced a three-prong approach to sustain performance: (1) real-time process management systems to provide performance data on all root causes; (2) process controls for standard operating procedures; and, (3) a skill-evaluation matrix for assessing and responding to training needs.

To read more about process improvement, click on these articles:

• Smart Question #1: What’s the Process?
• Baldrige and Process Improvement
• Go to the Gemba
• What Process-Centered Looks Like
• Keys to Successful Process Improvement

The observation was made by James Womack at IndustryWeek’s Best Plants conference earlier this month. You can read IndustryWeek’s article about it here. Womack is the author of books on lean and the Toyota Production System. His latest book, Gemba Walks, was the subject of his conference speech.

Gemba is a Japanese term that means “the actual place.” For an organization, it means the place where the real action occurs, where products are built or services performed. A gemba walk is a “management practice to grasp the situation before taking action,” Womack said.

How do you do it? According to Womack, you select a value stream, gather all the managers from all the vertical functions that touch the value stream, and then walk together along the value stream, talking to the people who are working it about its purpose and the process.

Womack encourages CEOs and COOs to participate in the gemba walk along with customers, suppliers, and value-stream leaders, but the primary participants are those responsible for the value stream and those whose roles directly touch it.

The goal is to gain a clear understanding of the value stream, including those places where the process is inefficient or ineffective, before taking action to improve it. Once improvements are underway, the next gemba walk can provide support for the changes, observe the impact of those improvements, and identify new opportunities.

“You don’t learn by sitting in a conference room or an office,” said Womack. “Go out to the gemba.”

To read more about process improvement, click on these articles:

• Smart Question #1: What’s the Process?
• Baldrige and Process Improvement
• What Process-Centered Looks Like
• Keys to Successful Process Improvement
• Improving Processes through Observation

This excerpt from Montgomery County Public Schools’ 2010 Baldrige Award-winning application could describe every Baldrige Award winner. All are process centered. A great example of what it means to be process-centered can be found in MCPS’s Road Map to Process Management and Improvement and Knowledge Management, which you can view by clicking on the title of this article or on the blue “Continued” below.

At MCPS, every office, department, and division has identified its key processes, mapped them, used a systematic and systemic model (IGOE: inputs, guides, outputs, and enablers) to identify interrelationships and interdependencies of key processes and staff, and determined how to measure process effectiveness. You can read more about IGOE and process management at MCPS in its application summary here.

All key processes have in-process measures that monitor quality such as rework and errors. And no, MCPS is not a manufacturer: It’s a school system, even though its approaches to process management sound like those of a well-run business. If rework and errors continue, a process team determines which improvement method of PDSA (plan/do/study/act) is appropriate: Lean, Six Sigma, or project management.

In its response to Item 7.5, Process-Effectiveness Outcomes, MCPS provides a one-and-a-half page table that lists its key processes, process requirements, and process improvement results. It’s not an ideal response because it doesn’t show trends, but it is certainly comprehensive, and its trends must have been just fine because it passed its site visit.

You can see the list of processes and results on pages 47 and 48 of the MCPS application, which you will find here. To read more about Baldrige and education, hover over the “Sector” tab at the top of this page and then click on “Education.”

They are excuses for avoiding accountability and continuous improvement. I know this because Freese and Nichols, Inc., (FNI), a 2010 Baldrige Award winner, proves them wrong.

FNI is a small business that provides engineering, architecture, environmental science, planning, and construction services. It grew revenue by 12 to 16% every year for the past four years. Each of its projects is unique, yet it has developed systematic approaches for meeting its customers’ requirements.

The PM Steering Committee is responsible for the project management process, which includes managing work assignments, schedules, and budgets for each projects. Each Technical Excellence Program (TEP) team is responsible for procedures related to technical discipline, which are the tasks executed by individual engineers to create project deliverables.

All client projects are executed through FNI’s project management processes. FNI’s application summary includes a table on page 32 that shows how the company manages project delivery to meet key requirements.

TEP teams create tools, checklists, and references to reduce project time and improve project quality. “Because each project is different, the engineering procedures are designed and documented as discrete tasks to be assembled as needed,” the application summary states. Each TEP team has its own intranet site with standard documentation categories:

• Methodologies – Design standards (templates) to be used for commonly required tasks.
• Tools – Instructions for using software tools to determine specifications of various components of the design.
• References – Citations of state and federal publications with regulations and legislation related to this discipline.
• QC Checklists – Procedure checklists that are used by the engineers in their design work and by senior staff in conducting QC reviews.
• Coaches List – List of senior staff who are experts in various aspects of this discipline and are available to advise.
• Suggested Training – Technical seminars and conferences for each grade of engineer for this discipline, used to develop training plans for individual development plans.

FNI has demonstrated that the Baldrige model is not only relevant for any type of organization, but it can help them excel.

To read more about FNI and the other Baldrige Award winners, click here.

To read more about integrating the Baldrige model, click on these articles:

• How to Integrate Baldrige
• Baldrige Gets Results
• Learn from the Best: Application Summaries
• 10 Steps to an Effective Baldrige Assessment

A few years ago, I co-authored a white paper outlining The Three Keys to Six Sigma Success.  The paper concluded that, by focusing on the key principles of project selection, securing executive support, and executing the DMAIC method, quality practitioners could increase their overall project success rate. This is proven to be true time and again.

I know what you’re thinking: “OK, but these principles are neither ground-breaking nor new”—and you’d be correct. But what was fairly new at the time was Minitab’s process improvement software, Quality Companion. The all-in-one application supports continuous improvement activities across different levels of a quality program as well as many stages of improvement projects. By summarizing our voice of the customer research into a white paper, we were able to easily draw parallels between the keys for success and Companion’s features, tools, and forms.

Since then, Quality Companion has been updated with Lean Six Sigma support features, including Value Stream Mapping, and its user community continues to grow as does Minitab’s plans for ongoing software enhancements.

So, now you’re probably thinking: “Why is she writing about Lean and Six Sigma on a website that’s focused on Baldrige?”

Because, at their core, Lean, Six Sigma, and the Baldrige model are all systematic approaches to performance excellence. Regardless of the methodology in which you’re currently engaged, Companion can help you build on that systematic approach and improve how you manage projects. I suggest that you owe it to yourself to find out more.

Click the “See It. Improve It.” button on the right to discover why so many quality practitioners use Minitab to analyze their data and use Quality Companion for everything else.   Be sure to download a free 30-day trial of Companion, watch a few videos in the Minitab Theater, and sign up for free webinars.