7 | Results
Acknowledging Innovative Excellence – The City of Irving, Texas
It’s not every year that a city wins the Mac Baldrige Award; in fact, Irving is only the second to have ever done it. Part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Irving contains Las Colinas, one of the first master-planned developments in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Airport also falls within its 68 square miles. The city is over a hundred years old, but didn’t see much growth until the manufacturing, transportation, and finance industries moved in during the 1930s, opening the doors for huge organizations like Citigroup, Verizon, Nokia, Allstate, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, ExxonMobil, and Kimberly-Clark. In 2011, Irving was awarded the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, qualifying it for the big B.
So, how did they do it? Mayor Beth Van Duyne reached out for some extra help. Freese and Nichols, Inc. is a multi-discipline consulting firm that offers services in engineering, architecture, environmental science, planning, construction services, and program management. It doesn’t hurt that they are 2010 Baldrige Award recipients, and based out of Fort Worth, Texas. Freese and Nichols worked with Irving through their initial processes, helped review Irving’s application, practice for site visits, and did mock interviews with innumerable staff members in an effort to help make everyone on the city payroll to become more comfortable with the Baldrige Criteria. In addition, they shared best practices, and considering that F&N received the National and Tarrant …
26Feb2013 | Joseph A. De Feo | 0 comments | Continued
North Mississippi Health Services receives Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
Perhaps best known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley, Tupelo, Mississippi is situated in the northeast corner of the state, about halfway between Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama. However, there is something else in Tupelo that helping to keep up appearances these days, and that’s North Mississippi Health Services (NMHS). NMHS is a 650-bed referral center that holds the distinction of being the largest, private, not-for-profit hospital in Mississippi, and the largest non-metropolitan hospital in America. The center helps more than 700,000 people in 24 area counties.
Back in 2006, North Mississippi Medical Center received the Award as the flagship hospital of the NMHS system, which consists of five additional facilities. NMHS has not been slacking since then, and has been awarded yet another Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for their outstanding work in 2012.
An exceptionally strong focus on high standards results in better health outcomes. At North Mississippi Health Services, patient safety has led to zero central line-associated blood stream infections in its intensive care unit for two years. Slips, trips, and falls are below the National Database for Nursing Quality Indicators mean for both inpatient and long-term care settings across the system in fiscal year 2012. One facet of NMHS’ initiative is the “Ideas for Excellence” program, which is not dissimilar to what some of the big tech companies do with their employees to encourage innovation. Improvement …
3Dec2012 | Joseph A. De Feo | 0 comments | ContinuedLockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control win 2012 Baldrige Award
To date, more than 1,500 American organizations have applied for the Baldrige Award, and 93 organizations have received it. There are quality award programs in nearly every state that model themselves after the Baldrige criteria, and nearly 100 international programs that have done the same. A 2011 study estimated that Baldrige program’s benefit-to-cost ratio to U.S. businesses was 820:1. For the first time, Baldrige Award applicants were required to have previously received their state’s performance excellence award.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) designs, develops, manufactures, and supports advanced combat, missile, rocket, and sensor systems for the U.S. and foreign military. MFC is headquartered in Grand Prarie, Texas, and employs over 10,000 people producing more than 100 products in over 60 countries. The company is Lockheed Martin’s lead business for research, development, and protection of electro-optical and smart munitions systems. Lockheed Martin’s corporate net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.
This year, they have been honored with receiving the Baldrige Award. Some highlights from their award application have been selected below:
- ROI has grown at a 23% compound annual rate, faster than the industry-best competitor at 13.7%.
- From 2006 to 2011, annual orders from repeat customers have increased by 32% and international orders have increased by almost 400%.
- In 2011, close to 85% of employees said that they were proud to work for MFC, exceeding the national benchmark
…
Acknowledging Innovative Excellence – K&N Management
Can you imagine every fast food chain winning the Baldrige Award because of food quality, customer service, or innovative menus? Probably not. Why? Because most of them demonstrate it’s all about low price and average service. Well, here is an exception.
K&N Management was a 2010 recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and 2010 Texas Award for Performance Excellence. Their vision is “to become world famous by delighting one guest at a time.” As a restaurant management group, they were only the second of their kind to be recognized with a Baldrige Award. K&N operates out of Austin, Texas, and is the owner of Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries and Shakes, as well as Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q, with eight locations and approximately 500 staff members in total. With a dedication to concept design, operational excellence, and meeting or exceeding key guest requirements, K&N Management is certainly worth taking a second look at.
K&N was started by Ken Schiller and Brian Nolen in Austin back in 1993, with the goal of delighting every guest that walked through their doors. By the next year, they had purchased the rights to the Austin-area Rudy’s Country Store & Bar-B-Q franchise, and opened the first store: a combination gas station, convenience store, and restaurant that specializes in smoked meats. By 2005, three more franchise locations had been opened. In 2007, Schiller and …
10Oct2012 | Joseph A. De Feo | 1 comment | ContinuedAmes Rubber – Still Bouncing Along
Back in 1993, Ames Rubber Corporation was the small business category recipient of the Mac Baldrige Quality Award. Founded in 1949, Ames was experiencing annual sales of about $45-50 million around the time they won. These were primarily sales of rubber rollers that feed paper into printers, copiers, and typewriters, but they were also producing highly specialized parts to protect the trans-axle of front-wheel-drive vehicles. The company is incredibly focused on customer satisfaction; the entire organizational strategy is designed to ensure that the customer is driving business. For example, all of the company’s products are made to order to customer design and specification.
At the time, Xerox was Ames’ prime customer, and then-President Joel Marvil knew that Xerox was transforming themselves with a new concept, “Leadership Through Quality.” Ames decided to undertake a similar effort, brought in Xerox for help with training, and executed their “Excellence through Total Quality” program. By the time their training effort was completed a year later, over 17,000 training hours had been undertaken by the organization, successfully prepping them for a new challenge. Two strategy guides were developed: a nine-step Quality Improvement Process, and a six-step Problem-Solving Process.
Pareto charts helped to isolate and track the company’s greatest problems, and tracking systems were developed to monitor defects throughout the production lines. For Xerox, Ames’ largest customer, the defect rate dropped from over 30,000 parts …
25Jul2012 | Tom Huizenga | 0 comments | ContinuedHow ST Microelectronics Maintains their Edge
Awards, rankings, and scores have long been a means to recognize performance. That performance is driven by motivation; the tangible inspiration that can takes its shape in a framed employee-of-the-month certificate on the wall of a twenty-seventh-floor cubical. Motivation for recognition is what drives employees and executives of companies big and small. Honors keep ambition fresh; they give people something to shoot for. But, it is important for recipients of impressive merit to preserve their worthy reputation––even if down the road, they experience recipient-replacement, over and over.
Thirteen years ago, ST Microelectronics earned the Malcolm Baldrige award for their excellence in manufacturing quality, and since then, the company has yet to reclaim it. Despite dusty traces on their quality credential, ST has been doing remarkably well, financially, having nearly doubled their 2010 revenue last year ($353 to $638 million). Sure, handfuls of companies prosper financially without adherence to quality-excellence––why might ST’s success still have a connection to the Baldrige Criteria?
In a world where smart phones are becoming nearly essential to professional and social life (some may argue for safety, too) there seems to be this (semi)permanent opportunity––in some ways, obligation––for services and providers to constantly improve the make-up of tabs, pads, phones, and computers. That is to say, technology is constantly evolving and improving to a degree where consumers have become experts on a subject that seemed so new …
5Jul2012 | Tom Huizenga | 0 comments | ContinuedAcknowledging Innovative Excellence – Sharp HealthCare
The status of past Baldrige Award recipients can help guide our attention to where health care should be and what can be done to keep patient satisfaction an active practice. While constantly factoring in the core concerns of their patients, it is no wonder why Sharp Healthcare is globally recognized for their superior programs. Although the provider based in San Diego is the largest source for health care in their region, it is the level of commitment to their patients’ needs that landed them in the position to receive the 2007 Baldrige Award. But what exactly does it mean to respond to “the current levels and trends in key measure indicators of product and process performance that are important and directly serve your customers,” that qualifies health care providers for this award, according to section 7.1 of the Baldrige criteria? Sharp Healthcare generated positive answers, and when continuing to look at “how the results compared with the performance of [their] competitors” their programs appear to be a model for prioritizing patients’ needs. Their current efforts in fighting cardiovascular disease exemplify their commitment to their recognized efforts.
Sharp Healthcare’s goal is to help patients avoid high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease––cardiovascular complications. While these diseases are highly preventable and treatable when detected early, it is no wonder why cardiovascular disease is such a major problem; recognizing …
31May2012 | Tom Huizenga | 0 comments | Continued
