The Baldrige program analyzed the results of these five organizations to determine how much growth in sites, jobs, and revenue they achieved during the six- or seven-year period between their first and second Awards. To protect the proprietary nature of the data, the program focused on median growth, which is a conservative number, as explained by Harry Hertz, head of the Baldrige program, here.

As a group, the five businesses that won two Baldrige Awards grew significantly during the span between Awards:

• 67% growth in number of sites
• 63% growth in jobs
• 93% growth in revenue

It’s important to remember that these five organizations had to demonstrate impressive results to win their first Awards. They did not achieve this growth by resurrecting struggling companies but by building on their success integrating the Baldrige model. They started at the top and then they went even higher.

This is what any organization can expect if it rigorously deploys Baldrige. In my experience, the benefits start to accrue in the first year with new knowledge of how your management system works and what you need to improve to get results. Those results accelerate in subsequent years as strategies and actions are aligned, customers are satisfied, employees are engaged, and processes are continuously improved.

To read more about the five businesses that have won two Baldrige Awards, click here.

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

• Study Confirms: Baldrige Gets Results
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• Baldrige ROI at Cargill
• Tata: World-Class Baldrige Role Model
• Baldrige Gets Results
• 10 Steps to World Class

Cargill has an internal assessment program similar to what Tata has now and what Honeywell had in the 1990s, which I wrote about here. Two Cargill business units have won Baldrige Awards, one of them twice. According to the Baldrige program, “Cargill color-codes its businesses based upon their degree of deployment of the Baldrige Criteria. Gold represents businesses with a high degree of deployment; Blue represents businesses with partial deployment; and White represents businesses beginning the Baldrige journey.”

The chart clearly shows the benefit of integrating the Baldrige model, reaffirming the results achieved by Tata, Honeywell, and Baldrige Award winners. According to Jerry Rose, who has spearheaded the Baldrige effort at Cargill, “deciding to embrace the Baldrige program in your company is a commitment to a journey. It takes time, it takes dedication, and it takes resources. What I know for sure is that there is a huge return on your investment.”

To read more about integrating Baldrige to get the results you desire, click on these articles:

• Study Confirms: Baldrige Gets Results
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• Tata: World-Class Baldrige Role Model
• Baldrige Gets Results
• 10 Steps to World Class

The plant manager for Cargill Corn Milling was asked how his organization prioritizes the opportunities for improvement (OFIs) it gets from the Baldrige feedback and from Cargill’s Business Excellence process. He noted that they got a total of 131 OFIs from the 2008 feedback reports. Their leadership group used a priority matrix to rank the OFIs based on their importance to Cargill Corn Milling’s mission, vision, and purpose. They then decided to work on the top three OFIs this year.

For people new to Baldrige, a couple of things may be surprising about this. First is the fact that a Baldrige Award recipient got 131 OFIs. What you have to remember is that recipients typically score in the 650 to 750 point range. The missing 250-350 points are OFIs. There are no “perfect” organizations.

The second surprise is that, out of 131 OFIs, the organization is working on just three. I think that’s misleading. In my experience, improving performance on those top three OFIs will lead to improvement on several others. For example, addressing an OFI that questions how systematically you improve your work processes will also address all of the OFIs in other Categories that raised that issue for individual processes. Besides, no organization has the resources to tackle 131 problems and still conduct their daily business.

As all of the speakers stated, the Baldrige process is not about the Baldrige Award: It’s about continuous improvement. And that’s why they welcome their OFIs.

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It was ready. Despite having to remove and recondition 600 motors, 500 pumps, and more than 100 blowers, CCM was up and running in September and operating at full capacity in November—the same month it learned that it had received the Baldrige Award.

In “Watershed Moment” (Quality Progress, August 2009), CCM President Alan Willits credits his organization’s fast recovery to its process-oriented business culture. “We didn’t need to go back and ask how we were going to manage this project,” said Willits.” We had all the processes in place. We were simply able to use them to react to a very significant and difficult event.”

In the summary of its award-winning application, CCM describes how it uses its Best Practices Model to improve work processes. The model is a variation of Plan-Do-Check-Act or the DMAIC model that has four stages and nine steps:

• Plan: Identify opportunity / identify key measures / standardize measurement system / evaluate and identify best practices

• Evaluate: Document best practices / Implement best practices

• Analyze: Measure and communicate best practices / Audit best practice compliance

• Refine: Refine best practices

Through systematic deployment of its Best Practices Model, CCM achieved world-class results:

• Earnings after taxes tripled from 2003 to 2007
• CCM’s cost of doing business improved from 35% in 2005 to 30% in 2008
• CCM maintained an error-free delivery rate of 99% or above from 2005 to 2008
• From 2006 to 2008, CCM saved more than $15 million from employee-generated ideas
• Overall employee engagement increased from 37% to 65% from 2004 to 2008

To find out more about CCM’s Best Practices Model and the processes that have made it a business role model, read its complete award application summary.