- Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
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The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recognizes U.S. organizations in the business, health care, education, and nonprofit sectors for performance excellence. The Baldrige Award is the only formal recognition of the performance excellence of both public and private U.S. organizations given by the President of the United States. It is administered by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, which is based at and managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Up to 18 awards may be given annually across six eligibility categories—manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care, and nonprofit. As of 2010, 91 organizations had received the award.
The Baldrige National Quality Program and the associated award were established by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act of 1987 (Public Law 100–107). The program and award were named for Malcolm Baldrige, who served as United States Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan administration, from 1981 until Baldrige’s 1987 death in a rodeo accident. In 2010, the program's name was changed to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program to reflect the evolution of the field of quality from a focus on product, service, and customer quality to a broader, strategic focus on overall organizational quality—called performance excellence.[1]
The award promotes awareness of performance excellence as an increasingly important element in competitiveness. It also promotes the sharing of successful performance strategies and the benefits derived from using these strategies. To receive a Baldrige Award, an organization must have a role-model organizational management system that ensures continuous improvement in delivering products and/or services, demonstrates efficient and effective operations, and provides a way of engaging and responding to customers and other stakeholders. The award is not given for specific products or services.
Contents
Criteria for Performance Excellence
The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence serve two main purposes: (1) to identify Baldrige Award recipients that will serve as role models for other organizations and (2) to help organizations assess their improvement efforts, diagnose their overall performance management system, and identify their strengths and opportunities for improvement. In addition, the Criteria help strengthen U.S. competitiveness by
- improving organizational performance practices, capabilities, and results
- facilitating communication and sharing of information on best practices among U.S. organizations of all types
- serving as a tool for understanding and managing performance and for guiding planning and opportunities for learning
The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence provide organizations with an integrated approach to performance management that results in
- delivery of ever-improving value to customers and stakeholders, contributing to organizational sustainability
- improved organizational effectiveness and capabilities
- organizational and personal learning
The following three sector-specific versions of the Criteria, which are revised every two years, are available for free from the Baldrige Program:
- Criteria for Performance Excellence
- Education Criteria for Performance Excellence
- Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence
Early History of the Baldrige Program
- In the early and mid-1980s, many U.S. industry and government leaders saw that a renewed emphasis on quality was necessary for doing business in an ever-expanding and more competitive world market. But many U.S. businesses either did not believe quality mattered for them or did not know where to begin.
- The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act of 1987, signed into law on August 20, 1987, was developed through the actions of the National Productivity Advisory Committee, chaired by Jack Grayson. The nonprofit research organization APQC, founded by Grayson, organized the first White House Conference on Productivity, spearheading the creation of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1987. The Baldrige Award was envisioned as a standard of excellence that would help U.S. organizations achieve world-class quality.
- In the late summer and fall of 1987, Dr. Curt Reimann, the first director of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program, and his staff at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed an award implementation framework, including an evaluation scheme, and advanced proposals for what is now the Baldrige Award.
- In its first three years, the Baldrige Award was jointly administered by APQC and the American Society for Quality, which continues to assist in administering the award program under contract to NIST.
Program Impacts
- According to Building on Baldrige: American Quality for the 21st Century by the private Council on Competitiveness, “More than any other program, the Baldrige Quality Award is responsible for making quality a national priority and disseminating best practices across the United States.”
- The Baldrige Program's net private benefits to the economy as a whole were conservatively estimated at $24.65 billion. When compared to the program's social costs of $119 million, the program’s social benefit-to-cost ratio was 207-to-1.[2]
- In 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, Leadership Excellence magazine placed the Baldrige Program in the top 10 best government/military leadership programs in the United States based on seven criteria: vision/mission, involvement/participation, accountability/measurement, content/curriculum, presenters/presentations, take-home value/results for customers, and outreach of the programs and products.
- Since the program’s inception in 1987, more than 2 million copies of the business/nonprofit, education, and health care versions of the Criteria for Performance Excellence have been distributed to individuals and organizations in the United States and abroad. In 2010, more than 2.1 million copies of the Criteria were accessed or downloaded from the Baldrige Web site.
Public-Private Partnership
The Baldrige Award is supported by a distinctive public-private partnership. The following organizations and entities play a key role:
- The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award raises funds to permanently endow the award program.
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, manages the Baldrige Program.
- The American Society for Quality (ASQ) assists in administering the award program under contract to NIST.
- The Board of Overseers advises the Department of Commerce on the Baldrige Program.
- Members of the Board of Examiners—consisting of leading experts from U.S. businesses and education, health care, and nonprofit organizations—volunteer their time to evaluate award applications and prepare feedback reports for applicant organizations. Board members also share information about the program in their professional, trade, community, and state organizations. The Panel of Judges, part of the Board of Examiners, makes award recommendations to the director of NIST.
- The network of state, regional, and local Baldrige-based award programs known as the Alliance for Performance Excellence provides potential award applicants and examiners, promotes the use of the Criteria, and disseminates information on the award process and concepts.
- Award recipients share information on their successful performance and quality strategies with other U.S. organizations.
Baldrige Award Recipients
Year Award Recipient Sector 2010 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 2009 Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, Kansas City, MO manufacturing MidwayUSA, Columbia, MO small business AtlantiCare, Egg Harbor Township, NJ health care Heartland Health, St. Joseph, MO health care VA Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center, Albuquerque, NM nonprofit 2008 Cargill Corn Milling North America, Wayzata, MN manufacturing Poudre Valley Health System, Fort Collins, CO health care Iredell-Statesville Schools, Statesville, NC education 2007 PRO-TEC Coating Co., Leipsic, OH small business Mercy Health System, Janesville, WI health care Sharp Healthcare, San Diego, CA health care City of Coral Springs, Coral Springs, FL nonprofit U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), Picatinny Arsenal, NJ nonprofit 2006 MESA Products, Inc., Tulsa, OK small business Premier Inc., San Diego, CA service North Mississippi Medical Center, Tupelo, MS health care 2005 Sunny Fresh Foods, Inc., Monticello, MN manufacturing DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations, New Orleans, LA service Park Place Lexus, Plano, TX small business Richland College, Dallas, TX education Jenks Public Schools, Jenks, OK education Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, MI health care 2004 The Bama Companies, Tulsa, OK manufacturing Texas Nameplate Company, Inc., Dallas, TX small business Kenneth W. Monfort College of Business, Greeley, CO education Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, Hamilton, NJ health care 2003 Medrad, Inc., Indianola, PA manufacturing Boeing Aerospace Support, St. Louis, MO service Caterpillar Financial Services Corp., Nashville, TN service Stoner Inc., Quarryville, PA small business Community Consolidated School District 15, Palatine, IL education Baptist Hospital, Inc., Pensacola, FL health care Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Kansas City, MO health care 2002 Motorola Inc. Commercial, Government and Industrial Solutions Sector, Schaumburg, IL manufacturing Branch-Smith Printing Division, Fort Worth, TX small business SSM Health Care, St. Louis, MO health care 2001 Clarke American Checks, Incorporated, San Antonio, TX manufacturing Pal’s Sudden Service, Kingsport, TN small business Chugach School District, Anchorage, AK education Pearl River School District, Pearl River, NY education University of Wisconsin–Stout, Menomonie, WI education 2000 Dana Corp.-Spicer Driveshaft Division, Toledo, OH manufacturing KARLEE Company, Inc., Garland, TX manufacturing Operations Management International, Inc., Greenwood Village, CO service Los Alamos National Bank, Los Alamos, NM small business 1999 STMicroelectronics, Inc.-Region Americas, Carrollton, TX manufacturing BI Performance Services, Minneapolis, MN service The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., Atlanta, GA service Sunny Fresh Foods, Monticello, MN small business 1998 Boeing Airlift and Tanker Programs, Long Beach, CA manufacturing Solar Turbines Inc., San Diego, CA manufacturing Texas Nameplate Company, Inc., Dallas, TX small business 1997 3M Dental Products Division, St. Paul, MN manufacturing Solectron Corp., Milpitas, CA manufacturing Merrill Lynch Credit Corp., Jacksonville, FL service Xerox Business Services, Rochester, NY service 1996 ADAC Laboratories, Milpitas, CA manufacturing Dana Commercial Credit Corp., Toledo, OH service Custom Research Inc., Minneapolis, MN small business Trident Precision Manufacturing Inc., Webster, NY small business 1995 Armstrong World Industries’ Building Products Operation, Lancaster, PA manufacturing Corning Telecommunications Products Division, Corning, NY manufacturing 1994 AT&T Consumer Communications Services, Basking Ridge, NJ service GTE Directories Corp., Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX service Wainwright Industries Inc., St. Peters, MO small business 1993 Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, TN manufacturing Ames Rubber Corp., Hamburg, NJ small business 1992 AT&T Network Systems Group/Transmission Systems Business Unit, Morristown, NJ manufacturing Texas Instruments Inc. Defense Systems & Electronics Group, Dallas, TX manufacturing AT&T Universal Card Services, Jacksonville, FL service The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., Atlanta, GA service Granite Rock Co., Watsonville, CA small business 1991 Solectron Corp., Milpitas, CA manufacturing Zytec Corp., Eden Prairie, MN manufacturing Marlow Industries, Dallas, TX small business 1990 Cadillac Motor Car Division, Detroit, MI manufacturing IBM Rochester, Rochester, MN manufacturing Federal Express Corp., Memphis, TN service Wallace Co. Inc., Houston, TX small business 1989 Milliken & Co., Spartanburg, SC manufacturing Xerox Corp. Business Products and Systems, Rochester, NY manufacturing 1988 Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, IL manufacturing Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division of Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA manufacturing Globe Metallurgical Inc., Beverly, OH small business See also
- President’s Quality Award
References
- ^ "Baldrige Program Name Change Emphasizes Performance Excellence," 10/5/2010.
- ^ Albert N. Link and John T. Scott, Economic Evaluation of the Baldrige National Quality Program, NIST Planning Report 01-3, October 2001.
Categories:- Production and manufacturing
- Quality
- Total Quality Management
- Business and industry awards
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