Baldrige Winners - 1999

[Marc]

STMicroelectronics, Region Americas (manufacturing), BI of Minneapolis (service), Ritz-Carlton hotel of Atlanta (service), Sunny Fresh Foods (small business).

[Marc]

It's been a long time. I was reading this: http://www.qualitydigest.com/currentmag/news.shtml#6 (NOTE: This link will die at the next issue.)

I invite your comments. ISO 9001 is mostly what we seem to talk about when Baldrige is still 'with us'. What is the role of the Baldrige today vis a vis ISO 9001? Why one and not the other? Which 'makes the most sense'?

The 2003 recipients are Medrad Inc. of Indianola, Pennsylvania (manufacturing); Boeing Aerospace Support of St. Louis (service); Caterpillar Financial Services Corp. of Nashville, Tennessee (service); Stoner Inc. of Quarryville, Pennsylvania (small business); Community Consolidated School District 15 of Palatine, Illinois (education); Baptist Hospital Inc. of Pensacola, Florida (health care); and Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Missouri (health care).

[Tom W]

IMHO there are a lot of companies that can, will, or already have ISO. However, to obtain the Baldrige Award you obviously need to go the extra mile or two. Many companies know about ISO because their customers requested it or some other similar case. The Baldrige process is truly only known by a limited number of people, primarily quality professionals and that limits its exposure to the Top Management.

Does either really increase your bottom line? ISO might impact a company more, because it is required most of the time by key customers. So it may have a direct result on sales. The Baldrige is more of a prestige / marketing award. Some might even be afraid of the Baldrige process and the level within an organization you need to achieve and maintain.

Money also drives this topic. It is not cheap to apply for the Baldrige, especially when you don't find customers requiring you to get it.

Just my thoughts.

[Rob Nix]

IMHO, If a company, large or small, decides it wants the Baldrige award, it is almost always because the chief executive is passionate about it, and has the drive to make it happen because the long term financial benefits are clearly perceived. In that environment, you will naturally have a strong and effective QMS - whether it resembles ISO-9001 or not.

If you do not have that passion and support from the top, you should not even consider Baldrige, but you should still do your best to implement a QMS that works for the company - and ISO-9001 is a good framework.

[Wes Bucey]

Originally Posted by Rob Nix

IMHO, If a company, large or small, decides it wants the Baldrige award, it is almost always because the chief executive is passionate about it, and has the drive to make it happen because the long term financial benefits are clearly perceived. In that environment, you will naturally have a strong and effective QMS - whether it resembles ISO-9001 or not.

If you do not have that passion and support from the top, you should not even consider Baldrige, but you should still do your best to implement a QMS that works for the company - and ISO-9001 is a good framework.

I think Rob is on the money here. Let me go further by saying, "Baldrige MUST start from the top down!" No one at any lower level can initiate a Baldrige award process, even though the fees are relatively small compared to 3rd party registration to ISO. (application fees range from $500 to $5,000)

It might be interesting to read a brochure of past winners' comments:
http://www.quality.nist.gov/PDF_files/Why_Apply.pdf

Here's an interesting pertinent quote from the NIST site:
"Are organizations simply chasing after the award and ignoring the lessons of performance improvement?
The perception by some that receiving the award is the goal of U.S. organizations is not supported by the facts. Says Earnest Deavenport, chairman and chief executive officer of Eastman Chemical Company, “Eastman, like other Baldrige Award winners, didn’t apply the concepts of total quality management to win an award. We did it to win customers. We did it to grow. We did it to prosper and to remain competitive in a world marketplace.” Thousands of organizations are using Baldrige Award performance excellence criteria to assess their organization and to improve. The program has helped to stimulate an amazing movement to improve U.S. organizations, including companies; academic institutions; and federal, state, and local government agencies.
If this is a federal government program, why are organizations charged a fee to apply?
Federal funding for this program is about $5 million annually and is used by NIST to manage the program. The application fees are charged to cover expenses associated with distribution and review of applications and development of feedback reports. The application and review process is considered to be a very cost-effective and comprehensive business health audit. For an application fee ranging from $5,000 for large organizations to $500 for non-profit education institutions, organizations receive at least 300 hours of review by a minimum of eight business and quality experts. Site-visited organizations receive over 1,000 hours of in-depth review. Every applicant receives an extensive feedback report highlighting strengths and areas to improve. An article in the Journal for Quality and Participation said, “The Baldrige feedback report is arguably the best bargain in consulting in America.”

[Tom W]

Looking through the new catalog for the Baldrige Award it reflects a lot high prices than quoted above. Fees for just applying range from $500.00 to $5000.00; however the one site visits range from $1500.00 to $35000.00 depending on type of business and number of personnel. Page 63 in the "Criteria for Performance Excellence 2004" lists out the fees and costs. (Follow Marc's link).

The total cost might still be lower than ISO registration over a three year period, but not just for the initial registration. Isin't the comment that TOP MANAGEMENT has to drive this the samething we say about ISO and TS and things similar?

The fact is the Baldrige looks at the entire business performance in greater detail than ISO or TS. On a lesser scale TS is moving this direction, but Baldrige is still more indepth. JMHO.