Baldrige National Quality Award

-- Background --

1. the leadership of the United States in product and process quality has been challenged strongly (and sometimes successfully) by foreign competition, and our Nation's productivity growth has improved less than our competitors' over the last two decades.


2. American business and industry are beginning to understand that poor quality costs companies as much as 20 percent of sales revenues nationally and that improved quality of goods and services goes hand in hand with improved productivity, lower costs, and increased profitability.


3. strategic planning for quality and quality improvement programs, through a commitment to excellence in manufacturing and services, are becoming more and more essential to the well-being of our Nation's economy and our ability to compete effectively in the global marketplace.


4. improved management understanding of the factory floor, worker involvement in quality, and greater emphasis on statistical process control can lead to dramatic improvements in the cost and quality of manufactured products.


5. the concept of quality improvement is directly applicable to small companies as well as large, to service industries as well as manufacturing, and to the public sector as well as private enterprise.


6. in order to be successful, quality improvement programs must be management-led and customer-oriented, and this may require fundamental changes in the way companies and agencies do business.


7. several major industrial nations have successfully coupled rigorous private-sector quality audits with national awards giving special recognition to those enterprises the audits identify as the very best; and


8. a national quality award program of this kind in the United States would help improve quality and productivity by:
   
   
   
   • helping to stimulate American companies to improve quality and productivity for the pride of recognition while obtaining a competitive edge through increased profits;
   
   
   • recognizing the achievements of those companies that improve the quality of their goods and services and providing an example to others;
   
   
   • establishing guidelines and criteria that can be used by business, industrial, governmental, and other organizations in evaluating their own quality improvement efforts; and
   
   
   • providing specific guidance for other American organizations that wish to learn how to manage for high quality by making available detailed information on how winning organizations were able to change their cultures and achieve eminence."
   
   
   
   See: http://www.quality.nist.gov/Improvement_Act.htm

   -- With C3 Inside --

   
   By David Rugg
   Evaluator of the President's Quality Award
   
   The Customer-Centered Culture (C3) Model is one of the best sets of concepts and tools I have seen that can help an organization actually implement the tenets of the Baldrige Criteria. This opinion is based on my work with the Baldrige criteria since 1993 in the following capacities:
   
   
   
   • As an evaluator for the President’s Quality Award process and a Federal Agency
   
   
   • As an advisor with the Minnesota Council for Quality in applying the Minnesota Quality Award process which is patterned after the Baldrige
   
   
   • As a practitioner of the criteria to drive the continuous improvement efforts of the United States Air Force Reserve
   
   
   
   
   The C3 Model’s concepts provide an implementation strategy that aligns with the Baldrige Program’s Criteria for Performance Excellence. The Model also supplies a tactical process for integrating many of the Baldrige National Quality Program Core Values into an organization. The Model has tools and techniques aligned with both of the main Baldrige system areas: the Leadership and Results Triads. In addition, implementation of the C3 Model aligns with other Baldrige elements by providing measurement processes that feed an organization’s Information and Analysis systems as well as their Strategy and Action Plans.
   
   The Baldrige core values are the foundation for integrating all aspects of an organization. The themes, principles, concepts and techniques of the C3 Model align with these core values and will provide a consistent approach that focuses on customers and produces meaningful results.
   
   The C3 Model is related to the Core Values and Triads in the following ways:
   
   
   
   • Customer Focus - Defining, segmenting and understanding customers are main aspects of the Baldrige criteria and a primary principle of the Model. This is achieved by applying the tools described in the C3 Model to answer the questions, “Who is the customer?” and “What do they want?”
   
   
   • Management by Fact & Visionary Leadership - Continuous understanding of customer expectations and learning from your customers is the next step. Again, the Model provides a very disciplined approach for not only determining expectations for all segments of customers but linking the organization’s products directly to the customer in a very measurable way. The alignment of customer expectations to product design and developing the right measures will enable an organization’s leaders to set directions and produce effective strategic and action plans.
   
   Agility - Having a clear understanding of your customers and the ability to determine what they want as their needs and expectations change is an important aspect of any organization. The processes described in the Model will enable the organization to continue to evolve with the customer.
   
   • Focus on Results - With customers’ expectations fully understood and strategy and action plans in place, products can be designed and delivered with clear definition and a focus on what creates value for the customer. Knowing what customers desire will lead an organization to measure what is important to both the customer and to the producing organization.
   
   
   • Create Value - The Model has specific steps that help an organization deliver value
     to customers. Processes and human resources can be applied in concert with the plans and expectations set by the organization’s leadership.
     
   
   
   • Managing for Innovation, Focus on the Future - A primary goal of the Baldrige criteria is to improve overall organizational effectiveness and capabilities. The Model supports this goal by applying the concepts of divergent thinking and continuously evaluating an organization’s products and their ability to achieve both producer and customer outcomes.