Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

In 1987, jumpstarting a small, slowly growing U.S. quality movement, Congress established the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award to promote quality awareness, to recognize quality and business achievements of U.S. organizations, and to publicize these organizations’ successful performance strategies. Now considered America’s highest honor for performance excellence, the Baldrige Award is presented annually to U.S. organizations by the President of the United States. Awards are given in manufacturing, service, small business, and, starting in 1999, education and health care. In conjunction with the private sector, the National Institute of Standards and Technology designed and manages the award and the Baldrige National Quality Program.

Application process To apply for the award, organizations must submit details showing their achievements and improvements in seven key areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and results. Applicants receive 300 to 1,000 hours of review and a detailed report on the organization’s strengths and opportunities for improvement by an independent board of examiners. “The application and review process for the award is the best, most cost-effective, and comprehensive business health audit you can get,” said Arnold Weimerskirch, former Baldrige Award judge and vice president of quality, Honeywell, Inc.

Program impact Since the first awards were presented in 1988, the Baldrige National Quality Program has grown in stature and impact. Today, the Baldrige program, the award’s criteria for performance excellence, and the Baldrige award recipients are imitated and admired worldwide.

In particular, the Baldrige criteria for performance excellence have played a valuable role in helping US organizations improve. The criteria are designed to help organizations improve their performance by focusing on two goals: delivering ever improving value to customers and improving the organization’s overall performance. Approximately 2 million copies of the criteria have been distributed since 1988, and wide-scale reproduction by organizations and electronic access add to that number significantly. Gordon Black, chairman and chief executive officer of Harris/Black International Ltd., said the publication containing the Baldrige criteria for performance excellence is “probably the single most influential document in the modern history of American business.”

Following are some of the program’s highlights:

• For the eighth year in a row, a hypothetical stock index, made up of publicly traded US companies that have received the Baldrige Award, has outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500. This year, the “Baldrige Index” outperformed the S&P 500 by 4.4 to 1.
• State and local quality programs, most modeled after the Baldrige program, have grown from fewer than 10 in 1991 to 54 programs in 44 states.
• Internationally, nearly 60 quality programs are operating. Most are modeled after the Baldrige program, including one established in Japan in 1996.
• Since 1988, 871 applications have been submitted for the Baldrige Award from a wide variety of types and sizes of organizations.

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Winners

2003Medrad, Inc., Indianola, Pa. (manufacturing) Boeing Aerospace Support, St. Louis, Mo. (service) Caterpillar Financial Services Corp., Nashville, Tenn. (service) Stoner Inc., Quarryville, Pa. (small business) Community Consolidated School District 15, Palatine, Ill. (education) Baptist Hospital, Inc., Pensacola, Fla. (health care) Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo. (health care)

2002 Motorola Inc. Commercial, Government and Industrial Solutions Sector Schaumburg, Ill. (manufacturing)

Branch-Smith Printing Division Fort Worth, Texas (small business)

SSM Health Care St. Louis, Mo. (health care)

2001 Clarke American Checks, Incorporated San Antonio, Texas (manufacturing)

Pal’s Sudden Service Kingsport, Tenn. (small business)

Chugach School District Anchorage, Alaska (education)

Pearl River School District Pearl River, N.Y. (education)

University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, Wis. (education)

2000 Dana Corp.-Spicer Driveshaft Division Toledo, Ohio (manufacturing)

KARLEE Company, Inc. Garland, Texas (manufacturing)

Operations Management International, Inc. Greenwood Village, Colo. (service)

Los Alamos National Bank Los Alamos, N.M. (small business)

1999 STMicroelectronics, Inc.-Region Americas Carrollton, Texas (manufacturing)

BI Performance Services Minneapolis, Minn. (service)

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. Atlanta, Ga. (service)

Sunny Fresh Foods Monticello, Minn. (small business)

1998 Boeing Airlift and Tanker Programs Long Beach, Calif. (manufacturing)

Solar Turbines Inc. San Diego, Calif. (manufacturing)

Texas Nameplate Company Inc. Dallas, Texas (small business)

1997 3M Dental Products Division St. Paul, Minn. (manufacturing)

Solectron Corp. Milpitas, Calif. (manufacturing)

Merrill Lynch Credit Corp. Jacksonville, Fla. (service)

Xerox Business Services Rochester, NY (service)

1996 ADAC Laboratories Milpitas, Calif. (manufacturing)

Dana Commercial Credit Corp. Toledo, Ohio (service)

Custom Research Inc. Minneapolis, Minn. (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, N.J. (service)

GTE Directories Corp. Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas (service)

Wainwright Industries Inc. St. Peters, Mo. (small business)

1993 Eastman Chemical Co. Kingsport, Tenn. (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, Texas (manufacturing)

AT&T Universal Card Services Jacksonville, Fla. (service)

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. Atlanta, Ga. (service)

Granite Rock Co. Watsonville, Calif. (small business)

1991 Solectron Corp. Milpitas, Calif. (manufacturing)

Zytec Corp. Eden Prairie, Minn. (manufacturing)

Marlow Industries Dallas, Texas (small business) 1990 Cadillac Motor Car Division Detroit, Mich. (manufacturing)

IBM Rochester Rochester, Minn. (manufacturing)

Federal Express Corp. Memphis, Tenn. (service)

Wallace Co. Inc. Houston, Texas (small business)

1989 Milliken & Co. Spartanburg, S.C. (manufacturing)

Xerox Corp. Business Products and Systems Rochester, NY (manufacturing)

1988 Motorola Inc. Schaumburg, Ill. (Manufacturing)

Commercial Nuclear Fuel Division of Westinghouse Electric Corp. Pittsburgh, Pa. (manufacturing)

Globe Metallurgical Inc. Beverly, Ohio (small business)

Medrad, Inc., Indianola, Pa. (manufacturing);

Boeing Aerospace Support, St. Louis, Mo. (service) (Boeing Airlift and Tanker Programs, Long Beach, Calif., received the Baldrige Award in 1998 in the manufacturing category);

Caterpillar Financial Services Corp., Nashville, Tenn. (service);

Stoner Inc., Quarryville, Pa. (small business);

Community Consolidated School District 15, Palatine, Ill. (education);

Baptist Hospital, Inc., Pensacola, Fla. (health care);

Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo. (health care)