Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

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 1 Criteria for Performance Excellence 2 Early History of the Baldrige Program 3 Program Impacts 4 Public-Private Partnership 5 Baldrige Award Recipients 6 See also 7 References

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

1. ^ "Baldrige Program Name Change Emphasizes Performance Excellence," 10/5/2010.
2. ^ Albert N. Link and John T. Scott, Economic Evaluation of the Baldrige National Quality Program, NIST Planning Report 01-3, October 2001.