Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is given by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology.his is the only quality award that is actually awarded by the President of the United States. Awards are given in manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care, and nonprofits. In conjunction with the private sector, the National Institute of Standards and Technology designed and manages the award and the Baldrige National Quality Program.

The award winners are required to share (non-proprietary) information on successful performance strategies and actions, and benefits derived. Eligibility allows for two awards in each of three categories:

1- Manufacturing companies
2- Service companies
3- Small businesses
4- Education
5- Health Care

Hundreds of U.S. firms have experienced improved quality and business performance by using the Baldrige criteria as a model and performing self-assessments. Companies use either internal or external evaluators to review a report, which for all practical purposes is an application that follows the Baldrige guidelines/criteria.
The key to successful quality improvement implementation is that appropriate action is taken on all category/items that are highlighted as areas needing improvement.

The common practice in industry and government self-assessments is to do a Phase I evaluation, followed by a site visit. The following could be labeled the elements of the Baldrige Advanced Quality/Management System.

Award Criteria
As you can see, the criteria go across all segments of an enterprise - from Leadership to Business Results. In scoring the items the evaluator/examiner assesses the enterprises application (description of the quality/management system) based on three evaluation dimensions:

1- Approach
2- Deployment
3- Results
The guidelines indicate which category/items are evaluated for approach-deployment, and those evaluated for results.

1999 CATEGORIES/ITEMS POINT VALUES
1.0 Leadership 125
1.1 Organizational Leadership 85
1.2 Public Responsibility and Citizenship 40

2.0 Strategic Planning 85
2.1 Strategy Development 40
2.2 Strategy Deployment 45

3.0 Customer and Market Focus 85
3.1 Customer and Market Knowledge 40
3.2 Customer Satisfaction and Relationships 45

4.0 Information and Analysis 85
4.1 Measurement of Organizational Performance 40
4.2 Analysis of Organizational Performance 45

5.0 Human Resource Focus 85
5.1 Work Systems 35
5.2 Employee Education, Training, and Development 25
5.3 Employee Well Being and Satisfaction 25

6.0 Process Management 85
6.1 Product and Service Processes 55
6.2 Support Processes 15
6.3 Supplier and Partnering Processes 15

7.0 Business Results 450
7.1 Customer Focused Results 115
7.2 Financial and Market Results 115
7.3 Human Resource Results 80
7.4 Supplier and Partner Results 25
7.5 Organizational Effectiveness Results 115

TOTAL POINTS 1000