The Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Assurance
Award
The Quest for Excellence
Eric Santostefano
Agenda
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What is the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award?
Malcolm Baldrige, the man
Reasons for establishment of the award
How award helps an organization
How organization is chosen
Seven key areas to winning, and relative point
values
Real world example; Dana Corporation-Spicer
Driveshaft Division
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Quick exercise
What Is the Malcolm Baldrige
Quality Award?
Program established in 1987
by congress
 Raised awareness of the importance
of quality and performance in business
 Award is given annually to companies
in the manufacturing and service sectors
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Malcolm Baldrige
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Secretary of Commerce from 1981
to 1987
He was a very big proponent of
quality management at a time when
quality was not a large issue
He helped draft one of the early
versions of the Quality Improvement Act
In recognition of his contributions in showing
the importance of quality, the award was named
after him.
Reasons for the Establishment
of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality
Award
Government officials saw that
quality improvement was no longer
an option for American business, but a
necessity
 Many businesses did not think quality
was an important issue
 Others knew that it was important, but did
not know where to begin the improvement
process
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How Can the Award Be Used to
Help an Organization?
The criteria for winning the award
are very demanding and simply
trying to align a company to them is
highly beneficial
 It can be used as a motivational tool for
workers to rally behind a common goal
 Simply by competing for the award an
organization sees the importance of quality
in their business
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How an Organization Is Chosen
As a MBNQA Winner
55% of evaluation is based on how the
organization is run, 45% on the basis of
performance
 Every major part of the organization is
accessed
 Continuous improvement and reevaluation
is very important
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Seven Key Areas Specific to
Winning the Award
1.
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6.
7.
Leadership
Strategic Planning
Customer and Market Focus
Information and Analysis
Human Resources Development and
Management
Process Management
Business Results
Point Values for the Seven Key
Areas of Evaluation
110 points – Leadership
 80 points – Strategic Planning
 80 points – Customer and Market Focus
 80 points – Information Analysis
 100 points – Human Resources
 100 points – Process Management
 450 points – Business Results
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The Board of Examiners
Independent board researches
each competing organization, and
follows the specific criteria previously
mentioned
 Site visits consist of 4-6 examiners
 Examiners are all volunteers
 Appointment to the Board of Examiners is
a very prestigious honor
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Real World Example: What It
Takes to be a Malcolm Baldrige
Award Winner
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Dana Corporation-Spicer Driveshaft
Division: 2000 Award Winner in
Manufacturing Division
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Company’s quality policy—“Dedicated to total
quality and continuous improvement”—guides
the entire business
Customer complaints have dropped steadily,
from 6.8 per million units shipped in 1995 to
about 2.8 in 2000, and since 1996, Spicer
Driveshaft has not lost a single customer.
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Exercise
1.
2.
3.
How many companies are given the
MBNQA each year?
a. 4
b. 8
c. 6
How much are the board of examiners paid for their
position?
How many key areas of each company are examined
by the board during review?
a. 10
b. 3
c. 9
d. 7
Exercise Answers
1. C; 6 companies are given the
award each year
 2. Nothing; the board is a group of
volunteers of experts from industry,
education, government and non-profit
organizations
 3. 7; there are seven key areas each with a
relative number of points adding to the
total score
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Summary
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MBNQA is a program established in
1987 to raise the awareness of quality in
American business
Named after Malcolm Baldrige for his
contributions in showing importance of quality
Simply aligning to criteria of award is very
beneficial to the success of any organization
Seven key areas specific to winning the award
Prestigious board of examiners serve on a
volunteer basis to select the winners each year
Winning companies must have a total quality
management system built into their yearly
strategy
Bibliography
Baldrige National Quality Program.
www.quality.nist.gov
Foundation for the Baldrige National Quality
Award. www.baldrigefoundation.org
Discover Free Quality. www.freequality.org
OISM 470W Class Notes. Chapter 3. Thomas
Foster, Jr. and F. Chelko.