Highest Official: Dr. Fred Palensky, Division Vice President
Public Affairs Contact: Karyn Pierce, Marketing Communications Supervisor, (612) 733-2138

Launched in 1964, 3M Dental Products Division manufactures and markets more than 1,300 products used by dentists around the world. These products include restorative and crown and bridge materials and dental adhesive and infection control products.

A business unit of 3M Corporation, 3M DPD has about 700 employees. More than 400 of 3M DPD's employees are based at its St. Paul, Minn., headquarters and at the division's manufacturing and distribution facility in Irvine, Calif. Others are located throughout the United States and abroad. In addition to being a Baldrige Award winner, 3M DPD was the first Gold Level winner (1994) of California's U.S. Senate Productivity Award, a Baldrige-based award.

Quality and Business Performance Achievements:

• 3M DPD's strategy of global sales expansion has resulted in more than a doubling of sales and market share over the last 10 years. The Division's growth rate is approximately 35 percent higher than the global market expansion rate. Other indicators of financial strength have shown favorable trends from 1991 to 1996, including a doubling of economic profit and a 20 percent increase in return on invested capital.

• Overall satisfaction of its U.S. distributors with 3M DPD's products and services establishes the Division as the industry leader since 1989. Since 1993, 40 percent to 45 percent of the Division's distributors give it "excellent" ratings in overall satisfaction, with no other competitor consistently achieving more than 20 percent "excellent" ratings. In the same time period, distributor satisfaction ratings of technical support and consistency of product quality as individual measures both show 3M DPD with 40 percent to 45 percent "excellent" ratings, with no other competitor achieving more than 30 percent "excellent" ratings.

• Surveys of dentists also show 3M DPD to be the industry leader since 1987 in overall satisfaction with products and services. In the 1995 and 1997 surveys, dentist satisfaction ratings with 3M DPD's products outperformed "excellent" ratings of an aggregate of its competitors two to one in the areas of consistently performing, reliable products and product ease of use.

• Innovation is a key success factor enabling 3M DPD to be a leader in the competitive dental products marketplace. New product sales now account for 45 percent of total sales, accelerating from 12 percent in 1992. Cycle time for new product development has been reduced from 3 years in 1984 to 10 months for the six new products introduced since 1994. Additionally, the number of patents per employee, an indicator of innovation, is better than twice that of its closest competitor.

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable incident rates at the Irvine plant for the period 1993 to 1997 showed a sharp decline from 4.4 to one in 1996 and none so far this year.

• Of 3M DPD's 32 key suppliers, 20 are certified by the Division. Materials supplied by these companies have increased from 55 percent in 1993 to 88 percent in 1997. This increase has resulted in reduced inspection time from 1994, when less than 20 percent of incoming materials were accepted within 6 hours to approximately 90 percent in 1997.

• Employee survey results over the past six years show that 3M DPD employees have substantially higher levels of satisfaction with a wide variety of factors than a group of peer companies from a third-party survey. 3M DPD employees give 20 percent to 30 percent higher favorable ratings when asked to rate their company as a place to work, and 18 percent to 20 percent higher favorable ratings on 3M DPD as a place that encourages employees to propose new and better ways of doing things.

• 3M DPD uses a systematic strategic planning process to develop a 10-year vision, a five-year strategic plan and a one-year operating plan. Alignment and commitment at the senior management, team, functional and individual employee level is achieved by involving senior management as well as employees at all levels.

• 3M DPD's Business Performance Management Matrix provides a systematic and comprehensive tool for aligning key business drivers and goals down through and across all business and functional units and tracks progress against Division, functional unit and team goals. BPMM also provides critical data and information during design, production and delivery of products and services.

• Cross-functional teams are a key feature of the Division's strategy for performance excellence. The steering committee sponsors 43 ongoing and short-term teams that manage new product introduction, solve problems and manage and improve business processes. Three strategic business committees are aligned with the Division's three business units. An additional 130 teams deal with other issues. These teams promote innovative, flexible and rapid response to changing customer needs, while improving cross-functional cooperation, communication and pursuit of business results.

• 3M DPD has taken a leadership role in developing a Code of Ethics for the dental industry and is a key promoter of its adoption through the American Dental Trade Association. The Division also is a founding corporate sponsor of Oral Health 2000, involving government agencies, private foundations, corporations, professional associations and health, advocacy and volunteer groups in the largest public education and service program ever undertaken to improve oral health in the United States.