Baldrige National Quality Program
Baldrige National Quality Program
In 1987, jumpstarting
a small, slowly growing U.S. quality movement, Congress established the
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The purpose of the award was
not only to recognize U.S. companies and other organizations for their
achievement, but also to promote quality awareness and to provide information
on successful performance and competitiveness strategies. It has become
the nation's premier award for performance excellence and is widely credited
as a major factor in helping U.S. businesses and other organizations become
more competitive and higher performers. Barry Rogstad, president of the
American Business Conference and a former chairman of the board of overseers
for the Baldrige Award, said "The Baldrige public/private partnership
has accomplished more than any other program in revitalizing the American
economy."
The award is for overall organizational excellence, not for specific products
or services. Three awards may be given annually to organizations in each
of five categories: manufacturing; service; small business; education;
and health care. In conjunction with the private sector, NIST developed
and manages the award program.
Contact: Harry Hertz
Criteria for Performance Excellence
The Baldrige National Quality Program focuses on performance excellence as an integral part of today's organizational management practices. The award's Criteria for Performance Excellence, used by thousands of organizations as a general performance excellence model, are designed to help deliver ever-improving value to customers, resulting in marketplace success, and improve overall organizational effectiveness and capabilities. Approximately 2 million copies of the criteria have been distributed since 1988. The criteria's seven categories focus on requirements that all organizations—especially those facing tough competitive challenges—should understand. The criteria are:
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Leadership. Examines how senior executives guide the organization and how the organization addresses its responsibilities to the public and practices good citizenship. |
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Strategic planning. Examines how the organization sets strategic directions and how it determines key action plans. |
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Customer and market focus. Examines how the organization determines requirements and expectations of customers and markets; builds relationships with customers; and acquires, satisfies, and retains customers. |
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Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management. Examines the management, effective use, analysis, and improvement of data and information to support key organization processes and the organization’s performance management system. |
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Human resource focus. Examines how the organization enables its workforce to develop its full potential and how the workforce is aligned with the organization’s objectives. |
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Process management. Examines aspects of how key production/delivery and support processes are designed, managed, and improved. |
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Business results. Examines the organization’s performance and improvement in its key business areas: customer satisfaction, financial and marketplace performance, human resources, supplier and partner performance, operational performance, and governance and social responsibility. The category also examines how the organization performs relative to competitors. |
Using the criteria as an assessment tool provides organizations with a clear view of where they stand and of how far they must go to achieve world-class levels of performance. The criteria for education and health care organizations are built upon the same framework used for businesses, since it is adaptable to the requirements of all organizations. This adaptation is largely a translation of the language and basic concepts of business excellence to similarly important concepts in education and health care excellence.
Applications for the award undergo an evaluation by an independent review board comprising more than 400 business and quality experts from many different sectors, including industry, education, health care, and government. These experts volunteer many hours reviewing applications for the award, conducting site visits at organizations that receive high scores after an initial evaluation, and providing each applicant with an extensive feedback report citing strengths and opportunities to improve.
The Baldrige National Quality Program has proven to be a remarkably successful government and private sector team effort starting in 1987 with private sector assistance in raising more than $10 million to help launch the program. Since that time, NIST has worked closely with a wide variety of groups to extend the benefits of performance excellence and to stimulate activities nationwide. These organizations run the gamut from trade, professional, and business groups, such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to state and local government organizations, such as the National Governors' Association, to broad-based interest groups like the National Education Association.
The cooperative nature of this joint government/private-sector team is perhaps best captured by the award's board of examiners. In addition to many hours spent during the award evaluation process, board members have given thousands of presentations on performance excellence and the Baldrige National Quality Program.
The award recipients also have taken seriously the charge to be ambassadors for the Baldrige Program. One of the main purposes of the award is to pass on information about the Baldrige Award recipients' quality and business processes and results that other organizations can tailor to their own needs. Representatives from the award recipients willingly have shared their organizations' performance excellence strategies and methods with thousands of others. Their efforts to educate and inform other companies and organizations on the benefits of using the Baldrige framework and criteria have far exceeded expectations.
Private-sector reviews and surveys are showing that the award is having a profound effect on shaping how people and organizations operate and work. For example, a report on the Baldrige Award program by the private-sector Council on Competitiveness states, "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 program has helped to stimulate an amazing movement to improve performance in many U.S. organizations, including companies, academic institutions, health care organizations, and federal, state, and local government agencies. Nationwide, interest in the Baldrige model is growing steadily. In 1991, fewer than 10 state and local quality awards existed. Now, more than 50 state and local award programs in 44 states have been established; most are modeled after the Baldrige program.
For many organizations, these award programs act as proving grounds, helping them to better understand quality and performance excellence before they consider an application for the national Baldrige Award. In 1991, state programs received 110 applications; in 2001 that number was 609.
Internationally, nearly 60 quality awards have been established, most within the past several years. Many of them are based on the Baldrige Award. Japan, home of the Deming Prize, launched an award in 1996 that resembles the U.S. Baldrige Award.
Interest also is increasing in organizations other than for-profit businesses. In 1999, NIST added categories for education and health care. Since then 127 applications have been submitted in the education and health care categories.
Contact:
Baldrige National Quality Program
(301) 975-2036
email: nqp@nist.gov
fax: (301) 948-3716
NIST
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1020
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1020
www.baldrige.nist.gov
Date
created:November
27, 2001
Last modified:
Aug. 02, 2007
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov