U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

Baldrige by Sector: Manufacturing

Share

Can a manufacturer facing global competition, increased pressure on costs, and the need to show quarterly profits benefit from the Baldrige process? For more than 34 years, the Baldrige Program has shown that manufacturers and other businesses of any size and type can benefit from using the Baldrige Excellence Framework® and other Baldrige products and services. From a global aerospace company to a government contractor and a food producer, manufacturers from countless industries, from small to multinational, have used Baldrige products and services to make their businesses more resilient to ensure long-term success. So can your organization.

How Baldrige Relates

Through its products and services, including its framework, Baldrige addresses all key areas of a manufacturing business. The Baldrige framework is compatible with other performance improvement initiatives, such as ISO 9000, Lean, and Six Sigma. Using the Baldrige framework, you can organize and integrate these approaches, improve productivity and effectiveness, and build a foundation for success. In addition, the Baldrige Award process and other products and services offer manufacturers insights to help them prepare, adapt, innovate, and thrive through the inevitable disruptions in their industries and our world. 

Improve Your Results

Regardless of what your business manufactures, Baldrige provides a valuable framework, award process, and other products and services for measuring performance and planning in an uncertain environment. Baldrige helps address the challenges of today’s manufacturers, including those related to 

  • hiring, retention, and productivity 
  • operational efficiency and effectiveness 
  • supplier management 
  • digitization and industry 4.0 
  • changing customer expectations

See what Baldrige products and services can do for your organization.

Baldrige Award Recipients

Search for Manufacturing Baldrige Award recipients.

Get Started with Self-Assessing Your Organization

A Baldrige-based self-assessment can help your organization improve and succeed. The Baldrige Excellence Framework® and insights from the Baldrige Award process can help you improve communication, productivity, and effectiveness and achieve your strategic goals, helping to enhance our nation's competitiveness, economy, and quality of life. Use Baldrige Improvement Tools to help you get started.

2023-2024 Baldrige Excellence Builder Cover

 

The Baldrige Excellence Builder® PDF is another way to get started. It is based on the Baldrige Excellence Framework® and its Criteria for Performance Excellence®. Use the Excellence Builder to assess your organization against the most important features of organizational performance excellence and learn about the Baldrige Excellence Framework.

Download the Baldrige Excellence Builder for free or purchase bulk copies of 10.

Learn about other Baldrige Products and Services to help your organization succeed.

Resources

Purchase Baldrige Excellence Framework Business/Nonprofit, Education, Health Care
Results with Baldrige in Manufacturing
Testimonials from Manufacturing
Baldrige Case Study
Baldrige Improvement Tools

Related Links

How Baldrige Works
Baldrige Key Terms
Baldrige Impacts
Baldrige Products and Services
Baldrige Award
Baldrige Award Recipient Listing
Baldrige FAQs
State and Local Baldrige-Based Programs
 

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

The Baldrige Program's sister program the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) celebrates U.S. manufacturers striving for resilience through its Heroes of American Manufacturing video series.

The Manufacturing Workforce
The Manufacturing Workforce
For years, U.S. manufacturers have struggled to find and keep good workers. The pandemic brought this to crisis level, and the difficult labor market has led companies to find creative workforce solutions. Beyond offering competitive pay and benefits, firms need to provide a great culture where employees understand how they contribute to the organization’s success. Many workers want opportunities for training, a clear career pathway, and encouragement to move up within the organization. This video features manufacturers discussing common workforce challenges and solutions their companies have found. For example, Mayville Engineering Company or MEC (a client of Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions, the Arkansas MEP) responds to the challenge of keeping good employees by promoting from within the organization. BrightView Technologies (a North Carolina MEP client) welcomes diversity because it helps them creatively solve engineering and manufacturing problems. Sweet Grass Dairy (a Georgia MEP client) has inspired loyalty in their workforce by making it clear that each employee’s work is part of something bigger. AMG Engineering (a client of Indiana’s Purdue MEP) works hard to get the message out to high school students that they can have a great career in manufacturing, even without a college degree.
The Importance of Domestic Supply Chains
The Importance of Domestic Supply Chains
Domestic manufacturing was underestimated for a long time, and to some degree it still is. Many small businesses have been challenged with getting product out through the pandemic. Manufacturers have experienced issues with affordability, material availability and lead times that are stretching out not weeks, but months. Are there domestic sources so manufacturers can respond quicker and work closer proximity wise to avoid being hinged on things that need to come in from Asia or even Europe. Having domestic supplies is extremely important from a quality standpoint because you can readily assess quality level of the componentry you're obtaining.If manufacturers have a weak supply chain, then it impacts their customers as well as impacting their business. World events show why it's very important to have domestic production here in the U.S, because at any point in time, geopolitical factors, macroeconomic factors can really change the landscape. Domestic manufacturers have an obligation to try to provide the best possible product for the least amount of costs and things like industry 4.0 and other initiatives like lean manufacturing help reduce costs to add value, and to make products more competitive. There's a lot of hard-working, intelligent workers in this country and we need to take advantage of that and not rely on Asia Pacific or low-cost countries in order to sustain. We saw during the pandemic what an impact to our supply chain that something like a global pandemic can have and it's important that we realize that for America to be successful and for America to continue to be a leader in the world, we must be able to sustain our industry here locally.
Manufacturing, Process improvement, Process measurement and control, Product data, Manufacturing quality assurance, Sustainable manufacturing, Performance excellence, Baldrige award and Baldrige Framework and Criteria

Contacts

  • Baldrige Customer Service
    (301) 975-2036

    NIST/BPEP
    100 Bureau Drive, M/S 1020
    Gaithersburg, 20899-1020 MD

Created February 18, 2010, Updated October 4, 2023
Was this page helpful?