Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

In 1987, jumpstarting a small, slowly growing U.S. quality movement, Congress established the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award to promote quality awareness, to recognize quality and business achievements of U.S. organizations, and to publicize these organizations’ successful performance strategies. Now considered America’s highest honor for performance excellence, the Baldrige Award is presented annually to U.S. organizations by the President of the United States. Awards are given in manufacturing, service, small business, and, starting in 1999, education and health care. In conjunction with the private sector, the National Institute of Standards and Technology designed and manages the award and the Baldrige National Quality Program.

Application process:
To apply for the award, organizations must submit details showing their achievements and improvements in seven key areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management, and results. Applicants receive 300 to 1,000 hours of review and a detailed report on the organization’s strengths and opportunities for improvement by an independent board of examiners. “The application and review process for the award is the best, most cost-effective, and comprehensive business health audit you can get,” said Arnold Weimerskirch, former Baldrige Award judge and vice president of quality, Honeywell, Inc.

Program impact :
Since the first awards were presented in 1988, the Baldrige National Quality Program has grown in stature and impact. Today, the Baldrige program, the award’s criteria for performance excellence, and the Baldrige award recipients are imitated and admired worldwide.

In particular, the Baldrige criteria for performance excellence have played a valuable role in helping U.S. organizations improve. The criteria are designed to help organizations improve their performance by focusing on two goals: delivering ever improving value to customers and improving the organization’s overall performance. Approximately 2 million copies of the criteria have been distributed since 1988, and wide-scale reproduction by organizations and electronic access add to that number significantly. Gordon Black, chairman and chief executive officer of Harris/Black International Ltd., said the publication containing the Baldrige criteria for performance excellence is “probably the single most influential document in the modern history of American business.”