U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson announced four organizations—three health care operations and one nonprofit business—as the recipients of the 2011 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement, and visionary leadership. This marks the first year that three health care organizations have been selected at one time.

The 2011 Baldrige Award recipients—listed with their category—are:

• Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Missouri (nonprofit)

• Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan (health care)

• Schneck Medical Center, Seymour, Indiana (health care)

• Southcentral Foundation, Anchorage, Alaska (health care)

The 2011 Baldrige Award recipients were selected from a field of 69 applicants. All of the applicants were evaluated rigorously by an independent board of examiners in seven areas defined by the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce focus; operations focus; and results. The evaluation process for each of the recipients included about 1,000 hours of review and an on-site visit by a team of examiners to clarify questions and verify information in the applications.

Named after Malcolm Baldrige, the 26th Secretary of Commerce, the Baldrige Award was established by Congress in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness and performance of U.S. businesses. The award promotes excellence in organizational performance, recognizes the achievements and results of U.S. organizations, and publicizes successful performance strategies. The award is not given for specific products or services. Since 1988, 90 organizations have received Baldrige Awards.

For more information, go to www.nist.gov/baldrige.

A series of groundbreaking case studies by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and partner organizations shows that implementing standards can provide economic benefits from between 0.5 and 4 percent of companies’ annual sales revenues. The studies are based on the experiences of 11 companies operating in a variety of business sectors in 10 countries.

The size of the companies varies from a small business with 25 employees and annual sales revenue of around $4.5 million, to companies with several thousand employees and annual revenue of more than $1.5 billion.  They operate in a variety of business sectors: agri-food, chemicals, construction and construction materials, electrical appliances, electrical power transmission, food retail/food logistics, industrial automation equipment, and information and telecommunications.

These case studies were undertaken in close cooperation between an ISO member body, an academic institution, a company in the respective country, and staff of the ISO Central Secretariat acting as advisors to the project team.

Readers interested in more details of the preliminary case studies can find the full versions of the reports originally developed by the project teams and summary presentations about each project at the iso.org website.

Interested in more information on the proven financial benefits of ISO Registration, contact us. Share with us your organization’s benefits derived from registration.  These benefits are much more than financial. Let us know and we will publish your comments in our next monthly newsletter!

Top Ten Tips to avoid Lean Six Sigma deployment problems according to More Steam:

1. Leadership cannot be delegated.
Successful and durable process improvement efforts depend on senior leadership engagement. Leaders should be active teachers. “Engaged” means process improvement activities are on their calendar and on their “to do” lists – not an initiative that is assigned to others.

2. This is not an “organic” exercise at the beginning.
A certain amount of fascism is required to get things started. Most important projects will cross functional boundaries, so leadership will need to enforce value stream thinking that puts customers ahead of departmental priorities.

3. The “M” in DMAIC does not stand for Months.
Don’t let people get hung up on playing with tools at the expense of getting things done.

4. Don’t take on projects that have massive scope.
It is better to execute a series of smaller, tightly-focused projects that get done.

5. Remember the “3APs”:
Go to the Actual Place (Gemba) where the work is done, observe the Actual Process as it is performed, and talk to the Actual People who perform the process. Beware of Gembaphobia (the fear of going to where the work is actually performed) – tough problems can’t be solved from a conference room.

6. Don’t pick the most available people to become project leaders (Black Belts and Green Belts).
There’s a reason why those people are available, and it’s not because they get things done. Make the functional leaders cough up their best people. Those people will get more done with the right attitude and good people skills than with a mastery of advanced technical methods.

7. Avoid establishing a “Caste System” or “Expert Culture” where only experts can solve problems.
Everyone can use these tools and this thinking in their daily work. Waiting for an “expert” can become a convenient excuse.

8. Don’t operate in secret.
Over-communicate to offset the natural fear of change and suspicion.

9. Don’t forget middle management.
The layer of clay requires extra attention to penetrate. Middle managers must get on board for the approach to have legs. If leaders lead, middle managers will follow.

10. Don’t train without projects!
It’s a total waste of time and money. Don’t over-train, in advance, in batches. Try to pull as needed. Most improvement is accomplished with the simplest tools. The discipline to recognize problems from a customer perspective and address them head-on is more important than technical skills.

We agree with all of these Tips to avoid Lean Six Sigma deployment problems and have witnessed them.  Tell us which of these you faced in your organization, including how you overcame them and your suggested TIPS!

It appears from our vantage point and the experts that the manufacturing segment is coming back. Many of us are thinking of what is the best way to shape our company’s economic recovery into the most profitable form possible.

The answer is to deliver more than your share of customer value. Keep in mind your competition won’t be standing idle while you innovate and grow during the improving economy. To stay ahead of your competition, you should keep a strategic focus on what sets your company apart within your industry.

You could have a number of marketable differences from your competition. Spending more on R&D, or sales efforts? Acquiring capital equipment beyond your current capacities? Is what you’re doing focused on internal needs, or are you implementing your customer’s ideas?

1. Conduct face-to-face interviews.

Of all the ways to learn about customer needs-telephone, e-mail survey, Internet, nothing comes close in effectiveness to face-to-face customer interviews. Many of us use customer surveys to determine satisfaction levels. We use a Likert Scale method (1-5) based on questions we have determined are important. The reality, though, is that most questions asked are actually customer-reactive, not market-customer proactive interviews. Should we be asking our customers “Please rate the quality of our products?”, or “How can we provide a better quality product to you?” Get out and visit your customers and find out what’s important to them!

2. Develop a Voice of the Customer mentality.

Voice of the Customer studies typically consist of both qualitative and quantitative steps. They are generally conducted at the start or finish of a new product, process, or service design in order to better understand the customer’s wants and needs. That e-mail survey with the 3-5% average return, is it handing you a report of “what the customer wants?” This is a flawed model. Train your people to be VOC experts!

Best of all, you’ll develop a reputation among customers as “that supplier who really does listen to us.”

3. Become a quantitative organization.

After you conduct good qualitative customer interviews, you can target specific customer ideas you could work on. Which ideas do you target in your product design? Which ideas do you target in your product realization processes? At this point get quantitative. Being quantitative helps you to understand which customer outcomes are most important and least satisfied.

The key to taking advantage of the recovering economy is in changing the way your company approaches your current and future customers. Start now, with a new approach and you’ll shape a true recovery at your company.