This is response to question posted in ASQ CEO’s blog http://asq.org/blog/.
With 62 years of Deming Prize
history in Japan, and 25 years of Baldrige history, and similar histories of
programs around the world, why is enterprise quality, or enterprise excellence
if you prefer, still the exception rather than the rule?
Excellent question. There is no
simple answer to this.
Lack of long-term thinking, lack of
quality culture, lack of systems thinking, 20th century thinking in
global economy are still persistent in several organizations that are
preventing these organizations to achieve and sustain organizational
excellence.
Awards such as Baldrige definitely
contributed to the organizational excellence and transformed the way managers
think, feel, and act.
There are serious shortcomings with
these awards that must be addressed. Here are few recommendations to make Baldrige
program work in the global economy.
· Eliminate individual award system - Deming’s philosophy does not
support individual awards or individual performance evaluation. Baldrige award
culture contradicts Deming’s philosophy. Eliminate award culture.
· Encourage continuous improvement - The Baldrige program for organizational
performance excellence should promote continuous improvement culture and not
award culture. Promote continuous improvement culture.
· Knowledge sharing – Promote knowledge sharing culture through
Baldrige program. Encourage organizations to use Baldrige program for
self-assessment and improvement.
· Stakeholder focus - Government or Awards do not define quality.
Customers of products and services define quality. Encourage organizations to
share their performance excellence stories with stakeholders including
customers.
· Systems thinking – Include stakeholders (Employees, Managers,
Suppliers, Customers, Board of Directors, Government, and Suppliers) in the
continuous improvement effort. Everyone is responsible for quality. Educate management
on longer-term thinking and not short term thinking.
· Learning – Promote national or international performance
excellence summits to specifically focus on sharing successes and lessons
learned by organizations that use quality improvement programs such as Baldrige
program. Provide appreciation certificates and not awards to all participants. Don’t
include any programs that involve awards or certification or accreditation to
avoid conflicts of interest.
· Provide consulting assistance – Spend effort in assisting
businesses to use Baldrige program to identify improvement opportunities.
Volunteers that serve on the Baldrige program are great resources to assist
with consulting.
· Cost of Quality - Spend money wisely. Don’t spend money on
awards. Spend money on education and training.
o Spend money on providing educating and training small businesses
to implement and improve quality management practices.
o Spend money on providing scholarships to students pursuing
education in quality management. These educated students (Future work force)
will be instrumental in promoting quality culture within the organizations
leading to improved organizational excellence and performance.
· Globalization – With federal budget cuts, Baldrige program is no
longer a national program. Consider expanding the scope of the program to
include all businesses that conduct business with the US.
· Innovation – Encourage innovative processes, methods, tools, and
techniques to implement continuous improvement programs such as Baldrige. NIST
can collaborate more with ASQ, educational institutions, organizations, and
industry leaders to promote innovation in implementing Baldrige program for
organizational performance excellence.
