SKEDSOFT

Total Quality Management (Tqm)

Introduction:

Evaluating a Baldrige application, whether internally or externally, also involves arriving at consensus scores; the difference is that someone out-side the unit does the assessing and scoring.  The assessment process is a straightforward evaluation of how an ap­plication responds to the criteria.

Assessment pattern:

  • Many large companies have patterned their assessment process after the Baldrige process (also de-scribed in The Baldrige Quality System).
  • Kodak trains about 50 people a year for its internal Board of Examiners.
  • AT&T annually creates its.own board of examiners; it trained 300 internal examiners in 1993.
  • "The train-ing for our examiners is based on materials from the National Quality Award process," says Myers, "but we strengthened the training on site vis-its and giving feedback.
  • We also work hard to make sure each five- or six-person examiner team reflects a diversity of job levels and functional areas, such as manufacturing, finance, research and development, and so on."

Like the Baldrige application process, AT&T's process began with ex-aminer teams scoring the applications. Only those that met certain thresholds proceeded to the site-visit phase, where the assessment was clarified and verified. Unlike the Baldrige Award, AT&T rewarded both achievemeııt and improvement. "If we hadn't done this, units in the 200-to 300-point range would have sat out the process," says Myers. "What we wanted most was to get everyone involved."

AT&T achievement awards (level of excellence)

Using Assessment Results to Improve

 

  • The assessment process is a straightforward evaluation of how an ap­plication responds to the criteria.
  • When the criteria request a process— how you do something—the examiners assess the approach you are taking—how"sound, systematic, and prevention-based it is—and then de-termine how fully the approach has been implemented.
  • When the criteria request results—the measures of what you are doing—the examiners study the direction and levels of trends in ali key areas, and compare them to the trends of competitors and world-class benchmarks.
  • For each item, the examiners identify what you are doing very well (strengths) and what you need to do better (areas for improvement), and then figüre your score.