Introduction:
In the new business management model, the role of assessments has evolved from punitive to supportive, from a hunt for problems and mistakes to a search for ways to improve, from assigning blame to offering assistance. The change in attitude reflects the enlightened view that problems with operational performance or quality are almost always caused by problems with the system, not problems with people. System assessments tend to be like annual physical examinations.
Components of effective system assessment:
(1) a team willing to do the hard work of performing the assessment and
(2) a tool it can use to conduct a valid assessment.
The tool must be capable of assessing the entire system as well as the key elements that make up that system. High-performance companies have embraced the only assessment tool with these capabilities: the criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Models of excellence:
Eastman Kodak Company:
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Eastman Kodak Company serves two primary business segments: imaging (photography, office imaging applications such as copiers and printers, printing and publishing, and motion pictures and television) and health (diagnostic imaging and information systems).
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Kodak has more than 132,000 employees at marketing and manufacturing operations in more than 50 countries. its headquarters is in Rochester, New York.
AT&T:
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AT&T is a global company that provides Communications and information to more than 90 million customers, including consumers, businesses, and government.
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The company has annual revenues of more than $52 billion and 130,000 employees. AT&T operates in more than 200 countries and territories around the world.
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It has produced three Baldrige Award winners: Network Systems Group, Transmission Systems Business Unit (1992; now part of Lucent Technologies); Universal Card Services (1992); and Consumer Communications (1994).
Graniterock:
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Graniterock produces high-quality construction materials—rock, sand, and gravel aggregates; readymix concrete; and asphalt—for road and highway construction and maintenance and for residential and commercial building construction, and is a heavy engineering contractor under the name Pavex Construction Company.
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Founded in 1900, the company mar-kets its products in the central coast region of California, where it operates the largest crushed-rock quarry west of the Mississippi River.
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It has nearly 500 employees. Graniterock won the Baldrige Award in 1992.
