Quest for Excellence

As part of the national quality improvement campaign, industry and government have joined together to establish the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Created by public law in 1987, the Award promotes an understanding of quality excellence, greater awareness of quality as a crucial competitive element, and sharing of information and strategies. There are three categories in which companies may compete: manufacturing, service and small business. Although up to two Awards may be given annually in each of the three categories, and each year many companies apply, to ^ate the maximum number of Baldrige Awards granted in one year is five. In 1989 and 1993, only 'wo companies received the honor. While the crite"a against which companies assess their quality programs evolve, the standards for judging and winning the Award are exceedingly high. Each year the Quest for Excellence provides quality-seeking businesses the opportunity to listen and question the winning companies, and to learn their strategies for adapting and implementing total quality management (TQM) into their professional lives. In his keynote address. Deputy Secretary of Commerce David J. Barram noted that quality management, as exemplified by the Baldrige Award winners, has a measurable effect, not only on the winners, but on the nation's economy. The two most recent winners, Eastman Chemical Company and Ames Rubber Corporation, are in the vanguard of companies which have moved to reshape U.S. competitiveness. Barram remarked that the economic effects of quality management have been so dramatic that President Clinton was proposing a 4-million-dolIar initiative to extend the scope of the Baldrige Award to the fields of health care and education. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and President Clinton had made it clear, Barram said, that this administration, both pro-business and avowed steward of the environment, would, "... urge all U.S. business to follow the models of Eastman and Ames in the combat of the global marketplace... where they take no prisoners." The companies that apply for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award each year write extensive descriptions of their business practices, showing the Board of Examiners for the Award how they have implemented the philosophy and techniques of total quality management to meet the stringent criteria of the Baldrige Award. This Conference Report, a summary of the comments by representatives of the winning companies, is organized much as the presentations themselves were. Plenary sessions based on the Baldrige Award criteria are: Leadership (Sec. 2.); Infor-