Our Journey to Baldrige

Sara PotterfieldPotterfield Group Vice President-Public

Relations

Why did we start this journey?

• Can you see the future?

• We had good performance

• Needed great sustainability of performance

Our First Attempt

• A TQM Expert lead our first attempt in 1996• Wrote the application with some collaboration• Administered a few surveys, Customer and

employee• We lacked the systematic process to change

anything

Our Second Attempt

• Our second attempt was a unified front• Baldrige Fall 2004

– We read every question and answered it– We went back and answered it again and again– We finally wrote the “how our business should be

run” application

Our Second Attempt

• Our Baldrige Application– We reviewed the application for gaps– We fixed the gaps – implemented many new

processes– Applied for and received the Missouri Quality Award

in 2008– Applied for and received the Malcolm Baldrige

National Quality Award in 2009

What did we learn?

• It is really easy to miss the word “How”• Figure out what the questions were asking• Expect 3 solid years of hard work• Must make improvements every day• Goals must be measureable• Mission Statement is central

What worked well?

• Support from the top• The entire SLT wrote the application• 30% of our salaried staff as examiners• Dedicated time off site to work• Our culture of learning• Deployment throughout the organization• Celebrating victories

What worked well?

• Start writing the application early• Everyone must understand criteria• Code of Conduct• Master Planning Calendar• Capacity planning• Look for Approach, Deployment, Learning and

Integration

What key things changed?

• The level of service that we are able to offer the Customer

• Our ability to focus• The language we all speak• The integration between departments• “…but is that systematic?”• The quality of our staff• Identification and focus on key results

What key things changed?

• Our ability to segment our data• Our Customer Listening Posts• Many paradigm shifts• Communication to all levels improved• We know what processes are being performed• Documentation and training• Common strategic objectives• Benchmarks help us improve

Questions?

Thank you!

Our best wishes to you in your pursuit of performance excellence!

For more information:

www.AmericaNeedsBaldrige.com

qms@midwayusa.com