The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

Initiated in the US Congress in 1987 as a rallying point for quality efforts in the face of (largely Japanese) competition, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is its country's most prestigious quality prize. It was named posthumously for the late US Secretary of Commerce. Applying for the Baldrige award is open to US‐based companies only. Winners demonstrate superior performance against seven criteria, each of which is allocated a points weighting within a maximum possible score of 1,000 points. The criteria are: leadership; information and analysis; strategic planning; human resource development and management; process management; business results; and customer focus and satisfaction (see figure 1). Following initial self‐assessed submissions a panel of peer‐recognized experts from industry, the professions and academia nominates a short‐list of companies for site visits. The judges can select two winners in each of the three award categories — manufacturing, services and small businesses — or none. Past recipients of the Baldrige award include Motorola, Milliken, Eastman Chemical, Xerox, The Ritz‐Carlton Hotel Company, Federal Express and three divisions of AT&T. It is used as the framework for the Swedish Quality Award and has also been the inspiration for several similar prizes elsewhere in the world, among them the European Quality Award.