In a message dated 10/6/01 10:04:04 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< ... There was a man who proposed a set of rules that would take care of quality control, but he was laughed out of the industry because of the added cost, etc. The japanese heard what he was saying, brought him over, and implimented all of his ideas from the beginning of their process ... >> That man was Malcom Baldridge. A national award, The Malcom Baldridge Award, was created by the NIST, a government agency, to honor those U.S. companies which best implemented Balrdidge's concept of "Quality". There were several syndromes, some unintended, associated with the Malcom Baldridge Award: 1) some companies became so focused on winning the Award that they lost sight (and control) of their strategic goals, and, although they won the award, they lost market share and in some cases they lost the market dominance they once had ... IOW, they had "Quality", all right, but they had lost so many business opportunities in the process of achieving the award that they lost ground, and 2) in extreme cases, an Award winner one year was forced to reorganize, merge with another company, or file for bankruptcy the next year. For a list of Baldridge Award winners, see ... http://www.iplabs.com/hr/baldridg.htm The action of seeking the Award has been used by some management teams to deflect criticism from themselves by their board of directors. In these cases, after after achieving (or failing to achieve) the Award, the board of directors sees the smoke screen and does the right thing and fires the management team. As a consequence of these business realities, little emphasis is placed on The Malcom Baldridge Award any more, as far as I can see. Oh, yes, my former employer competed for the Award about eight years ago. We fell into syndrome (1), above. But that precipitated, several years later, a "death spiral" into syndrome (2), above. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
