Malcolm Baldrige Awards Analysis & Recommendations of a Successful Quality Model

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What sets a successful company apart from everyone in the industry? Is it the way of thinking within a company that promotes the quest for continuous improvement or the value a company puts on their customers’ satisfaction with the company’s product or service? There are many qualities that make a company successful. Two examples of how successful companies demonstrate what it means to be a successful is by who they are, as well as how they achieved a world-class performance level in their respective industries.

One successful company is Midway USA. They were the winner of the Malcolm Baldrige Award in 2009 for small businesses, a second successful company is, the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) which was the winner in 2007 for Non-profit organizations. We will be looking at how each company used the Baldrige National Quality Program to evaluate the effect of the company’s strategic planning process and how they evaluated its strategic directions. Also, how each company developed its critical strategies and action plans to support these directions. I will also be making recommendations for each company to help them in their quest for continuous improvement.

MidwayUSA is a family-owned catalog and internet retailer offering products for shooters, reloaders, gunsmiths, and hunters. They are a world leader in their market sector with annual revenues of $185 million. Ninety percent of the company’s total business is with U.S. retail customers, with dealers and international customers rounding out the remaining ten percent. MidwayUSA’s vision is both simple and challenging: “To be the best-run business in America for the benefit of our Customers (MidwayUSA, 2009).” To prove that they are d...

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Both these companies are well deserved of the Malcolm Baldrige Award. They are both leaders and innovators in their respective industries, and their quality management systems and quest for continuous improvement make them stand out against their competition. With this in mind, companies would greatly benefit from following their systems as a model and implementing these models to improve their own company.

Works Cited

ARDEC. (2007). The 2007 Malcom Baldrige Award. Retrieved from

www.baldrige.nist.gov/PDF_files/2007_ARDEC¬_ Application_Summary.pdf

MidwayUSA. (2009). Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award application.

Retrieved from www.baldrige.nist.gov/PDF_files/MidwayUSA_Award_

Application_Summary.pdf

Westcott, R. T. (2006). The certified manager of quality/organizational

excellence handbook. Third Edition. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.

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