1. What is the Oklahoma Quality Award? Oklahoma businesses along with the Oklahoma
Department of Commerce established the award program in 1993
to recognize Oklahoma organizations for their achievements in
quality and business performance and to raise awareness about
the importance of performance excellence as a competitive edge.
The award is not given for specific products or services. Awards
may be given annually at each of three levels: Commitment, Achievement,
and Excellence. Manufacturing, service, health care, education
and government organizations are eligible for the awards. The Oklahoma Quality Award Program is built
around the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process and
tailored for Oklahoma. The Baldrige recipients are the very
visible centerpieces of the U.S. quality movement, a broader
national quality program has evolved around the award and its
criteria. A report, Building on Baldrige: American Quality
for the 21st Century, by the private Council on Competitiveness,
said, "More than any other program, the Baldrige National
Quality Award is responsible for making quality a national priority
and disseminating best practices across the United States."
The Oklahoma Quality Award Foundation, Inc.
(OQAF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, manages the Oklahoma
Quality Award program. 2. Why was the award established? In the early and mid-1980s, many industry and
government leaders saw that a renewed emphasis on quality was
no longer an option for American companies but a necessity for
doing business in an ever expanding, and more demanding, competitive
world market. But many American businesses either did not believe
quality mattered for them or did not know where to begin. The
Baldrige Award along with the Oklahoma Quality Award was envisioned
as a standard of excellence that would help U.S. and Oklahoma
organizations achieve world-class quality. 3. What are the Oklahoma Quality Award criteria? The Oklahoma Quality Award performance excellence
criteria are a framework that any organization can use to improve
overall performance. Seven categories make up the award criteria: 4. Which companies/organizations have won the Oklahoma Quality Award? 2009 - INTEGRIS Health, Oklahoma City; INTEGRIS Grove General Hospital, Grove 2008 - Moore Technology Centers, Oklahoma City 2007 - Moore Norman Technology Center; Leader Communications Inc.; Unity Health Center; Valley View Regional Hospital. 2006 - MESA Products, Inc.; Healthfirst Physician Management Services, Inc.; Metro Technology Centers; Tri County Technology Center. 2005 - Healthfirst Physician Management Services, Inc.; Inverness Village; Nautilus-Tulsa Manufacturing; Oklahoma City Public Schools; Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits; Tulsa Public Schools, and; University of Central Oklahoma. 2004 - Boeing Aerospace Support Oklahoma City ; Bone and Joint Hospital ; St. Anthony Hospital ; Bank of Oklahoma , Operations and Technology Division; Monte Cassino School ; and, Precision Machining and Manufacturing. 2003 – Bank of Oklahoma, Operations and Technology Division; Blitz USA; and, Boeing Aerospace Support Oklahoma City. 2002 - NORDAM Transparency Division, Connors State College, Emergency Medical Services Authority, Rep. Jerry W. Hefner, Rep. Randall Lee Irwin, Jerry Massegee. 2001 - WIX Filtration Products Division, Dana Corporation; NORDAM Transparency Division, The NORDAM Group; Altus Public Schools; Integris Baptist and Southwest Medical Centers; Metro Technology Centers; Sprint PCS-Education and Development Department; Temple-Inland Company. 2000 – NORDAM Repair Division; Wix Filtration Products, Dana Corporation; Honeywell Lori, Inc; Enviro Systems, Inc.; Gemini Coatings, Inc.; Integris Bass Baptist Health Center; Oklahoma Housing and Finance Agency; ZENEX Communications, Inc. 1999 – Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Oklahoma City Branch; Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc.; Business and Industry Services Division, Moore Norman Technology Center; Wix Filtration Products, Dana Corporation; 507 Air Refueling Wing, Tinker AFB; Hilti, Inc.; City of Edmond; Central and South West Services; EATON Corporation, OKC Clutch Plant; Fletcher Gypsum; Francis Tuttle; Greater OKC Chamber of Commerce; Hollytex Carpet Mills, Inc.; Naboholz Construction Corporation; Pace/Butler Corporation 1998 – St. Anthony Hospital and the Lindberg Heat Treating Company 1997 – Baker Oil Tools, Stillwater Medical Center, Cargill Inc., Salt Division, and Johnson Controls, Inc. 1996 – Bone and Joint Hospital and the Eaton Corporation 1995 – Baxter Healthcare Corporation 1994 – AT&T, Armstrong World
Industries, Inc., The Bama Companies and ZEBCO Corporation.
5. When were the education and health care criteria established? In 1999, the Baldrige National Quality Program (BNQP) established criteria for education and health care applicants. As a result, the Oklahoma Quality Award Foundation allows education and health care applicants the option to use either the Malcolm Baldrige Education or Criteria for Performance Excellence or the Malcolm Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence to complete their application. Any for-profit or not-for-for profit public or private organization that provides educational or health care services in Oklahoma is eligible to apply for the award. 6. How are recipients selected? Applications for the award are evaluated by
an independent Board of Examiners composed of primarily private-sector
experts in quality and business. Examiners look for achievements
and improvements in all seven categories.Organizations that
pass an initial screening are visited by teams of examiners
to verify information in the application and to clarify questions
that come up during the review. Each applicant receives a written
summary of strengths and opportunities for improvement in each
area addressed by the criteria. While quality management cannot guarantee success, the Oklahoma Quality Award and the Malcolm Baldrige winning companies believe that investing in performance excellence can lead to outstanding returns. Studies by the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), universities, business organizations, and the U.S. General Accounting Office have found that investing in performance improvement strategies pays off in increased productivity, satisfied employees and customers, and improved profitability - both for customers and investors. 8. Do the award criteria take into account an organization's financial performance? Yes. The criteria include many factors that
contribute to financial performance, including decisions and
strategies that lead to better market performance, gains in
market share, and customer retention and satisfaction.Organizations
are urged to use financial information, including profit trends,
in analyzing and reporting on improved overall performance and
to look for the connection between the two. 9. Does the award amount to a product or service endorsement for the winners? No. The award is given because an organization
has shown it has an outstanding system for managing its products,
services, human resources, and customer relationships.As part
of the evaluation, an organization is asked to describe its
system for assuring the quality of its goods and services. It
also must supply information on performance improvements and
customer satisfaction efforts and results. That does not mean
that a winner's products or services are endorsed. 10. Why are the Oklahoma Quality Award winners asked to share their successful strategies? One of the main purposes of the award is to
pass on information about the winners' performance improvement
programs that other businesses and organizations can tailor
for their own needs. Representatives from the winning organizations
have willingly shared their performance strategies and methods
with other firms. 11. To what extent are they asked to share their strategies? The managers of each winning organization must
decide how much time and effort to devote to activities such
as speaking engagements and tours of facilities. The requirements
of the award program are minimal. Winners are asked to participate
in the Foundation’s presentations and co-sponsored conferences,
to provide basic materials to those who request it on their
organization's performance strategies and methods, and to answer
news media inquiries. 12. Do advertising and
publicity diminish the image and prestige of the award? 13. Are organizations and companies simply chasing after the award and ignoring the lessons of performance improvement? The perception by some that winning the award
is the goal of Oklahoma companies and organizations is not supported
by the facts. The Oklahoma Quality Award winners didn't apply
the concepts of performance excellence to win an award. They
did it to win customers. They did it to grow. They did it to
prosper and to remain competitive in a world marketplace. Many
organizations are using the Oklahoma Quality Award performance
excellence criteria to assess themselves and to improve. The
award program has helped to stimulate an amazing movement to
improve Oklahoma businesses and organizations. 14. Why are organizations charged a fee to apply? The application fees are charged to cover expenses
associated with distribution and review of applications and
development of feedback reports. The application and review
process are considered widely to be a very cost-effective and
comprehensive. For an application fee of $2,850 for large organizations,
$2,350 for medium sized organizations and $1850 for small firms;
organizations receive at least 300 hours of review by a minimum
of four business and quality experts. Site-visited organizations
receive over 600 hours of in-depth review. Every applicant receives
an extensive feedback report highlighting strengths and areas
to improve. 15. May an organization hire a consultant to help prepare answers for the Oklahoma Quality Award application? Applicants for the award are asked to supply facts and data to substantiate their claims concerning their management practices. Consultants, including members of the Board of Examiners, may provide services on performance management issues as well as the Oklahoma Quality award process. However, since there are no secret answers or even right or wrong answers to the award application, the award cannot be won by hiring someone to fill in the blanks. An organization must show through facts and data that it has a world-class management system in place and that it is continually looking for ways to improve. As a final check before recommending winners,
members of the Board of Examiners visit the candidates for the
award. During these site visits, examiners interview employees
and review pertinent records and data. The objective is to verify
the information provided in the application and to answer questions
raised during the board's review. An organization that hired
someone to fill out its application would never make it through
this rigorous review if its performance management system were
not supported by facts and data. 16. Is it a conflict of interest for members of the Board of Examiners to work as consultants? No. Members of the Board of Examiners are experts in evaluating performance management systems. They are in demand as speakers, as information resources, and as consultants. These activities serve as a way to make more people aware of performance improvement techniques and the Oklahoma Quality Award. However, since the examiners and judges on the board review applications for the award and are involved in recommending award recipients, precautions are taken to prevent a conflict of interest or even the appearance of conflict. Rigorous rules are followed at every stage of the review. Primarily, this means all members of the
board must abide by a code of ethics requiring, among other
things, that they disclose all business affiliations that might
create a conflict. In such cases, they cannot review an application,
comment on it, or make any judgments that could affect it. It
is a violation of the code for board members even to ask for
information on applications other than those to which they are
assigned.Other safeguards and checks also are built into the
three-step review process. For example, during the first step,
each application is evaluated independently by at least five
different examiners. By the time the review is over, some applicants
will have gone through over 1,000 hours of evaluation. 17. How does the Oklahoma Quality Award differ from ISO 9000? The purpose, content, and focus of the Oklahoma Quality Award and ISO 9000 are very different. The Oklahoma Quality Award was created to enhance the competitiveness of Oklahoma businesses and organizations. The award program promotes performance excellence, recognizes achievements of Oklahoma companies and organizations, and provides a vehicle for sharing successful strategies. The Oklahoma Quality Award criteria focus on results and continuous improvement.They provide a framework for designing, implementing, and assessing a process for managing all of the organization's operations. ISO 9000 is a series of five
international standards published in 1987 by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland.
Companies can use the standards to help determine what is needed
to maintain an efficient quality conformance system.For example,
the standards describe the need for an effective quality system,
for ensuring that measuring and testing equipment is calibrated
regularly and for maintaining an adequate record-keeping system.
ISO 9000 registration determines whether an organization complies
with its own quality system.Overall, ISO 9000 registration covers
less than 10 percent of the Oklahoma Quality Award criteria.
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