Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence 10th Edition by James Evans ,William Lindsay

Exercise 7

Note: This Quality in Practice feature provides some good insights into the nature of feedback that Baldrige examiners provide as part of the formal Award assessment process. Normally , such feedback is not publicly disseminated; however , the feedback was provided by Mr. David Branch to one of the authors for a research study cited in the endnote.
Located in Fort Worth, Texas, Branch-Smith Printing Division (BSPD)-one of two divisions of Branch-Smith, Inc.-is a fourth-generation, family-owned business founded in 1910 by Aaron Smith. Employing under 100 full-time employees, Branch-Smith Printing specializes in providing a wide range of turnkey services to its customers-including designing, printing, binding and mailing-related to sheet-fed printing of multipage bound materials. Products include publications, magazines, catalogues, directories and books.
BSPD?s Baldrige journey began in 1992 as David Branch, President and CEO, recognized the need to move the business forward from a typical small company paternalistic culture that was characterized by activities rather than processes, and reacting to problems, to a more ?professionalized? business built around documented procedures, repeatable operations, regular evaluation and improvement, and a fully integrated management system. Part of this motivation was to capitalize on the manufacturing industry focus on quality that was prevalent during the early 1990s. BSPD became involved with a consortium of businesses that were organized by Marlow Industries (a previous Baldrige recipient) and a consultant, Warren Hogan. They developed a two-year training curriculum on performance excellence topics, such as customer satisfaction, strategic planning, measurement-essentially the key elements of the Baldrige Criteria.
In 1994, BSPD developed a quality plan and began an internal Baldrige assessment process. The most significant opportunity for improvement they recognized was to improve in the process management area. As a result BSPD embarked on achieving ISO 9000 certification. In January of 1996, they became the first American independent printing company to be certified. Around the same time, Quality Texas, the state equivalent of the Baldrige program, was gaining momentum. Like many state programs, Quality Texas created multiple award levels that are designed to assess the degree to which an organization has developed and deployed sound, balanced approaches resulting in improved performance levels and trends. These differ by the size of the application required, whether a site visit is made to the organization, and whether scoring is performed by the examiners. In all cases, however, a feedback report is provided to the applicant. BSPD applied for a Level 2 award in 1995; the next year, David Branch became an examiner. Using the Quality Texas feedback as well as the experience of participating in site visits, David gained considerable insight into how to apply the Baldrige Criteria to his company. Among these insights were the importance of aligned goals and a solid quality information database with cascaded metrics from the top down to work groups. The database became the foundation on which strategic planning, leadership accountability, and management review activities drove the business. This led to the beginnings of an integrated performance excellence model called Innovating Excellence™ that was fully deployed in 2001.
BSPD applied again for developmental feedback from the Texas Quality Award program in 1998. BSPD then applied for the top-level award in 1999 and received the Texas Quality Award (now called the Texas Award for Performance Excellence). The feedback at that time noted that
[The scoring] range is indicative of organizations that have effective approaches and good results in most categories , but deployment in some key areas is still too new to demonstrate results. Further deployment measures and results are needed to demonstrate integration , continuity, and maturity.
Thus, while further refinements were identified at the state level, BSPD's overall approaches merited a high level of recognition of achievement.
Over the next three years, BSPD applied for the Baldrige Award. In 2000, the company did not receive a site visit. Although the examiners recognized that the company had some key strengths and outstanding practices, for example:
Branch-Smith Printing Division uses a fact-based systematic planning process throughout the organization, from setting its overall organization direction to details such as determining its recognition and reward system. Branch-Smith Printing Division collects inputs, either directly or indirectly, from customers, employees, suppliers, peer groups within the industry, professional organizations, and benchmark organizations outside of the industry. Senior leaders use that information to set short-range and longer-range objectives that align with each of its four major goals. Employee teams create action plans to meet those goals and objectives. Branch-Smith Printing Division has an extensive system for collecting performance data in its Quality Improvement Database (QID) for daily monitoring of performance, for monthly analysis and review, for creating new action plans to address processes falling short of performance goals, and for annual strategic planning. This systematic approach is a key factor in the division's success in meeting the requirements of its customers.
They also pointed to some weaknesses (opportunities for improvement), such as:
Branch-Smith Printing Division does not provide results information about several areas that seem important to its success. These areas include market share, the level of errors and the level of errors that reach customers, the effectiveness of its education and training programs, customer loyalty and referral, results measuring responsibility to the public other than VOC emissions, the effectiveness of its work system , the impact of supplier performance on Branch-Smith Printing Division's performance, and indicators that it is reaching its goal of continuously improving its quality systems. It also does not segment results by product , service , or employee groups.
and
Development of Branch-Smith Printing Division's design and delivery processes appears to focus on the availability of new technology to a greater degree than on changes in the marketplace. Branch-Smith Printing Division does not supply evidence that it keeps abreast of changes in the marketplace with the same thoroughness that it keeps abreast of technological changes in the industry.
The examiner?s feedback noted that
Branch-Smith Printing Division scored in band 3 ( 351 - 450 ) in the consensus review of written applications for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Branch-Smith Printing Division demonstrates a systematic approach that is responsive to the basic purposes of most Items, but deployment in some key Areas to Address is still too early to demonstrate results. Early improvement trends in areas of importance to key organizational requirements are evident.
A significant reason why BSPD's results were lagging its approaches can be explained from a strategic perspective. As Mr. Branch explained, "we were using the Criteria to improve how we run the business, but we also had to make fundamental changes regarding what businesses we were in." In the late 1990s, BSPD recognized the need to change to digital printing technology in order to survive in the evolutionary and highly competitive printing industry. The high capital cost of this technology necessitated a new growth model to justify the investment. This led to changes in the products and services offered: an increased sales force; a new emphasis on customer service; and a better information system to manage complexity. As a result, it took several years before improved results-especially in the financial and customer areas-began to occur. During this transition, BSPD continued to use the Baldrige Criteria as a basis for refining its management systems.
In 2001, the company received a site visit but was not selected as an award recipient. The 2001 feedback stated:
Branch-Smith Printing Division scored in band 5 ( 551 - 650 ) in the consensus review of written applications for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Although no rescoring is done at the site visit , the site visit findings would have resulted in a scoring increase in Category 6 and no change in Categories 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 7. An organization with this scoring profile typically demonstrates an effective, systematic approach responsive to many of the Areas to Address and to key organizational needs, with a fact-based evaluation and improvement process in place in key Areas. There are no major gaps in deployment, and a commitment exists to organizational learning and sharing. Improvement trends and/or good performance are reported for most areas of importance. Results address most key customer/stakeholder and process requirements and demonstrate areas of strength.
Finally in 2002, BSPD received another site visit and was selected as a recipient of the Baldrige Award. The company made substantial progress in improving its approaches and results. For example, the weakness cited above in 2000 regarding the lack of staying abreast of changes in the marketplace was now cited as a strength:
Changes in customer requirements are incorporated into Branch-Smith Printing Division's design and production processes through the use of the PSI software, which uses estimate request forms to create job tickets. For the design phase, the Art and Electronic Prepress departments use proofing processes for this purpose as well. CSRs and sales personnel are responsible for ensuring that changes are incorporated into a customer's job ticket. The INC process is used to monitor and track the costs associated with failing to keep customer requirements up to date when such errors occur.
In summary, the feedback noted:
The Site Visit Team found the descriptor for scoring band 6 ( 650 - 750 ) to be the most accurate overall for Branch-Smith Printing Division. An organization in this band typically demonstrates refined approaches, including key measures, good deployment, and very good results in most Areas. Organizational alignment, learning, and sharing are key management tools. Some outstanding activities and results address customer/stakeholder, process, and action plan requirements. The organization is an industry leader in some Areas.
BSPD clearly made substantial progress in its journey toward performance excellence, culminating in being recognized as a national role model.
Identify what Baldrige Core Values and Concepts are reflected in the strength and opportunity for improvement comments cited in this case.