Tag Archives: awards

My Willing Worker Award

Here is an image of the employee of the quarter award I received from Bill Scherkenbach.

award certificate - employee of the quarter

I took part in the Deming Red Bead Experiment and earned this award for my exceptional performance.

I have received other awards and I don’t think those awards were given with any more understanding of the contributions to results due to the management systems in those cases than was shown when giving me this award. Even knowing how little impact I could make on the results I was still happy to receive this award: psychology is not always (often? ever?) sensible.

Read some of the lessons from the Red Bead Experiment from my post on The W. Edwards Deming Institute blog:

Data very similar to that provided by the Red Bed Experiment is used everyday in businesses to reward and punish people. Data is used to blame those who fall short of expectations and reward those who have good numbers. In the Red Bead Experiment we know the numbers are not a sensible measure of value provided by the employee. But in our organizations we accept numbers that are just as unrelated to the value provided by the employe to rate and reward employees.

There is a powerful need to improve the numeracy (literacy with numbers) in our organizations. It isn’t a matter of complex math. The concepts are fairly simple…

Deming Prizes for 2011 go to Companies Based in India, Taiwan and Thailand

image of the Deming Prize medal

The Union Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) has awarded the Deming Prize to 3 companies in 2011:

Sanden Vikas Limited (India)
The CPAC Roof Tile Company Limited (Thailand) – I am not sure if this link is for the right company (often divisions of companies apply and wether CPAC is a part of Siam Cement company I am not sure).
Unimicron Technology Corporation (Taiwan)

Follow the links I included for the companies to see a bit about their management philosophies. As has been the case since 2000, India and Thailand again did well. Between them the are home to 27 of the 38 award winning organizations.

I have moved to Malaysia and have started some work in Singapore helping organization improve management performance, maybe we can get those 2 countries represented in the coming years (this isn’t a short term effort). I may also do some work in other parts of Asia and Australia.

Organizations receiving the Deming Prize since 2000, by country. Prior to 2000, nearly all winners were from Japan:

Country	Prizes
India	17
Thailand	10
Japan	7
USA	1
Singapore	1
China	1
Taiwan	1

The 2011 Deming Prize for Individuals went to Mr. Masamitsu Sakurai, Chairman, Ricoh Company, Ltd. (Japan). Previous recipients include: Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, Shoichiro Toyoda, Hitoshi Kume and Noriaki Kano.

Continue reading →

2010 Deming Prize

image of the Deming Prize medal

The Union Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) has awarded the Deming Prize to 4 companies in 2010: Corona Corporation (Japan), Meidoh (Japan), GC Dental (China) and National Engineering Industries Limited (India).

Organizations receiving the Deming Prize since 2000 by country (prior to that almost all winners were from Japan):

Country	Prizes
India	16
Thailand	9
Japan	7
USA	1
Singapore	1
China	1

This is the first time a Chinese company has won a Deming Prize. The parent company, GC Dental (Japan), was awarded the Deming Prize in 2000 and the Japan Quality Medal in 2004.

The 2010 Deming Prize for Individuals went to Dr. Takao Enkawa, Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Previous recipients include: Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, Shoichiro Toyoda, Hitoshi Kume and Noriaki Kano.

2009 Deming Prize

image of the Deming Prize medal

The Union Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) has awarded Niigata Diamond Electric (Japan) and Siam White Cement Company (Thailand) the Deming prize.

Organizations receiving the Deming Prize since 2000 by country (prior to that almost all winners were from Japan):

Country	Prizes
India	15
Thailand	9
Japan	5
USA	1
Singapore	1

The 2009 Deming Prize for Individuals went to Dr. Hiroshi Osada, Professor, Graduate School of Innovation Management, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Previous recipients include: Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, Shoichiro Toyoda, Hitoshi Kume and Noriaki Kano.

The 2009 Deming Distinguished Service Award for Dissemination and Promotion went to Gregory H. Watson, Chairman and Managing Partner, Business Excellence Solutions

ASQ William Hunter Award 2008: Ronald Does

The recipient of the 2008 William G. Hunter Award is Ronald Does. The Statistics Division of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) uses the attributes that characterize Bill Hunter’s (my father – John Hunter) career – consultant, educator for practitioners, communicator, and integrator of statistical thinking into other disciplines to decide the recipient. In his acceptance speech Ronald Does said:

The first advice I received from my new colleagues was to read the book by Box, Hunter and Hunter. The reason was clear. Because I was not familiar with industrial statistics I had to learn this from the authors who were really practicing statisticians. It took them years to write this landmark book.
…
For the past 15 years I have been the managing director of the Institute for Business and Industrial Statistics. This is a consultancy firm owned by the University of Amsterdam. The interaction between scientific research and the application of quality technology via our consultancy work is the core operating principle of the institute. This is reflected in the type of people that work for the institute, all of whom are young professionals having strong ambitions in both the academic world and in business and industry.
…
The kickoff conference attracted approximately 80 statisticians and statistical practitioners from all over Europe. ENBIS was officially founded in June 2001 as “an autonomous Society having as its objective the development and improvement of statistical methods, and their application, throughout Europe, all this in the widest sense of the words” Since the first meeting membership has grown to about 1300 from nearly all European countries.

Best Places to Work for Six Sigma Professionals

iSixSigma has created a list of the Best Places to Work for Six Sigma Professionals. To be eligible to participate, companies must have been actively engaged in using Six Sigma for at least two years and must employ a minimum of 30 full-time Six Sigma practitioners in either Black Belt, Master Black Belt or Deployment Leader roles.

Sixteen companies met all the entry requirements and completed a two-part online survey. The senior Six Sigma leader submitted answers to an employer survey, and the full-time Six Sigma personnel at each company submitted answers to an employee survey.

Companies were ranked 1 through 10 by totaling the scores from the two surveys. The greatest weight was given to the employee survey, which asked questions in five main categories: job satisfaction, culture, compensation/rewards and recognition, training and career development, and net promoter score (NPS). Of these categories, the most weight was given to job satisfaction, as that is what employees said was the most important factor to them when it comes to a working environment. The companies, in alphabetical order:

Chevron
EMC
Masco Builder Cabinet Group
McKesson
NewPage
Rio Tinto Alcan
Textron
Volt Information Sciences
Vought Aircraft Industries
Xerox

The rankings will be revealed later. The details are from from convincing to me that these are indeed the top 10 organization for six sigma professionals. However, it does seem a good list for someone looking for a new job working with six sigma to consult.

National Medal of Technology and Innovation

photo of 2007 Medals of Technology and Innovation Presentation at the White House

Armand V. Feigenbaum received the 2007 National Medal of and Technology and Innovation for his leadership in the development of the economic relationship of quality costs, productivity improvement, and profitability, and for his pioneering application of economics, general systems theory and technology, statistical methods, and management principles that define The Total Quality Management approach for achieving performance excellence and global competitiveness.

In 1987, Dr. W. Edwards Deming received the medal for his forceful promotion of statistical methodology, for his contributions to sampling theory and for his advocacy to corporations and nations of a general management philosophy that has resulted in improved product quality with consequent betterment of products available to users as well as more efficient corporate performance.

In 1992, Joseph M. Juran received the medal for his lifetime work of providing the key principles and methods by which enterprises manage the quality of their products and processes, enhancing their ability to compete in the global marketplace.

2007 Baldrige National Quality Award

2007 Baldige awardee representatives in the Oval Office

The Baldrige National Quality Award winners for 2007 are:

PRO-TEC Coating, Leipsic, Ohio (small business)
Mercy Health System [the broken link was removed], Janesville, Wisconsin (health care)
Sharp HealthCare [the broken link was removed], San Diego, California (health care)
City of Coral Springs [the broken link was removed], Coral Springs, Fla. (nonprofit)
U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center [the broken link was removed] (ARDEC), Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. (nonprofit)

President Bush met with winners for the first time since 2000, I believe (photo from Coral Springs web site). He did in private this year in the Oval Office. The Baldridge award had more prestige in the management community 10 years ago. In my opinion the award has failed to attract the best managed companies to apply.

When you purport to recognize the highest level of management excellence you should understand that leaving out those companies that are widely seen as excellent calls into question the credibility of the award. I can understand the challenge in convincing many potential applicants to apply. I would say that is the same challenge companies have that want to convince potential customers their solution is what the customer should purchase.

ARDEC provides a public version of their application [the broken link was removed] (some details removed) that is interesting. ARDEC received the President’s Award Quality in 2000. From 1998 to 2002 the President’s Quality Award [the broken link was removed] recognized management excellence in the federal government based on a Baldrige-style system (it was then switched from Baldrige-style to generic “excellence”).

ASQ Deming Medal to Peter Scholtes

I am happy that the ASQ Deming Medal was presented to Peter R. Scholtes:

for his efforts to inspire others to transform organizations by helping managers understand how successful leadership of people requires an understanding of the interdependencies among knowledge about variation, psychology, appreciation for a system, and the theory of knowledge. The Deming Medal is presented to those who, like Dr. Deming, have successfully combined the application of statistical thinking and management so that each supports and enhances the other, thus leading to quality in products and services.

I have known Peter since he worked with my father applying Deming’s ideas at the City of Madison. And since then I have had the pleasure to enjoy his company over the years in many arenas including at many Hunter Conferences, the Office of Secretary of Defense Quality Management Office, Deming Institute meetings and managing his web site.

His Leader’s Handbook is a great, practical and easy to read management book. I recommend it highly. The Team Handbook is also excellent for working with teams.

Vice President Presents Baldrige Awards

Vice President Presents Baldrige Awards (sadly NIST broke the link so it was removed), press release from NIST (July 20, 2005).

The 2004 Baldrige Award for Quality recipients (links to case studies, NIST also broke all these links, so removed – when are they going to hire people that understand the web?):

The Bama Companies, Tulsa, Oklahoma (manufacturing category)

In its endless quest for improvement, Bama uses a battery of advanced strategies and tools, including the Bama Quality Management System, based on the quality improvement philosophies of W. Edwards Deming and the company’s own performance excellence model. The Bama Excellence System provides a framework for all decision-making. A Principle Centered Bama Culture, based on tenets developed by Stephen Covey, provides a context for creating and measuring excellence. Using Six Sigma methodologies since 2000, Bama has dramatically improved processes throughout the company. Total savings from Six Sigma improvements equates to over $17 million since 2001.

Texas Nameplate Company, Inc., Dallas, Texas (small business category) They also won an award in 1998.

Technology and training have led to dramatic improvements in production. Between 1998 and 2004, the incidence of product nonconformity with specifications, as a percentage of sales, dropped from 1.4 percent to about 0.5 percent, significantly lower than the Industry Week median (2 percent). In that same period, TNC reduced its quote response time from 6 hours to less than 2 hours, and it trimmed the length of its production cycle from 14 days to under 8 days.

Kenneth W. Monfort College of Business, Greeley, Colorado (education category)

MCB continually evaluates its performance and incorporates those evaluations into its short- and long-term planning cycles. The process includes use of Key Performance Indicators

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, Hamilton, New Jersey (health care category)

Also with a focus on Excellence Through Service, the leadership team works within a system that links all management functions—from planning and implementing policies, new technologies, and new facilities through ongoing cycles of evaluation and improvement—with unhindered communications at all levels. Each Executive Management Team member, including the CEO, holds daily brieï¬ngs that are designed to share key information with the staff and to answer questions. As a result, over the past four years, employee satisfaction with hospital leadership has
improved to almost 100 percent.
…
RWJ Hamilton has reduced its rates of mortality, hospital-acquired infections, and medication errors to among the lowest in the nation.