Judges

Michael R. Whisman

Michael R. Whisman is Director of Quality at Baxter Healthcare Corporation. He has over 30 years experience in the Medical Device and Pharmaceuticals Industry.

Michael has worked for Baxter since 1989 as a Plant Manager, Division Supplier Quality Mgr.; Director of Corp Quality Leadership; and as Director of Quality (Master Black Belt, Corporate Business Excellence Group).

Michael’s current role involves  coaching, teaching, and developing continuous improvement programs with corporate, divisional, and plant leadership teams throughout Baxter.

Public Service:

• Baldrige Examiner (1997 - Present)
• ASQ Team Excellence Award Judge (since 2001)
• Shingo Prize Examiner (2005-2007)
• Serve on ASQ’s “ITEA Team Excellent Award” and “Team and Workplace Excellence” Committees
• Baldrige Coach for United Way of Lake Co

Whisman states….. "When asked by my Vice President to create and launch a team recognition process, I decide to see if anything existed that would keep me from having to "totally invent the wheel". An on-line search detected AQP's Team Excellence Award Criteria and we downloaded a copy. After reviewing the Criteria it was decided to use it for determining Baxter's internal award recipients. Once the Criteria were selected, we turned out attention to selection of Judges that would be qualified to evaluate our applicants. We knew we would need to conduct Applicant and Judge Training so I called the contact person, Ms. Geetha Balagopal. Before I knew it, Geetha had asked why train your own judges when you could use ours? This would keep us from having to train our own Judges as well as allow us to advertise the event as being judged by outside, impartial, and highly experienced talent! Geetha helped contact judges that were willing to help us and we launched the program. It was a huge success, with five internal recipients, selected from 24 applicants from Baxter plants around the world.

Two years later, Baxter's 2B1324 Value Stream Team, from our North Cove, North Carolina Facility won the 2005-06 Gold Level Award at the ASQ Conference and I will always remember the tremendous feeling of achievement that we enjoyed both for the team as well as for our fledgling program! These team members came home like celebrities! They were subsequently asked to present their presentation to every department in the plant. You can only imagine how well received this was and what it did for the concepts of teamwork in our plants? This was an unforgettable story for me!

I can only begin to thank my fellow ASQ Members who served as Judges for our process! Many of us have become friends and continue to share experiences to this date. In a small effort to repay Geetha and this wonderful group of Judges, I became a Judge and subsequently a Site Coordinator. The experiences continue to mount up for me personally and professionally, as I continue to enjoy wonderful experiences within the ITEA Process! Everyone should try it, at least once! Bet you can't judge just once?"

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