Abstract

Measurement is a key to continuous improvement at four winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Federal Express Corp. systematically collects large amounts of data for immediate and potential use. Its customer satisfaction measures include internal and external instruments for quantitative and qualitative data. Benchmarking covers competitors and Baldrige award winners. Measurement at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. is selective, its priority being the cost of quality. Its balanced scorecard gives equal weight to marketing/financial data and to productivity data. Customer satisfaction information comes from surveys, feedback, and focus groups. The company benchmarks Baldrige Awards winners and the best of its own employee performers. For Corning Inc. Telecommunications Products Division, a multilevel GoalSharing Team selects and maintains the measurement tools. The measurement portfolio is balanced, with nonfinancial concepts like cycle time and quality getting priority over financial measures. Texas Instruments Inc. Defense Systems and Electronics Group uses teamwork to establish its metrics. A balanced scorecard method integrates goals with the measuring system. The key measures are: on-time delivery, defect reduction, cycle time, training hours, and revenue growth. There are plans to replace training hours with an indicator of organizational maturity.