Criteria for Performance Excellence

•Leadership •Strategic Planning •Customer and Market Focus

•Information and Analysis •Human Resource Focus •Process Management

•Business Results

Baldrige National Quality Program CEO Issue Sheet

Senior leaders at Ames Rubber

Corporation view the Baldrige

Criteria, ISO 9000, and Six Sigma as

tools that all fit in the toolbox

for continuous improvement. Ames

develops and manufactures precision

rubber parts and assemblies.

BALDRIGE, SIX SIGMA, & ISO: 

Understanding Your Options

Although all three are quality measurement systems, the Baldrige Criteria for

Performance Excellence, ISO 9001:2000 Registration, and Six Sigma each offer a

different emphasis in helping organizations improve performance and increase

customer satisfaction.

Six Sigma

• concentrates on measuring product quality and improving process engineering.

• drives process improvement and cost savings. 

ISO 9001:2000 Registration

• is a product/service conformity model for guaranteeing equity 

in the marketplace.

• concentrates on fixing quality system defects and product/service

nonconformities.

Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence

• focus on performance excellence for the entire organization in an overall 

management framework.

• identify and track all-important organizational results: customer, 

product/service, financial, human resource, and organizational effectiveness.

Or, as explained by April Lusk, Director of Quality for Trident Precision

Manufacturing, Inc. (1996 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient in

Small Business), in describing her organization’s use of the Baldrige Criteria,

“You need an overall organizational approach if you are looking for guidance in

how to link the product approach with such organization functions as strategic

planning, customer satisfaction, and staff and supplier satisfaction.” Trident

specializes in precision sheet metal fabrication, stampings, machined parts,

electro-mechanical assemblies, and complete systems integration.

Spokespersons from other MBNQA recipient organizations agree that Baldrige,

Six Sigma, and ISO are different, but can be compatible. Each may have a place in

the management system of a successful organization.

It shouldn’t be “either/or.” It can be “one, two, and/or three.” 

So say many Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients when asked if it is 

best to choose only one of the available performance improvement tools. To ensure

the overall future development and success of an organization, you need a systems

approach and Baldrige provides that. Where you begin often depends on what your

organization needs now. 

Eastman Chemical Company is a

leading international company that

produces more than 1,000 chemicals,

fibers, and plastics. According to

Joe Wilson, Director of Corporate

What Makes the Difference?

All for One: Ames Your Needs Drive the Choice!

Rubber Corporation 

(1993 Recipient in Small Business)

Using Baldrige and

ISO: Eastman 

Chemical Company 

(1993 Recipient in Manufacturing)

“STMicroelectronics has always

been open to any approach that

will help it to better accomplish its

mission,” says Richard Pieranunzi,

President and CEO of ST’s Americas

Open to All Approaches:

STMicroelectronics,

Inc.–Region Americas

(1999 Recipient in Manufacturing) 

Summer 2002

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Eggs are what Sunny Fresh Foods is

all about. As the leader in high-quality,

value-added egg products, it supplies

thousands of restaurants nationwide.

Baldrige First and Still:

Sunny Fresh Foods 

(1999 Recipient in Small Business) 

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Quality, Eastman has operated using the principles of the

Baldrige Criteria as well as ISO 9000 for over ten years. 

“The company’s quality management system is underpinned

by the Baldrige principles, though expressed in a manner

specific to the Eastman culture,” Wilson says. “ISO lays a

foundation for necessary procedural standardization and we

benefited most from ISO implementation in the creation of

maintainable systems for process documentation and

training. This helped us to significantly reduce variability. But,

we have not used ISO as a means of instituting broader

quality management. Eastman often had existing management

processes that already met those requirements. The Baldrige

principles were key to the development of many of these

systems,” he explained.

For more information, contact

● April Lusk, Director of Quality, Trident Precision Manufacturing, Inc., (716) 265-1009.

● Tim Marvil, President & CEO, Ames Rubber Corporation, (973) 209-3161.

● Joe Wilson, Director of Corporate Quality, Eastman Chemical Company, (423) 229-4002.

● Richard Pieranunzi, President, STMicroelectronics, Inc.–Region Americas, (602) 485-6271.

● Mike Luker, CEO, Sunny Fresh Foods, (763) 271-5608.

● Harry Hertz, Director, Baldrige National Quality Program, (301) 975-2036 or nqp@nist.gov. 

Visit the Baldrige Program’s Web site at www.quality.nist.gov for a general overview. 

BALDRIGE, SIX SIGMA, & ISO: Understanding Your Options

Ames Rubber Corporation (continued)

Eastman Chemical Company (continued)

STMicroelectronics, Inc.–Region Americas (continued)

According to President and CEO Tim Marvil, “Baldrige gives

Ames an overarching set of criteria questions to determine

where we are, ISO helps us document what we’re doing, and

Six Sigma helps us to implement the processes to correct the

problems.” Marvil observes that each organization has to

choose what best serves its needs. “But, for success, they all

require a commitment of resources,” he advises.

“At Ames,” concludes Marvil, “Our experience has been

that, while we have implemented Baldrige, ISO 9000, and

Six Sigma at different times, each of them has played a critical

role in meeting the needs of both our customers and our

business through their use in our organizational processes.”

Region. Its mission includes designing, developing, manufacturing, and marketing a broad range of semiconductor

integrated circuits and discrete systems, computer systems,

consumer products, automotive products, and industrial

automation and control systems. ST finds that even though

ISO, Six Sigma, and the Baldrige Criteria for Performance

Excellence may overlap in some areas; they are not mutually

exclusive. “While each of these quality programs builds a

foundation for continuous improvement, each is different in

its scope and focus of its coverage,” explains Pieranunzi. 

“As we at ST see it, the Baldrige Criteria lay the foundation

for the entire organizational process by encouraging review

of its approach. 

“ISO addresses systems that have direct influence in product

quality and customer satisfaction, without suggesting tools

for analysis, prioritization, and evaluation.

“Finally, Six Sigma addresses the statistical strategy philosophy

for continuous improvement,” describes Pieranunzi. 

“Regardless of which tools suit the organization’s needs,

best-in-class companies continue to use them in their pursuit

of performance excellence and their commitment to never be

satisfied. In fact, all are mutually complementary and have

their place in Total Quality Management at ST,” he concludes.

Sunny Fresh Foods (continued)

According to Mike Luker, President of Sunny Fresh Foods,

“The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process and

the Criteria are valuable tools because they can address

differing levels of performance maturity. In the early years of

our quality journey, we used Baldrige-based criteria for

annual self-assessments. Later, the greater value to Sunny

Fresh came through participation in award processes, which

provided feedback from fresh eyes—from experts outside

the business.

“Our business has evolved as Sunny Fresh has grown and as

our customers’ needs have changed. Throughout, we have

viewed ‘continuous improvement’ as the way we run our

business, and the Baldrige Criteria as the lens through which

we clarify and assess our efforts to change and improve.

“Because Sunny Fresh is customer-focused, we have readily

added other performance management methods as we

determine that they enhance continuous improvement and

add value for our customers. Sunny Fresh continues to use

Baldrige-based criteria because they address all aspects of

our business. They continue to have a far-reaching impact on

our ‘customer-solutions’ focus—to delight and bring value to

the customers we serve.”