Essay Example on Demonstrate and inform how a small and privately held company received the Malcolm

The Baldrige applicants are judged on seven business criteria leadership strategic planning customer and market focus measurement analysis and knowledge management HR management process management and business results How Mesa demonstrated that they complied Baldrige Criteria First of all is leadership May says that retention and growth of existing customers and vendor relationship are critical to long term success Thus Mesa s practices were based on the foundation of trust honesty and ethics He demonstrated this philosophy to employees customers suppliers and the public through a values statement in its strategic plan We conduct our business with the highest integrity at all times Mesa s strategic planning helped them focus on those areas that have more importance to future success It helps to prioritize and empower you to focus on the important things and then assists in providing the resources to achieve those targets May was able to provide a list of improvements that occurred as the direct result of its strategic planning Customer and market focus Mesa s led its top competitors in all 17 of the customer s attributes of customer satisfaction in 2006 measured by a third party through a quarterly customized survey They were focused on the development of ongoing profitable relationships and their key customer retention increased from 93 to 100 from 2002 to 2005 Also between those years its overall level of customer satisfaction increased from 80 to 88 In Mesa there are four levels of performance measurement systems corporate department process and individual The corporate performance is monitored through performance projection to annual and long term goals monthly report cards monthly financial results annual management reviews and annual financial results Each department has customized performance metrics that drive group performance and are aligned with Mesa s strategic plan 

The process performance is measured using the metrics listed on the monthly report card and include three day shipments on time shipments customer affected NCR s and total NCR s Although in Mesa lean played a major role there were no constant adjustments on the size of its workforce based on seasonal demand for its products and services The organizational culture of Mesa has always been that employees are the most important asset The general hiring philosophy is to attract and retain valuable employees He also says that is important because of the message sent to employees If workforce reduction is a regular management tool it will be extremely difficult to develop loyalty empowerment and all the other traits of a positive culture The plan do check act cycle is Mesa s basic improvement process and lean is its primary improvement method Mesa uses lean as a multistep process that involves mentoring facilitation knowledge transfer and joint implementation May stated that lean concepts provide the flexibility to keep processes current with business needs As result of Mesa s efforts they have achieved world class levels of performance in their one time shipments Mesa s Baldrige application also showed a return on equity that outperforms industry norms and its competitors But what May have considered the key to the companies success was the formation of stable work environments and the team based culture This article presents directly how organizations can benefit from ISO 9000 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and ACSI to measure and improve the levels of their customer satisfaction By combining them Mesa links their business process in an integrated aligned direction resulting in performance excellence