Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 28, 1993                   TAG: 9303260305
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MILTON G. ALLIMADI JOURNAL OF COMMERCE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BALDRIGE AWARD'S VALUE IN IMPROVING QUALITY QUESTIONED

The Malcolm Baldrige Award, established in 1987 by the Commerce Department and named after late Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, is the nation's top honor for companies that demonstrate excellence in product quality.

In a survey conducted last year by Grant Thornton, a Chicago-based accounting and management-consulting group, very few top executives at manufacturing companies with annual sales of $10 million to $500 million "believe the award helps promote product quality among prospective domestic and foreign customers."

Rather than measure a product's "quality, integrity or innovativeness," the award measures only the quality of a company's control procedures, the survey found.

Of the 251 respondents, 58 percent said the award "is a good idea but needs to address more substance than form," while 28 percent said the "honor is a waste of time and money and should be abandoned."

Only 12 percent of the respondents said the award helps American manufacturers promote U.S. product quality among prospective customers here and abroad.

"It's understandable why many manufacturers wonder if this time-consuming, rigorous and expensive process really determines whether a winning company is a stellar example of quality performance," said Michael Cantwell, Grant Thornton's director of manufacturing and partner in charge of the study.

Robert Ledet, president of Aston Press Fabrics Inc., a Clinton, S.C.-based company, said even though his company was a 1990 finalist that did not win the award, participation in the process improved product quality and market share.

"I personally can't speak more highly about the benefits our company has attained. I think those who criticize it aren't serious about improving the efficiency of their company," Ledet said in an interview. "Our quality measure has gone up by 162 percent, our market share has improved by 40 percent and revenues are up 175 percent," he said.

Moreover, when a major press-fabric consumer decided to downscale suppliers to only three in 1991, they visited Aston Press Fabrics "only because they knew we were a Baldrige finalist," he said. "Today, we are one of the three suppliers."

Curtis Reimann, director of the Baldrige Award, also rebutted the survey's conclusions.

"I suspect there is still a lack of understanding of the system. The companies that have taken the bother to go through the process would be disappointed by [the survey's] characterization," he said.

"The award does not deal with just one aspect. If you look at the industries that comprise 90 percent of the national economy, while there may be some innovation, you really don't get major changes say in transportation systems within a year," he said.