THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 21, 1995 TAG: 9504210498
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Two local institutions have a new feather in their caps.
The Portsmouth school district and the U.S. Coast Guard Finance Center in Chesapeake were among the winners of a 1994 U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Award for Virginia.
The annual award recognizes efforts to become more efficient and responsive to citizens.
The theory is that competition for them will encourage statewide, and thus national, improvement in public and private arenas.
The five 1994 winners were announced at an awards banquet in Alexandria Thursday night.
Most of the organizations that applied for the award have embraced strategies based on work by the late industrial management pioneer W. Edwards Deming. His theory of quality control focused heavily on worker involvement, goal-setting and communication within the corporate structure, as opposed to competition among workers and management control.
All of the winners had competed for the award in previous years. This was Portsmouth's third consecutive year as a finalist, for example.
Winners were selected by a 20-member board of previous winners, business people and scholars from across the state. About 15 states now offer the awards.
Other winners:
Public sector local agencies - Chesterfield County school district.
Private sector service - Plow & Hearth in Madison, Va.
Private sector manufacturing - Georgia-Pacific Corp. in Skippers, Va. by CNB