TABLE OF CONTENTS According to a major quality consultant's data base from a survey they conduct on the Baldrige criteria, "corporate America" rates 560 points out of the 1000 on the Baldrige scale. An organization I consulted with scored themselves at 700/1000 on a Baldrige self-assessment survey, and was shocked when they got knocked out of the first round upon actually applying for the Baldrige Award. The truth is that most companies think they rate much higher on the Baldrige scale than they really merit. If corporate America were really at an average level of 560 on the Baldrige scale, U.S. products and services would be beating everyone else's in quality.
The truth is that corporate America is nowhere near 560 points on the Baldrige scale. If we define corporate America as including small and large service and manufacturing companies, corporate America is really around 250 points or less. As a Baldrige examiner, I evaluated a company once that received a score of 26 points out of 1000. Another examiner gave an applicant 60 points out of 1000. These are companies that thought they had a chance at winning a Baldrige!
One of the major reasons for this gap between where companies think they are and where they really stand on the Baldrige scale is the popularity of surveys as a means of self-assessment. If you review the advertisements in some of the quality journals, you can find ads for at least half a dozen companies with surveys that claim...
