Baldrige and ISO9000
Contrasts between the Baldrige Criteria and ISO9000 Standards as tools for business improvement
How are Baldrige and ISO9000 different?
ISO9000 |
Baldrige |
|
Original intent |
To facilitate international trade by providing an assurance of consistent processes. |
To improve the performance of organizations by facilitating knowledge transfer. |
Original use |
To set out auditable quality assurance requirements that will form part of the customer-supplier contract. |
To provide a framework for evaluating an organization's management system for the purposes of adjudicating awards. |
Focus |
Conformance (to procedures and to specifications). |
Improvement (of methods and of overall business results). |
Responsibility for system |
Quality Assurance specialists. |
Executive management team. |
Approach to evaluation |
Identification of conformance and non-conformances, resulting in a pass/fail verdict. |
Identification of strengths and opportunities for improvement, and scores indicating the maturity of the management system. |
Scope |
Design and production processes, and directly-associated support activities. |
The entire management system, including leadership, planning, the use of information and measurements, the development and management of people, the methods used for understanding customer and market requirements, and the management of key business processes. |
Prevention/ improvement strategy |
Corrective action to fix non-conformances and to prevent recurrence of problems. |
Continuous improvement using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. |
Performance-related elements |
Conformance with contractual requirements. |
Sustained improvement of business results, including comparisons with competitors or similar organizations. |
Primary mechanism driving usage |
Trade-related legislation and/or market demand for registration. |
Use as a tool to develop improvement plans. |
How are Baldrige and ISO9000 similar?
Both are tools designed to support an examination of the organization's management system. However, Baldrige and ISO are very different creatures, with different origins, different scope and different applications. Both are valuable and both have their specific uses.
Which is the best system?
Neither is 'best' – each has its niche and its specific uses.
- ISO9000 is an excellent tool for documenting and hence understanding design and production processes, and for achieving consistent operation of these processes.
- Baldrige is an excellent tool for understanding the entire management system, for identifying opportunities to improve overall business results, and hence for creating an improvement plan.