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What's happening in the federal IT community
By Monday, April 14, 2008 | 10:22 AM
For whatever reason, there seems to be a curse attached to many of the winners of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. You win it, and something bad seems to happen.
Appears the curse hit again.
Last November, the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), which also is known as Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, became the first Department of Defense organization in history selected to receive the Baldrige Award.
Last week, a 2-pound metal fragment from a routine munition test traveled over a mile instead of the predicted 1,300 feet, crash landed onto a two-story house off the base, ended up landing in a child's bed and critically injuring the cat that was lying there. The cat had to be put asleep.
The Army is investigating what happened and why, suspended further tests and has apologized to the family.
The only good news about this, if you can call it that, is at least the event didn't happen the week before when ARDEC's technical director was giving a keynote speech at the North Jersey American Society for Quality Spring Quality Conference 2008 on winning the Baldrige Award.
Comments
"Curse?" What happened? Did an evil witch give ARDEC the evil eye?
"You win it, and something bad seems to happen?" Puh-leez! Put the "something bad" in perspective. Show me one organization that has not had one bad thing happen. The ARDEC incident was an isolated occurrence, not a part of a trend attributable to poor quality control/assurance/management practices. Linking the "something bad" to winning the Baldrige is like saying that the rooster's crowing causes the sun to rise. Most of your readers know better.
Yes, what happenned to continuous process improvement? Maybe the companies that got the Baldrige awards like Motorola, Cadillac, Rubbermaid, and AT&T Visa lost focus after receiving the awards.
david.wong@noblis.org | Wednesday, April 16, 2008 | 8:46 AMCan I get something like that for the cats in my neighborhood?
Jack | Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | 8:17 AMA drawback to quality awards and certifications such as the Baldrige and Iso 9000 is a reliance on measuring how an organization conforms to their documented processes. The organization could have a process that turns out 100% defective product but may still be Iso 9001 certified because they follow their documented processes. A lot of good things come out of the process of trying to win the Baldrige or becoming Iso 9001 certified (hopefully, as the processes are reviewed, the organization analyzes and improves them) but they do have their limitations as well.
Lane Narrows | Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | 7:29 AM