Lab and major subcontractor receive Quality New Mexico Awards

Contact: Shelley Thompson, sthompson@lanl.gov, (505) 665-7778 (02-002)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Jan. 7, 2002 -- Engineering Sciences and Applications Design Engineering group and Protection Technology Los Alamos, a major subcontractor of the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, were among the 26 statewide organizations that won awards as part of the ninth annual Quality New Mexico Awards. The program recognizes organizations that excel in using quality concepts and principles.

"Congratulations to both organizations," said Bill Wadt, director of the Quality Improvement Office at the Laboratory. "Customers and employees alike are the real beneficiaries of the commitment to systematic performance improvement made by ESA-DE and PTLA."

Quality New Mexico is a nonprofit organization that engages in activities that seek to educate New Mexicans about quality; encourage and reward quality in business, education, government and healthcare; and promote an economic climate to foster and enhance the prosperity of the citizens of New Mexico. The mission of Quality New Mexico is to motivate, educate and congratulate New Mexico organizations for achievement in performance excellence.

Since the Quality New Mexico awards program began in 1994, Laboratory organizations and major subcontractors have received 13 Roadrunner Awards and 10 Piñon Awards.

The program uses the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria and is broken into three award levels: the Zia Award, the highest honor given to those organizations that clearly demonstrate performance excellence; the Roadrunner Award, for those organizations that implement quality processes and demonstrate significant progress; and the Piñon Award, which recognizes those organizations that make serious commitments to using quality concepts and principles.

This year, there were no Zia award winners, but eight earned Roadrunner recognition and 18 earned the Piñon Award. ESA-DE won a Piñon Award and PTLA won the Roadrunner Award. Organizations that win Piñon awards typically are beginning to develop and implement quality principles and concepts and are committed to achieving excellence.

"The application and award process has incredible integrity," said Wadt. "The organizations do a detailed self-assessment of their business, and this self-assessment is then reviewed based on the Baldrige criteria by qualified examiners. Based upon the review, organizations are provided feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of their organization. Our hope is that organizations use this feedback to improve and move up the scale of excellence."

All applications were judged in leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, human resource development and management, process management, information and analysis and customer satisfaction results.

"I would like to send a special thank you to Laboratory and contractor employees who dedicated many hours of service as Quality New Mexico examiners on other applications," said Wadt who served on the board of directors for seven years and is in his fourth year serving on the panel of judges for Quality New Mexico. "Without their efforts to provide constructive feedback to organizations around the state, the Quality New Mexico awards process would not work."

Gov. Gary Johnson will present the awards during Quality New Mexico's annual conference and New Mexico Quality Awards Ceremony, to be held March 8, 2002 at the Sheraton Old Town in Albuquerque.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.

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