COLUMBUS, Ohio, - The Ohio Partnership for Excellence (OPE) has awarded the 2010 Gold Level Achievement of Excellence to the Ohio Army National Guard for its outstanding organizational performance under the Baldrige National Quality Program’s Criteria for Performance Excellence.
“Our goal was to benchmark and assess our organization against the internationally-recognized Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence,” said Maj. Gen. Gregory L. Wayt, adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard. "Winning the 2010 Gold Level award is a validation of our commitment to excellence as well as a reminder that being a world-class organization is a continual journey of improvement.”
William Radford, senior quality advisor for the Ohio National Guard, said the achievement is “an indicator of improvement in our processes,” since the Ohio Army National Guard earned the Silver Level Commitment to Excellence award in 2009.
The Ohio Army National Guard’s submission to OPE is based on a 50-page self-assessment of the organization using the Baldrige Criteria as it relates to installation management business and a three day, on-site review of the organization by OPE-trained examiners of the Baldrige Criteria, who validate the contents of the self-assessment.
The Ohio Army National Guard submitted its 2008 organizational assessment to OPE to meet the self-assessment requirement for this award.
“That document itself is nothing more than an assessment,” Radford said. “But it is the product of more than 3,000 man hours from about 60 people.”
Radford said the Soldiers who worked on the organizational assessment were specially selected from various departments for being “the best and brightest, they’re the A-team.”
OPE is a program designed to develop the quality of organizations through focus on organizational learning, resource optimization and improvement by administering the Baldrige assessment process.
The Baldrige National Quality Program is a public-private partnership whose mission is to “enhance the competitiveness, quality and productivity of U.S. organizations for the benefit of all U.S. residents,” and its Criteria for Performance Excellence is used to assess the performance of organizations, according to the organizational web site.
The Baldrige Criteria is also used by the Department of Army in evaluations for the Army Communities of Excellence (ACOE) competition. The Ohio Army National Guard has won three times, every time it was allowed to compete since 2003, in the Special Category, a category specifically for National Guard.
The ACOE evaluates the Ohio Army National Guard using the Baldrige Criteria, but it is a military organization and evaluates from a military perspective.
Radford said the real value in participation in the OPE program is that “we are being judged against their standards, they have different set of values, missions and standards, using the same criteria.”
The OPE evaluators are comprised of civilian educators, businessman, political officials and community leaders who provide a different perspective to the Ohio Army National Guard’s overall organization.
“OPE is an additional tool we want to continue to use,” Radford said.