Richard's Floor Covering Inc. of Lancaster was proud to receive the 1998 Achievement Award from the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Business Excellence program.
But what company CEO Bruce Beardsley values even more is the evaluation process the company went through in applying for the award.
"We applied for two reasons: To benchmark ourselves against the best (companies) in Lancaster and the country, and to force us to look at particular issues, to change things that would bring us into compliance with the (business excellence) model." Beardsley said.
"I would definitely encourage other businesses to apply, for the same reasons we did: To help them think about things they wouldn't normally think about, because they're always doing the urgent things rather than the important things, like planning ahead for the future."
Richard's Floor Covering used the feedback from the awards process to make a number of revisions to its corporate structure, Beardsley said.
"Some specific things that we've done include revising our strategic planning process so that it's more bottom up rather than top-down," he said. "We've enhanced the way we measure customer satisfaction; we have a very active recognition process for our people; and we do a lot of measurement, that's a core part of the model. So we've tried to get everyone in the organization to measure their own processes and their ability to conform to (model's) requirements."
Richard's Floor Covering operated as a division of Good's Furniture of New Holland for 35 years. When Richard Good sold the furniture company in 1996, he bought back the floor-covering division to create an independent firm.
Richard's Floor Covering has annual sales of approximately $6 million, Beardsley said. It has about 40 full-time employees, including about 20 full-time installers.
The company operates retail stores in Centerville, New Holland and Harrisburg and has just opened a retail outlet in its warehouse, located beside the corporate offices in the Greenfield Industrial Park.
The Lancaster chamber has offered the business excellence program since 1992. The number of program applicants varies each year. There were seven or eight applicants in 1997, and chamber officials hope for an increase in applicants for 1999. Because of changes in the application process, only two companies applied in 1998.
The program has three parts: The awards program itself; business roundtables in which local business leaders discuss what their own companies are doing to achieve business excellence; and an annual business-excellence conference, which invites national speakers to discuss the latest business-excellence techniques.
The program is based on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. The Baldridge program is the one most recognized by American businesses, said Betty Rose, manager of the chamber's small-business and business-excellence programs.
"If you are a Baldridge Award recipient, you are perceived to be a world-class business, a top-notch business," Rose said.
The Malcolm Baldridge Award program provides a model to continually improve a company's performance over time, said Randy Wirth, chairman of the chamber's business-excellence committee.
"The chamber adapted the program to help local businesses improve or maintain their competitive levels within the new global economy," Wirth said.
"A lot of companies have a tendency to pick up one or two parts of continued improvement. They're focused on product quality, or they're focused on reducing cost. Or maybe they're focused on measuring one aspect of their business. What they lose in that situation is the big picture. And what they don't have is an overall plan to improve all aspects of their company."
The awards program is open to any organization that i a current chamber member.
The identities of applicants are kept confidential Wirth said. Companies that receive an award are publicly recognized. But companies that apply and don't receive an award remain anonymous, unless they choose to publicize their involvement themselves.
Applying for the award is a two-step process. Interested companies must submit a letter of intent to the chamber. The deadline for 1999 is by Jan. 22.
The application fee is based on the size of the organization: $250 for companies with one to 100 employees and $350 for companies with 101 or more employees. Fees offset the cost of the awards process.
The second step of the process involves preparing and completing an application form and report summarizing the organization's practices and results, according to the requirements of the business-excellence criteria. Applications for 1999 are due by March 13.
Each company' s report and application form are studied by a specially trained team of examiners, including local quality experts and other members of the local business community.
Each examiner reviews the material separately. The team leader meets with all the examiners and then puts together a comprehensive feedback report which then goes to the awards judges and the applying companies.
The feedback reports do not make actual recommendations for change, Rose said. They do indicate areas that could use improvement. which is helpful when a company is undergoing its strategic planning process. But it is up to each company to decide whether to apply the recommendations.
The chamber went through the awards process itself, in 1995, Rose said. "It was the basis for our internal restructuring. And each year we have improved upon it."
The chamber issues awards based on four levels of achievement. The first three are awarded based on the number of points received in each of seven categories: Leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; information and analysis; human resource development and management; process management; and business results.
The Achievement Award is given for serious commitment to customer focus and continuous improvement. The Leadership Award recognizes significant progress in quality improvement.
To date, only two Lancaster companies have received the top award, the Excellence Award. This is awarded for the highest achievement in performance excellence.
The chamber instituted a fourth award in 1996, the Commitment to Excellence Recognition. It was designed for companies that are committed and striving to achieve business excellence but are unable to apply for the other three awards because of size, maturity or other constraints.
The York County Chamber of Commerce does have awards programs, but none based on the Malcolm Baldridge program, said spokeswoman Melissa Golden. The Capital Region Chamber of Commerce did not return phone calls by press time.
Like Richard's Floor Covering, many Lancaster County companies apply for the awards program just to receive the feedback report, Rose said.
"Our feedback report is very valuable," she said. "You're getting information from approximately seven different examiners. It's a low-cost analysis. People pay thousands and thousands of dollars to consultants to get this type of a document. And we have a number of consultants that are volunteer examiners for us in our program."
David Perlis' e-mail address is: davidp@journalpub.com
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