Opelika, Huntsville Organizations Named Winners of Quality Award by UA Productivity Center

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and the Ballistic Missile Targets Joint Project Office in Huntsville have been named the winners of the 2001 Alabama Quality Award by the Alabama Productivity Center, located on The University of Alabama campus.

The organizations were recognized for their excellence in leadership; strategic planning; attention to customers and other stakeholders; market focus; process management and analysis of organizational performance.

D.W. McMillan Hospital (Brewton) Regions Financial Corporation Information Systems Division (Montgomery) and The University of Alabama were finalists for the award.

The Alabama Quality Award, modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, honors organizations whose recent innovations increased productivity and quality within the organization. The improvement efforts should be formal techniques or practices that are capable of being shared with other organizations with the expectation they will be replicated and contribute to state and national productivity and quality improvement. The Alabama Quality Award has been administered by the Alabama Productivity Center since 1986.

Winners of the Award of Excellence in Continuous Productivity and Quality Improvement are UAB Hospital and Mizell Memorial Hospital in Opp.

Winners were also selected for the Alabama Quality Award Team Showcase. The Gold Level winners are the Honeywell Aerospace Hold for Salvage/Bondroom Team (Anniston); Mizell Memorial Hospital – Case Management Team; and Mizell Memorial Hospital – Customer Satisfaction Team.

Silver Level Winners are Huntsville Hospital Quality Management Survey Team; Shelton State Community College (Tuscaloosa) – Quality Council Team; U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Battle Lab Advanced Research Center Property Management Team (Huntsville); and the U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Battle Lab Operations Division – TSD Team (Huntsville).

The winner of the Bronze Level award is the U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Battle Lab Studies and Analysis Division Team (Huntsville).

The Team Showcase recognizes teams for their performance and the results they achieved and for their efforts to educate other organizations throughout the state on the potential benefits of empowered teams.

The awards will be presented at the Alabama Quality Award Conference and Ceremony scheduled for Nov. 28 at the Richard Scrushy Conference Center in Birmingham. For details of the conference or to register for the event, contact Linda Vincent at the Alabama Productivity Center, 205/348-8994.

David Briggs, vice president of the KARLEE Co. from Garland, Texas will be the keynote speaker at the Alabama Quality Award Conference. KARLEE Co. is a 2000 winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. KARLEE Co. is a contract manufacturer of precision sheet metal and machined components for customers in the telecommunications, semiconductor and medical equipment industries.

The Alabama Productivity Center, a nonprofit organization, was established in 1986 by The University of Alabama and Alabama Power Company. The Center’s purpose is to find ways to use University research and educational resources to stimulate economic development within the state.

Contact

Linda Vincent, Alabama Productivity Center, 205/348-8994

Bill Gerdes, 205/348-8318