The award winners are required to share (non-proprietary) information on successful performance strategies and actions, and benefits derived. Eligibility allows for two awards in each of three categories:

• Manufacturing companies
• Service companies
• Small businesses
• Education
• Health Care

The key to successful quality improvement implementation is that appropriate action is taken on all category/items that are highlighted as areas needing improvement.

The common practice in industry and government self-assessments is to do a Phase I evaluation, followed by a site visit. The following could be labeled the elements of the Baldrige Advanced Quality/Management System.

• Approach
• Deployment
• Results

The guidelines indicate which category/items are evaluated for approach-deployment, and those evaluated for results.

1999 CATEGORIES/ITEMS	POINT VALUES
1.0  Leadership	125
1.1   Organizational Leadership	85
1.2   Public Responsibility and Citizenship	40
2.0  Strategic Planning	85
2.1  Strategy Development	40
2.2  Strategy Deployment	45
3.0  Customer and Market Focus	85
3.1  Customer and Market Knowledge	40
3.2  Customer Satisfaction and Relationships	45
4.0  Information and Analysis	85
4.1  Measurement of Organizational Performance	40
4.2  Analysis of Organizational Performance	45
5.0  Human Resource Focus	85
5.1  Work Systems	35
5.2  Employee Education, Training, and Development	25
5.3  Employee Well Being and Satisfaction	25
6.0  Process Management	85
6.1  Product and Service Processes	55
6.2  Support Processes	15
6.3  Supplier and Partnering Processes	15
7.0  Business Results	450
7.1  Customer Focused Results	115
7.2  Financial and Market Results	115
7.3  Human Resource Results	80
7.4  Supplier and Partner Results	25
7.5  Organizational Effectiveness Results	115
TOTAL POINTS	1000