For Immediate Release
ASQ Hosts 21st International Team Excellence Competition
Business Teams From Around the World Compete for the Gold
Milwaukee, WI, March 29, 2006 – While they don’t have to skate triple axels or turn a half-pipe, the finalists in this year’s International Team Excellence Competition are hoping to achieve their own “Olympic” moment as leaders in quality improvement and performance. Hosted by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), this year’s competition will feature 29 teams from around the world from a broad spectrum of industries vying for the coveted ASQ Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards.
The live competition, where conference attendees can view teams using quality tools and their creativity to demonstrate valuable business insights, takes place May 1-3 at ASQ’s annual World Conference on Quality and Improvement at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee, Wis. Winners will be recognized Wednesday, May 3. They will serve as benchmarks of organizational excellence in all industries for years to come.
Since 1985, 775 teams from Canada, China, Costa Rica, India, Japan, Mexico, and the United States have participated in this outstanding process. For the first time, teams from South Korea and Singapore will participate. Well-known companies such as Baxter Healthcare, Honda, and Boeing have showcased proven results with long-term implications, resulting in cost-savings of millions of dollars. In 2005, individual team finalist savings resulted in well over $48 million for their organizations.
The following finalists will compete for the 2006 International Team Excellence Awards:
- Baxter Healthcare, Marion, North Carolina
- Boeing C17 Program (4 teams), Long Beach, California
- City of Coral Springs, Florida
- DaimlerChrysler, Auburn Hills, Michigan
- DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee, Inc., Maryville, Tennessee
- Diversified Brands/Berry Plastics Corp., Evansville, Indiana
- Fidelity Investments, Merrimack, New Hampshire
- Genentech, Inc., Vacaville, California
- Honda of America Mfg., Inc., Marysville, Ohio
- Housing & Development Board (3 teams from Singapore )
- Keihin IPT Mfg., Inc., Greenville, Indiana
- Korea Western Power Co., Ltd. (2 teams from Korea )
- Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division-Measurement Science Department – Corona, California
- Reliance Industries Limited India, Hazira Manufacturing (2 teams from India )
- Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Shawnee Mission, Kansas
- Siemens VDO Guadalajara ( Mexico )
- U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center (4 teams from Japan )
- Vendanta Resources plc. ( India )
- Xcel Energy, Fort Collins, Colorado
Interviews with finalists are available upon request. The following is a schedule of times and locations for the judging sessions at the Midwest Airlines Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee:
Monday, May 1 – 10:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Rooms 102A, 102B, 102E
Tuesday, May 2 – 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Rooms 102A, 102B, 102E
Wednesday, May 3 – 9:00 a.m.
Award Presentations – conference closing session
The American Society for Quality www.asq.org has been the world's leading authority on quality for 60 years. With more than 90,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement, and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools, and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners, and everyday co ns umers, encouraging all to Make Good Great®. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., the 60-year-old organization is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.
Read each team’s project summary…
