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Spicer Driveshaft wins Baldrige National Quality Award

Dana Corp.'s Joseph Magliochetti (second from left) and Spicer Driveshaft's Joseph Sober (second from right) are applauded along with President Bush and Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta.

The message from Dana Corp. that it will do whatever it takes to prevent process errors from slipping through was driven home at the highest levels of government and industry during the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award ceremony held in April just outside the nation's capital. Standing on stage with Dana President and CEO Joseph Magliochetti and Spicer Driveshaft General Manager Joseph Sober, President George Bush picked up the award trophy from its pedestal to hand it to them. One problem: the president wasn't supposed to pick it up. The trophy—an obelisk made of Steuben Crystal (which is not supposed to be handled without gloves) encasing an engraved, gold-plated medallion—was on stage for picture-taking purposes only; the four companies being recognized would get their personalized trophy later. Informed prior to the ceremony that the president might forget this protocol, Magliochetti politely reminded the leader of the free world that he was not supposed to remove the trophy from its pedestal.

Bush responded in good humor, quickly returning the object to its stand with a thud and then joining the audience in a laugh over his faux pas. For Bush, it was a slight embarrassment. For Dana and its Spicer Driveshaft division (about 50 employees of which attended the ceremony), it was another way by which to remember an honor that only 43 companies have earned since the award's inception 13 years ago following the death of the Reagan Administration Secretary of Commerce for whom it is named.

Managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the centerpiece of the Baldrige National Quality Program, an educational program to improve U.S. performance and competitiveness. The criteria are designed to help an organization improve performance by focusing on two goals: delivering ever-improving value to its customers and improving its overall performance. Dana was one of four U.S. companies to win the award for the year 2000.

"We know that this award does not represent the attainment of perfection, but rather it is a confirmation we are on the right road," said Sober in accepting the award. "We in Spicer Driveshaft are very fortunate to be part of a larger corporation that understands the continuous improvement journey." Sober, who also holds a Vice President position with parent Dana, noted that Magliochetti "has adopted the Baldrige criteria as the official business process for all of Dana globally."

Prior to the ceremony, Sober emphasized that winning the award is not why the company follows Baldrige criteria. "Winning the award is nice, but we embarked on this journey to realize continuous improvement. That's really at the end of the day what it's all about," he said.

To that end, Spicer encourages its employees to submit ideas for improving equipment or processes. The program has been a great success, according to Sober, with each of its 3400 employees generating about 30 ideas/year. "Now, we can't measure the value of every one of those ideas, but I can tell you that an awful lot of good things are happening when you get that many people thinking in terms of how to improve levels of customer satisfaction," he said.

Each Spicer manufacturing facility conducts about 12 kaizen sessions—or, as Spicer calls them, "better way blitzes"—to generate and implement process improvements. Projects that are too big for a kaizen, such as reducing inventory across Spicer's 17 facilities, are handled under a new black-belt program being implemented across Dana Corp, according to Sober. Black belts, he explained, are selected for their strong analytical minds to become "trained experts" at continuous improvement. The program provides structure for the black belts to use conventional but high-powered tools for "data-driven decision-making" related to continuous improvement.

Under Baldrige criteria, a company must first identify what the customer wants, then, "once you know that, what are you doing to deliver it, and how do you measure that?" Sober said. "With the Baldrige criteria, you're always going to come back to measurements; you're always going to come back to data."

When performance does not measure up, "We put in action plans and change things to make it happen, then we review the data again," Sober explained. "When we see that we have an issue in one of our assembly facilities, for example, we attempt to deal with that issue on a very thorough, systematic approach, not relying simply on operators being more careful, not relying simply on more visual inspection." The systematic approach cultivates a "mindset inside the organization such that the person building the driveshaft thinks the same way as the director of quality."

Based on the assumption that "quality and performance are whatever our customers say they are," Spicer and Dana as a whole "forecast and measure our results for our shareholders monthly and compare those results to our annual plan," Sober said.

Even so, "We're not perfect," said Sober. "This award is not about perfection. This is a journey, and we're continuing on that journey."

- Patrick Ponticel

Plastic tanks from DERA

DERA's "plastic tank" (left) meets a more conventional armored fighting vehicle.

Plastic tanks may be familiar in the home as children's toys but are less familiar on the battlefield. However, in the UK, DERA (Defense Evaluation Research Agency) has announced what it claims as the "world's first plastic tank," technically known as the Advanced Composite Armored Vehicle Platform (ACAVP) demonstrator. Developed by DERA and Vickers Defense Systems, the vehicle's technology will support the development of advanced composite materials for incorporation into future armored fighting vehicles (AFV).

Details of the materials incorporated in the plastic tank have not been released, but further advances in composite technology will be demonstrated in various planned vehicles, including a main battle tank. "Future tanks will need to be smaller and lighter than their present day counterparts while retaining or improving their survivability against anti-armor weapons, and this can only be achieved by the use of lightweight composite structures," said Mark French, DERA ACAVP Research Team Leader.

The plastic tank underwent a year-long evaluation program that included all standard British Army tests to assess conventional armored vehicles. These included speed, step-climbing, cross-country mobility, and resistance to impacts, loads, and abrasions. It showed "stealth" advantages over conventional AFVs in terms of radar, thermal, and electromagnetic signatures. Ballistic tests on representative samples of the composite materials used in ACAVP are said to have been "an outstanding success."

The use of composite materials to protect fighting vehicles is not novel, but very extensive incorporation in the manner of the plastic tank certainly is.

- Stuart Birch

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