Case 14.3 Alamar Industries While driving home in northern Kentucky at 8:

Case 14.3

Alamar Industries

While driving home in northern Kentucky at 8:00 P.M., Juan Alamar

wondered whether his father had done him any favor by retiring early

and letting him take control of the family machine tool-restoration

business. When his father started the business of overhauling

machine tools (both for resale and on a contract basis), American

companies dominated the tool manufacturing market. During the

past 30 years, however, the original equipment industry had been

devastated, first by competition from Germany and then from

Japan. Although foreign competition had not yet invaded the over

haul segment of the business, Juan had heard about foreign compa-

nies establishing operations on the West Coast.

The foreign competitors were apparently stressing the high-

quality service and operations that had been responsible for their

great inroads into the original equipment market. Last week Juan

attended a daylong conference on total quality management that

had discussed the advantages of competing for the Baldrige Award,

the national quality award established in 1987 Presenters from

past Baldrige winners, including Xerox, Federal Express, Cadillac,

and Motorola, stressed the positive effects on their companies of

winning and said similar effects would be possible for any com-

pany. This assertion of only positive effects was what Juan ques-

tioned. He was certain that the effect on his remaining free time

would not be positive.

The Baldrige Award considers seven corporate dimensions of

quality. Although the award is not based on a numerical score, an

overall score is calculated. The maximum score is 1,000, with