In early 1989, Michael Whisman, MBA, MBB, was trained by his then-employer, Baxter Healthcare, to be an examiner within the company’s newly announced Baxter Quality Award. To determine award winners for the performance recognition program, the company was using the first edition of the Criteria for Performance Excellence for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Criteria had just been produced by the Baldrige National Quality Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) following the 1987 legislation establishing the award.

Whisman was a plant manager at that time, and he began to use what he learned in the company’s Baldrige training to align his plant activities with the Criteria. Within a fairly short period, Whisman recalls, his plant began winning company awards for its performance.

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