A nonprofit serving manufacturers that has generously supported the Baldrige Enterprise is AME (Association for Manufacturing Excellence), which comprises 4,000 manufacturing members ranging from executives to senior and middle managers. I recently interviewed AME president and CEO Kim Humphrey, interested in knowing how she sees manufacturing and Baldrige, and how she thinks we can work together to support the U.S. economy.

Humphrey not only leads AME but also is a board member for the Baldrige-based U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Award, which is a member of the Alliance for Performance Excellence, the network of Baldrige-based state and sector programs. Below are her responses to my questions.

Can you please describe your roles in AME and the Senate Productivity and Quality Award?

I have served as the president/CEO of AME since February 2020. AME is the premier organization for the exchange of knowledge in enterprise excellence [defined by AME as “improving operations while creating an inclusive, engaging environment”]. Members come together to explore lean thinking and other enterprise improvement methods, exchange best practices, and network to improve the competitiveness and overall value of their organizations.

Since our creation as a nonprofit in 1985, AME has envisioned a renaissance driven by people-centric leadership coupled with enterprise excellence. Our mission is to inspire a commitment to enterprise excellence through experiential learning by bringing people together to share, learn, and grow.

For over 20 years, I’ve also been a board member for the United States Senate Productivity and Quality Award (SPQA) and have served in many other roles, too, including [award evaluation] examiner, team lead, trainer, and, most recently, vice chair of strategy. For more than three decades, the SPQA program has helped organizations in Virginia and Washington, D.C., achieve better results. We use the Baldrige Excellence Framework as the foundation in our efforts. Our mission is to promote continual improvement strategies and provide training, mentoring, and recognition to organizations in pursuit of performance excellence.

I’ve also served as a national Baldrige examiner and am a firm believer in the power of the Baldrige framework to improve organizational performance to obtain sustainable results.

What do you see as challenges for U.S. manufacturers today?

There are many challenges and opportunities facing U.S. manufacturers today. Some of the most predominant ones include the following.

Workforce disruption

We’re witnessing unprecedented changes in all issues surrounding our ability to attract, recruit, develop, and retain top talent. From the pandemic-related recognition of frontline workers to the continued conversation of work-from-home, to upward pressure on wages, to high levels of team member turnover and worker shortages, the conversation [about] our workforces has changed fundamentally.

One way to address this, particularly regarding retention, is to provide a “Meaningful Employment Environment” (white paper by AME board member Robert Martichenko). We’ve learned the importance of dignity, respect, empathy, relationships, and critical thinking relative to the role that people play in all of our operations, regardless of the level of technology or automation in our industry. It’s critical that the way we treat people remains at the center of the narrative. 

How do we cultivate cultures of respect for every individual? What more can be done to ensure that our employees not only have the resources needed to survive but also to thrive and grow professionally? 

We must create environments where workers are proud to represent our various missions, where employee retention is high because structural and cultural foundations are in place to invest in talent and enable the organization to thrive.

Supply chain disruptions

The impact is significant, causing shortages and increased costs. What we see as a remedy is an emphasis on reshoring, near-shoring, and LeanShoring [defined by AME as considering the economic sense of keeping supply chains local when looking at the total cost of offshoring]. By adopting LeanShoring practices, organizations can reduce domestic manufacturing cost by eliminating waste in their current processes—including anything that doesn’t provide value to the end customer—while driving an enterprisewide continuous improvement process.

Fast-paced changes in technology, Industry 4.0 innovations, and AI

Some manufacturers are implementing advanced technologies and integrating them seamlessly into existing operations. This creates the added benefit of attracting more tech-savvy team members and enhancing innovation, which aligns with the Baldrige core value and concept of managing for innovation. The Baldrige approach to innovation emphasizes both cultural/people and process aspects of achieving successful innovation, and provides the linkages to ensure process and people are aligned.

There are other challenges today around energy and cybersecurity that organizations face daily, and organizations like AME and Baldrige are the best resources to gain valuable insight from industry subject-matter experts. 

What do you see as the intersection of value for U.S. manufacturing and AME and Baldrige products and services? 

The Baldrige framework and the AME model both focus on organizational continuous improvement and operational and performance excellence. While the Baldrige model encourages a systematic approach to improving performance in all aspects of an organization (such as leadership, customer engagement, and knowledge management), AME’s approach is more focused on lean principles and practices aimed at improving processes. 

Both models require leadership involvement, workforce engagement, and customer focus. These are complementary products and services, and I’m proud that AME supports Baldrige for our companies. Organizations can use the Baldrige framework and AME’s Lean Sensei to improve the way they operate and to help assess where they are in their journey. 

What do you hope for the future of AME, the Senate Productivity and Quality Award, and Baldrige?

My vision is that we collaborate by bringing the best of our organizations to industry—whether it’s healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit, educational, or government entities—to help them grow and improve. Organizations that integrate both Baldrige and AME practices can benefit from a dual focus on holistic performance excellence (Baldrige) and lean, efficient operations (AME). This combination leads to enhanced leadership alignment, continuous improvement, operational excellence, and long-term sustainability. Our organizations are here to help industry improve in their continuous improvement journey, and I believe that by working together we will impact more organizations.  

How can organizations interested in U.S. manufacturing learn more about AME and strategies to support manufacturers and other leaders?

Check us out at ame.org, or you can reach out to me at khumphrey@ame.org. You can also attend our workshops, tours, and events throughout the country, such as the Baldrige and AME conferences, to network with industry professionals and learn best practices.

AME and Baldrige inspire me to be part of the movement to make organizations better, and I believe once organizations get to know us, they will see our value to the organization. I’m so incredibly proud of what we do for organizations, and I know you will be as well. 

Published Oct. 15, 2024, by NIST.