Twelve firms win prestigious TQC awards
While more firms are vying for honours, no company could qualify for the topmost TQA
Twelve organisations have won the Thailand Quality Class awards, a national honour given to organisations in recognition of their excellence in management.
However, no company passed the threshold of 650 marks to receive the supreme Thailand Quality Award (TQA) this year. TQA is a world standard award, whose criteria for technical and processing is based on the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA), the American Quality Award.
Since beginning the national quality award programme in 2002, there have been only four TQA recipients (Thai Acrylic Fibre, Thai Paper, the Natural Gas Separation unit of PTT, and the Gas Transmission unit of PTT), while 37 organisations have won the TQC.
The 12 winners of this year’s TQC awards comprise six subsidiaries of Charoen Pokphand Foods Group (Bangkok Produce’s chicken meat processing plant at Saraburi, CPF’s chicken meat processing unit at Nakhon Ratchasima, CPF’s aquaculture feed factory at Mahachai, CPF’s aquaculture feed factory at Ban Pru, CPF’s animal feed plant at Pak Thong Chai, and CPF Food Products’ chicken meat processing and food processing plant at Minburi); four PTT Group units (Thai Oil, PTT’s natural gas business unit, PTT’s international trading business unit, and PTT’s oil business unit); as well as Central Pattana’s Chiang Mai branch, and state-owned telecom TOT which won the award for the first time).
TQA’s criteria covered seven main categories – leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and management of knowledge; people focus; operational excellence; and operating results.
Sompop Amartayakul, chairman of the National Quality Award Committee, said the 12 organisations that got the TQC awards have shown systematic and effective management and have continuously improved their operations. Although no company won the TQA award this year, it is encouraging to see more organisations receiving the TQC awards every year and they have come from a wider range of industries, not only the food and energy businesses, he said.
“Applying the TQA criteria will help organisations to develop and enhance their sustainable competitiveness which will also prepare Thailand for a more competitive future,” he said.
Panich Laosirirat, director of the National Quality Award Committee, said the number of organisations interested in vying for the TQA awards have increased every year. This year there were 41 applicants, 39 per cent of which were from the service industry, followed by manufacturing, healthcare, and education sectors.
