Each application addresses a specific process within a business, outlining how the process aligns with the six Arizona State Quality Award Categories; Leadership, Strategic Planning Customer and Market Focus, Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge management, Human Resource Focus, and Process Management.

To enable the independent volunteer examiner teams to understand the business and the process, we described the primary organizational need addressed, a step-by-step description of the process itself, the overall scope of the process and how it contributes to Holsum's overall success, how the process is shared across our business, and how we measure the processes results and performance.

The decision to enter was easy; deciding which of our processes to enter was far more difficult. Eventually we decided on entering two, the "Job Identification and Training Process" from our Distribution area, and the "Quality Alert Quick Cat" Process for dealing with product foreign object complaints.

Just gathering the information and writing the applications helped us begin to think about how to improve the processes, this helped us spend the time to reflect on the processes, and where they could be improved.

Both entries were rewarded with follow-up on-site examiner visits so they could fully understand the processes.

In both cases, our Holsum Associates who do the processes as part of their normal responsibilities did a great job of explaining the materials and process to the examiners. They also learned from the excellent questions and different view points the examiners brought. Process improvements have already been realized from the feedback reports.

In the end, while both processes scored highly, only one, the Job Identification and Training Process won an award. Putting Holsum in good company with other progressive Arizona businesses.