Quality and Reliability Standard in Kazakhstan – Altyn Sapa Awards
In 2012 for the seventh Altyn Sapa (Golden Eagle) Awards was held in our country to award the best companies with a premium of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. For the time of its existence the Golden Eagle Awards became the national quality and reliability standard. All domestic companies can participate to get the award however only the best will win.
Long time ago all over the world the quality became a key factor confirming advantages before others. Also, the quality means the quality of products and services, business processes and management systems. Awards for achievements and superiority in business make the best companies recognizable and induce them to apply national strategies on improvement of quality, increase output and raise their competitive capability. Nowadays, there are such well-known international and domestic awards as Deming Prize, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Prize, European and Japanese Quality Prizes.
In Kazakhstan the campaign on quality improvement of goods and services of national companies started on the 9th October 2006 when the head of the country signed the decree on annual conducting of Altyn Sapa Awards as a premium of the President of Kazakhstan. In 2009 the model of the Awards Procedure was harmonized with the model of the European Quality Prize Awards which considers the latest trends in development of current management. Currently, the Kazakhstani model is based on such principles as customer-oriented policy, leadership of management and consistency in goal achievement, management grounded on understanding of processes and facts, involvement of personnel, continuous cognitive activity and innovations, development of partnership relations, interaction with a society and results-oriented activity.
The Awards is open for legal entities implemented management systems at the enterprises and which operate at the market for the period over three years. Their achievements are scored by two groups of criteria. The first group is “Capabilities”; it is used to evaluate how a company achieve results in the quality area. The second group is “Results”; it describes the achieved levels and further targets of a company to be achieved currently.
There are four stages in the Awards. The first one is a self-rating of a company by the parameters mentioned above. This stage stimulates a company to improve its activity and helps it to make a kind of a snapshot from their current position and provides the information on the area where a company’s efficiency may be still improved. As the international experience demonstrates, most part of companies discovers over hundred bottlenecks in their activity upon completion of the self-rating stage; and the bottlenecks require strategic decisions up to the implementation into the production processes.
The second stage is a check of applications submitted which is done by the regional committee headed by the territorial departments of the Committee on Technical Regulation and Metrology by the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies. Representatives of local executive authorities and Atameken National economic Chamber are also involved into the committee.
At the third stage the submitted materials are considered by the committee consisting of almost all members of the Government and business associations headed by the chief of the President’s Administration. And only after this part the proposals of the committee are represented for the consideration of the President.
The Altyn Sapa winners are determined in three nominations: the Best Production Company Prize, Prize to Best Company Producing Customers’ Goods and the Best Company Providing Services. Herewith, two prizes are awarded in each nominations: in the category of the small and medium-sized entrepreneurship and large-sized entrepreneurship. Since 2010 in relation with the start of the Forced Industrial-Innovative Development Program another two special prizes were approved; they are the Industrial Breakthrough Prize and Innovative Breakthrough Prize.
Altyn Sapa Prize winners are entitled to use the awards emblem in their advertisement campaigns for two years. However, this is not most important. To get the prize from the President’s hands is a national recognition for the company’s quality and reliability. In addition, the participation in the Awards helps to monitor the development dynamics, improve the management system, analyse actual changes at an enterprise, compare its level against the standard, to search and to find new ways of development.
As it was mentioned by Mr. Ryskeldy Satbayev, a chairman of the Committee on Technical Regulation and Metrology, for the years of the Altyn Sapa Awards conducted the real changes can be seen in Kazakhstan with regard to transfer of the business to the international standards. For instance, if couple of years ago, there were only 2,000 companies implemented the advanced standards of quality management system, environment protection, occupational health and safety as well as systems of social responsibility, currently the number is 5, 157. ISO 9000 was implemented at 4, 629 companies out of them, ISO 14001 is at 298 entities, ISO 22000 is at 68 companies, and SA 8000 is at 8 companies out of them. Another 168 companies are currently implementing the management systems.
It’s quite understandable why the dynamics looks so. The Forced Industrial-Innovative Development (FIID) Program, adjoining of Kazakhstan to the Customs Union, formation of the Unified Economic Zone set new missions to the business community and they can be performed if only companies will focus at the quality in their work because the quality is the main criterion used to evaluate their activity.
Speaking of the President’s Prize we shall speak of the Prize’s official companion as well, this is the Best Product of Kazakhstan Expo. The main function of the event is to popularize products marked with “Made in Kazakhstan” sign and also to attract national producers to a competitive environment and induce them to shift to the international standards.
There are three nominations of awards: Best Industrial Goods, Customers’ Best Goods, and Best Food Products. The best of the best are chosen in two stages. First of all, akims of all regions and cities of Almaty and Astana organize regional expositions and then 9 winners from each region will come to the final ceremony held in Astana. Award winners get an emblem and diploma of the Republican Expo and Awards as Best Product of Kazakhstan Prize of I, II and III category in each nomination.
In total, 45 companies already became the best national producers for the years of the Expo and Awards. Let’s remind the names of winners for the last year at least. In the nomination of the Best Industrial Goods they are Agromashholding JSC (Kostanay Region); Saiman Corporation LLC (Almaty) and Ast Etalon Crown LLP (Karaganda Region). In the part of the Best Consumers’ Goods the winners were: Brando LLP (Atyrau Region), Yrys Bakhyt LLP (Zhambyl Region) and Aksu Dzen LLP (East Kazakhstan). In the nomination of the Best Food Products they were Maslo-Del LLP (Almaty), Rubikom LLP (Pavlodar Region) and RZA JSC (Kyzylorda Region).
Judging by the regions, most part of winner were from Almaty and South Kazakhstan (6 awards each) as well as from the Almaty and Pavlodar Regions (5 awards each). The Mangistau Region is an obvious outsider compared to them. There is no any producer in the region which can be recognized as the best.
Coming back to the Altyn Sapa Awards, it should be noted that currently there are 36 companies of Kazakhstan which currently possess the Golden Eagle Award statuette. And again, if we break winners by regions, the most part of them are allocated to Almaty (9 awards), followed by Astana city and the Almaty Region (5 each). Unfortunately, no businessmen from the Atyrau, West and North Kazakhstan, and Kyzylorda Region became winners any time.
It should be reminded that last year Kainar-AKB LLP (Almaty Region) and Amitech Astana LLP (Astana) were awarded as the Best Industrial Company. Kostanay Melkombinat JSC (Kostanay Region) and Kazakhstan Texti Line Production and Commercial Company LLP (Almaty city and Almaty Region) won as the Best Company Producing Customers’ Goods. Peoples Saving Bank of Kazakhstan JSC (Almaty) and Ergonomika Research and Manufacturing Company LLP (Karaganda Region) became the Best Companies Providing Services.
In addition, Kazzinc LLP was awarded with the special prize of the President (Industrial Breakthrough) as well as Kazakhstan Temir Zholy NC JSC (Leader of Industrialization).
We’ll know names of new winners at the Altyn Sapa National Awards and the Republican Expo Awards of the Best Product of Kazakhstan very soon. We wish good luck to all participants and let the best be a winner!
