ELIGIBILITY TO APPLY FOR THE AME EXCELLENCE AWARD
Manufacturing Plant
The application entity is a single plant (facility) in the United States, Canada or Mexico. Applicants doing maintenance, repair and overhaul in either the private or public sector are eligible. The plant should have been in operation for a minimum of three years. Award eligibility must be delineated as “manufacturing” by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) (www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/). AME will also do site visits for AME Corporation members’ facilities outside of North America.
Questions regarding eligibility can be forwarded to the AME office. AME members should contact the AME office if they wish to have one of their international affiliate operations apply. Please note we will also accept applications from healthcare service providers (hospitals). Final decisions regarding AME Excellence Award recipients are made by the AME Awards Council.
Hospital
The applying organization may be in either the public or private sector.
TIMELINE FOR THE EXCELLENCE AWARD
Applications are now considered on a rolling basis. Intent to Apply, Plant Profile, Excel version of the Lean Sensei, and The Achievement Report are all necessary to consider your application. Download the latest Excel version of the Lean Sensei at ame.org/lean-sensei. Assessment site visits are typically conducted in late May through mid-July. Applicants will be notified of results on a rolling basis and typically no later than the end of August. AME will present the award to recipients at the applicant’s site and also provide recognition at the AME International Conference (held annually in October or November).
BENEFITS FROM PARTICIPATION IN THE AWARD’S PROCESS
- Award recipients and non-recipients each receive a detailed feedback report from the assessment team describing the organization’s strengths and opportunities to get better at getting better.
- Site visit teams consist of highly experienced improvement practitioners, who will do some coaching while on-site based on observations of how the organization improves.
- Award recipients are recognized at the AME Annual Conference, on LinkedIn and with an article describing one of the Pearls of Excellence recognized by the assessment team.
- AME produces a two-minute video to share the organization’s story at the Annual Conference. A copy of the video is also given to the organization.
- 30 to 60 days after receiving the feedback report, AME schedules a Zoom session to discuss the site visit team’s report. This session is an opportunity for clarification and specific questions the host site may wish to discuss.
- We encourage all award recipients to prepare and deliver a formal presentation at the following year’s conference (after they receive their award) to share their stories with other AME member organizations.
CONFIDENTIALITY AND NON-DISCLOSURE
All members of the AME Awards Council and all AME assessors have signed confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements. The AME Excellence Award also has a clear policy and process to ensure that conflicts of interest are avoided.
FEES
The assessment site fee varies based on the applicant's affiliation with AME and any travel out of pocket costs for the assessors are in addition to the site fee.
- Member: $8,000
- AME Consortia or Champions Club Member: $7,000
- Non-member: $10,000
For a small applicant (less than 300 employees) assessment site visit, the team will generally consist of three assessors. Medium-sized sites will require a team of four to five. Large sites may require a team of six to seven assessors. Site visits in the U.S. and Canada are typically two days in length. International visits to other countries typically run three days in length. Travel expenses may run between $1,000 to $2,500 depending on the location of your facility per assessor, international travel will run higher. Total costs will generally run between $10,000 and $18,000. Applicants will be notified of the fee and travel estimate before the assessment site visit. Fees for site visits cover costs for the awards program.
