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One of 19 Gold Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA) winners, Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Company (East Hartford, CT) has designed and developed the SHOCKSystem™, an online detonation cleaning product that allows for the continuous removal of accumulated fly-ash deposits while the boiler in coal-fire powered generating stations remains in operation. First publicly presented in December 2005, two major utility companies have purchased economizer cleaning systems.
The CQIA is celebrating its 20th Anniversary as America's first state level award to use the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence criteria and the only state award among 37 other state quality awards that sponsors an annual Innovation Prize.
The entry level CQIA Innovation Prize is a one-page application with three criteria:
- Describe the problem solved or opportunity leveraged of your innovation.
- Describe your innovation in detail and tell why it is innovative. Innovation is defined by CQIA Innovation Prize as a new service, process or product that is new to Connecticut in the last five years.
- Using numbers, show how this innovation has benefited your organization.
See CQIA Application: Web page | PDF
In contrast to the CQIA's longer Breakthrough (20-page) and Leadership (50-page) Quality Awards (typically applied for after receiving Innovation Gold status) which qualify discrete business entities, the Innovation Prize is available to all organizations with a facility located in Connecticut. These include manufacturers, service companies, educational facilities, hospitals and health care institutions, as well as other not-for-profit organizations.
"Once again in 2007, Connecticut organizations from small businesses to state agencies, municipal governments, hospitals, universities and on to our giant corporations are proving they are nimble and driven to succeed through results directed innovations," says Sheila Carmine, Founder and Executive Director of The Connecticut Quality Improvement Award Partnership, Inc.
For ongoing details about the award and the Conference, see www.ctqualityaward.org.
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