You work as a senior Airlines Industry Analyst. It is your mission to assess Southwest Airlines.

Knowing that culture (Southwest Spirit) and customer service have been crucial to Southwest’s
success. If cost is not a factor, what assessment model would you use to assess Southwest
Airlines: LESAT, Shingo prize, Good-To-Great or the Baldrige Award? (Make sure you describe
what kind of information you expect to glean from the assessment and which mode you would
use)

Southwest Airlines is a business based around its employees and culture, since cost is no
factor I would suggest the Shingo Prize model for their assessment. This assessment focuses on
cultural transformation and businesses that demonstrate a culture where operational excellence
are embedded within the behavior of managers and employees (Shingo Institute, 2014). The
guiding principles of this prize are cultural enablers, continuous improvement, enterprise
alignment, and results for the customer (Shingo Institute, 2014). These dimensions help assess
the specific areas of the business and assess the tools and strategies they are implementing, in the
end based on the questions and criteria in each guiding principle they are scored in a matrix
where continuous process improvements rank the highest (Shingo Institute, 2014). Also there is a
comprehensive matrix that is a behavior scale which rates the roles such as leaders and associates
on their behavior and attitude. Southern Airlines would benefit from this type of assessment as
they put their culture in the forefront, they also have been operating and implementing the same
strategies from the launch of the business to present day (O'Reilly & Pfeffer, 2006). Southwest
airlines offers competitive prices, convenient flights with great customer service. They pride
themselves on the fun environment they create for their employees and staff on a daily basis. The
people department also known as the HR, has the intent to get the right people on board with the
company and its culture (O'Reilly & Pfeffer, 2006). Southwest Airlines would put the Shingo
Prize model to perfect use with the four guidelines it uses as well as the behavior scale for its
leaders and it employees. Southwest is a great company and with this assessment it will continue
to provide operational excellence to its staff and customers.

References
O'Reilly, C., & Pfeffer, J. (2006, April 05). Southwest Airlines. Stanford Graduate School of
Business. Retrieved May 19, 2018, from
file:///C:/Users/Owner/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8b
bwe/TempState/Downloads/HR1A-PDF-ENG.pdf
Shingo Institute, ,. S. (2014). The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. Retrieved from
https://myasucourses.asu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-18369254-dt-content-rid-
130844956_1/courses/2018SummerA-X-BIS357-42751-43575-
42902/Shingo%20Application%20Guidelines%20w%20Highlighting.pdf