Total Quality Management Investment Criteria

The Total Quality Management strategy starts with the S&P 500 Index. The companies are fundamentally evaluated to determine the depth and effectiveness of the company's commitment to Quality using a proprietary three-pronged scoring methodology.

First, companies are scored using indicators to represent many of the criteria outlined in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award which include the following categories:

	Leadership
	Strategic Planning
	Customer and Market Focus
	Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management
	Human Resource Focus
	Process Management
	Business Results

Second, each company is scored using a unique ranking of publicly available information indicating a company's successin implementing quality-based management techniques. Third, our privately conducted surveys of leading quality experts drive an additional set of scores. All of the information is brought together in a Composite Quality Score (CQS) for each company.

For more on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, visit their website at http://baldrige.nist.gov/.

03/20/06