National Quality Awards

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT, VOL. 11, NO. 8, 2000, 1065 ± 1080

A detailed trends analysis of national quality awards world-wide

Tan Kay Chuan & Lim Chai Soon

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260

abstract The market economies of the world today are becoming increasingly competitive. The implementation of quality assurance systems to improve product and service quality is no longer suYcient to ensure economic success. Outstanding organizations that have excellent quality and ® nancial performances integrate their total quality management systems into their strategic plans. They continually benchmark and reassess their quality management systems. To assist organizations in checking on the performance of their implemented quality management systems, many qualitypromoting organizations in the world today have developed national quality award (NQA) programmes. The development of NQAs has a relatively short history (less than 10 years) in most parts of the world. Many countries have in fact yet to establish a NQA. This paper discusses the structure and content of 17 NQAs. Their evaluation criteria are analysed and diVerences are revealed and compared. Several guidelines are then oVered to assist in the establishment, maintenance and re® nement of national quality awards.

Introduction An analysis was carried out on the application documents related to the 17 national quality awards (NQAs) listed in Table 1. For the purpose of comparison, a framework for all the evaluation criteria of all 17 NQAs was developed. This framework consists of 11 major criteria (see Fig. 1). It embodies the main principles found in all the NQAs and addresses all areas that need to be covered in order to implement a strategic quality management plan.

Evaluation dimensions Almost all the existing NQA examinations are carried out in the three evaluation dimensions of approach, deployment and results. Not all award criteria, however,...