European Quality Award Categories

In 1990, the European Foundation for Quality Management, with support from the European Organization for Quality and the European Commission (Directorate-General III), began developing The European Quality Award. It was launched in Ocotber 1991 at EFQM’s annual Forum (held that year in Paris) by Martin Bangemann, Vice-President of the European Commission. In October 1992, King Juan Carlos I of Spain presented European Quality Prizes and The Award for the first time, at the EFQM Forum in Madrid.

The European Quality Award Trophy designed by Rinus Roelofs

Over the years since 1992, many National and Regional Quality Awards have been launched across Eurpe. Almost all of these are based on the methods and processes developed for The European Quality Award. The present trend will ensure that by the year 2000 the vast majority of European countries will run their own National Quality Award.

But many people believed that the Award process was only applicable to larger companies. So in 1994, the European Commission asked EFQM and EOQ to jointly develop and introduce Award categories for the Public Sector, and Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs).

Sector-specific guidelines were developed for the Public Sector, and this category was launched at the Berlin Forum in September 1995. For the SMEs, a comprehensive pilot study was carried out during 1995 - 96, an the category launched during European Quality Week in November 1996.

For the purposes of the SME Award, an SME is an independet organisation, or part of a larger organisation, with fewer than 250 people.

The Award process

The European Quality Award process is the same for larger companies, the Public Sector or SMEs. The European Model for Small and Medium sized Enterprises - the Model - reflects the key features of running an outstanding organisation, an each element in the Model has a weighted score. The document submitted by applicants for The Award is based on the organisations’s assessment of itself (that ist, its Self-Assessment) against the Model’s criteria, and the information must then be presented in a manner specified in this brochure.

Each Award application is assessed individually by a team of Award Assessors. The team then meets an determines a consensus score for the application. The Jury (made up of European business leaders both from larger and smaller organisations, respected academics and quality professionals), decides which applicants are to receive a site visit by the Assessor team. Based on the final report of the team, the Jury selects the most outstanding organisations to reseive the awards.

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