A sucessful quality award in Northern Sweden

• Since the start of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1987 several quality awards have been established to stimulate systematic quality improvement in different parts of the world. In Sweden, the Swedish Quality Award (SQA) was established in 1992 by SIQ, the Swedish Institute for Quality. This award, and other activities by SIQ, have had a great impact on the quality progress in Sweden. However, the criteria of the SQA are experienced as too complicated by many small enterprises. In 1996 a regional quality award, common to two counties, was established in Northern Sweden. The main purpose was to stimulate quality improvements, in particular in small organizations, and to establish better cooperation between the two counties. During a couple of years the award has had far more applicants than any other regional quality award in Sweden, even more applicants than the SQA. One reason for this seems to be that the evaluation is based on a particular model, the Springboard, which is less thorough and also has a simpler language than other evaluation models. The paper will describe the background, the evaluation process, the evaluation model and some results and effects obtained within the Quality Award in Northern Sweden. (14 refs.)

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Tillförlitlighets- och kvalitetsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Reliability and Maintenance (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Kvalitetsteknik

Quality Technology and Management

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)