ABSTRACT
The Northern Ireland Quality Award provides a framework against which progress and achievement can be mapped. The self-assessment process is more powerful than the traditional quality audit as it encompasses the entire activities of the organization rather than the quality system. The adoption of a strategy that includes self-assessment offers significant advantages to companies who wish to develop beyond the systems approach. The technique of self-assessment is essential for any organization wishing to develop and monitor its quality culture. This kind of systematic review and measurement of an organization’s operations is one of the most important management activities of any Business Excellence system. The Business Excellence Model provides a framework for organizations to apply self-assessment and to improve. Assessors will be looking for consistency in the information presented across and between the criteria of the model.
