Edinburgh Napier University

  Self-Assessment (SA) has gained international recognition as a methodology for identifying strengths and weaknesses across an organisation's activities and performance as part of their total quality management (TQM) activity. The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence 2000 Model is widely adopted by organisations as a means of SA to enhance performance at all levels of an organisation. It has been argued that a major strength of the approach is an overall evaluation of activities and performance; this has avoided the lack of focus, especially on strategic issues, of other, usually independent improvement tools which are used within the operational/ manufacturing areas of organisations.
The majority of SA work has been focused at a strategic level. This paper shows how the approach may be enhanced to be of greater use and be more applicable within the operational/ manufacturing area, where the majority of continual improvement effort exists and which usually operates to shorter term parameters. The process is based on Grounded Theory, used to generate a set of relevant constructs or issues which are then reviewed, utilising a five-stage model of SA to determine the most appropriate departmental approach for self-assessment. The work was largely based on the customer-service department of a large manufacturing organisation. The study concluded that SA, within manufacturing areas, is not only possible, but it can deliver benefits to operational areas wishing to embrace SA below the strategic level by the utilisation of this new, holistic approach.