The Application of the EFQM Excellence Model within the UK Further Education (VET) sector - PhD Thesis

Contrary to popular opinion, Total Quality Management did not die in the 1990s. Instead it was reincarnated in many forms as Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality Production, the EFQM Excellence Model, the MBNQA (USA), the Deming Prize (Japan). TQM is promoted by many august bodies such as NIST (USA), EFQM (Europe), JUSE (Japan) etc. Indeed, Turkey has adopted TQM as the basis of its whole Education sector. Other countries, such as Iran and the Gulf States, are showing great interest in using TQM techniques to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Since being published on the web in Novemeber 2014, this thesis has had well over 3000 web-hits from 99 different countries across the world.
Therefore, the finding of this thesis have been used to develop the Company On-line Diagnostic Assessment (CODA) Tool specifically designed to assist SMEs access the “Gold in the Mine” described by one of the two greatest Quality Gurus, Dr Joseph Juran (the other being Dr. W. Edwards Deming.) This “gold” is currently estimated to be worth EUR1.833 per annum to European SMEs alone. The community of Higher Education Institutions and SMEs using CODA within the EU are collectively called the European Network for SME Competitiveness (ENSCO).