Quality awards are granted to organizations which achieve the highest level of quality by an independent official body. All quality awards are based on the principle of assessing the organizations applying for the Award according to predefined criteria. Some of these criteria focus on evaluating quality level in these organizations, others measure how far the organization meets the customer requirements, while the rest assess the efforts exerted in the organizations to ensure uniform and stable product quality according to specified standards.
Quality awards can be categorized into four levels:
- National and regional level:
Quality awards presented on the national level.
- Deming Quality Award, launched in 1951 in Japan.
- European Quality Award, initiated on 1992.
- Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award: An American award launched in 1987.
- Singapore Quality Award, instituted in 1994.
- United Kingdom Quality Award, launched in 1994.
- Dubai Quality Award, launched in 1995.
- Swedish Quality Award, started in 1996.
- Professional level:
Quality awards presented by professional organizations and associations to individuals in the related.