A radical scoring system for the European Foundation for Quality Management Business Excellence Model

This paper reports on the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the classical scoring system of quality management assessments used in the European Foundation for Quality Management’s Business Excellence Model (EFQM‐BEM). Following a brief description of the way in which the DEA method of analysis can be applied, an illustrative example demonstrates the power of the approach in identifying meaningful exemplar organisations for each individual component element of the EFQM‐BEM. The method uses these exemplars to set realistic targets in each component which are currently being achieved by exemplar organisations. Preserving rank order, the DEA scoring system is a radical development of the original EFQM‐BEM system which overcomes the resistance to the standard component values often articulated by public and voluntary sector service providers in particular.