QUALITY 4.0: Navigating the Digital Revolution in Quality Management
Ahmed Adel Serour ???? MBA, TQM, MSc, ISO9-LA, ISO-LI
Quality & Quarries Manager | ISO 9001 Lead Implementer Certified | ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor certified, GAQM | SAP
In the early days of Quality Management, improvement techniques such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma were the driving forces behind robust quality management practices. Today, the digital revolution is sweeping over all areas of business, and Quality Management is no exception. Quality 4.0 represents a new approach to quality management, aimed at navigating business through the digital revolution.
Quality 4.0 is a term that references the future of quality and organizational excellence within the context of Industry 4.0. Quality professionals can play a vital role in leading their organizations to apply proven quality disciplines to new, digital, and disruptive technologies.
The evolution of Quality 4.0
Quality 4.0 emerged from the Industry 4.0 trend, which aimed to create smart factories through the use of automation, robotics, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Industry 4.0 demands the integration and digitization of the entire value chain. In the context of Quality Management, this means the digitalization of all quality management processes, from production to analysis, reporting, and decision-making.
Quality 4.0 takes the principles established by TQM and Six Sigma and applies them in the context of Industry 4.0, leveraging data-driven insights, smart automation, and orchestrated workflows to improve quality.
The first industrial revolution was characterized by steam-powered machines, and the second by electricity and assembly lines. Innovations in computing and industrial automation defined the third. The fourth industrial revolution brings us machine intelligence, pervasive computing, affordable storage and robust connectivity (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Industrial Advances and the Evolution of Quality 4.0
Establishing and implementing Quality 4.0 principles
Establishing Quality 4.0 shall be done through,
People
Quality 4.0 is more than technology. It’s a new way for quality professionals to manage quality with the digital tools available today and understand how to apply them and achieve excellence through quality. By speaking the digital language and making the case for quality in disruption, quality professionals can elevate their role from enforcers to navigators to successfully guide organizations through digital disruption and toward excellence.
Process
As more work is automated the need for flawless processes remains the same, if not more important. Existing processes will be broken and the need to educate the next generation of workers to implement new processes and strategies will be vital to not only the quality professional but also business operations. Quality is a vital link and should be included at the strategic level for sustainability during digital transformation.
Technology
Technology is growing 10 times faster than it used to, and organizations’ platforms, such as processes, systems, data, operations, and governance, must keep pace. Technology also is a great leveler because it gives any individual with the right idea and intent the capability that previously was available only to large organizations. Quality professionals must move from data analyst roles to data wrangler roles by engaging with new technologies and understanding these technological advancements and the potential outputs they create.
To establish and implement Quality 4.0 principles, businesses should follow five key steps:
1. Define quality challenges: Identify the quality challenges your organization faces in the context of Industry 4.0. These may include managing the complexity of digitization, the integration of new technology, the management of quality data, and the identification of quality risks.
2. Re-imagine quality processes: Re-imagine quality management processes to align with Industry 4.0. This may involve transforming paper-based quality management to digital systems, integrating quality data across the value chain, and automating quality management tasks.
3. Design digital workflows: Design digital workflows that integrate quality data seamlessly across all touchpoints, from production to delivery. This may involve using smart automation tools to streamline quality management tasks.
4. Deploy Quality 4.0 tools: Identify and deploy Quality 4.0 tools such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data analysis tools to optimize and improve quality management processes.
5. Embed Quality 4.0 principles: Embed Quality 4.0 principles throughout the organization, using training, communication, and collaboration to create a quality culture that supports digital transformation.
Quality 4.0 tools
Quality 4.0 tools include a range of technologies and techniques, including:
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1. Automation: Automation tools can help streamline quality management processes, reducing time and labor costs. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a popular example of automation used in Quality Management.
2. Internet of Things (IoT): IoT sensors can collect data from machines and production lines to help monitor quality processes in real time. IoT can also help predict equipment failures and prevent downtime.
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI algorithms can analyze quality data in real time, identifying quality defects and making recommendations for improvement.
4. Big Data: Big data analysis tools can process large volumes of quality data, identifying trends, patterns, and anomalies that support quality improvement.
5. Blockchain: increasing transparency and auditability of transactions (for assets and information), monitoring conditions so transactions don’t occur unless quality objectives are met.
6. Deep learning: image classification, complex pattern recognition, time series forecasting, text generation, creating sound and art, creating fictitious video from real video, adjusting images based on heuristics (make a frowning person in a photo appear to smile, for example).
7. Enabling technologies: affordable sensors and actuators, cloud computing, open-source software, augmented reality (AR), mixed reality, virtual reality (VR), data streaming (such as Kafka and Storm), 5G networks, IPv6, IoT.
8. Machine learning: text analysis, recommendation systems, email spam filters, fraud detection, classifying objects into groups, forecasting.
9. Data science: the practice of bringing together heterogeneous data sets for making predictions, performing classifications, finding patterns in large data sets, reducing large sets of observations to most significant predictors, applying sound traditional techniques (such as visualization, inference and simulation) to generate viable models and solutions.
Quality 4.0 value propositions
Quality 4.0 offers a range of value propositions to businesses:
1. Improved quality: Quality 4.0 helps businesses identify quality defects in real time, improving product quality and reducing customer complaints.
2. Increased efficiency: Automation and digitization of quality management processes can increase process efficiency, reduce costs and improve productivity.
3. Better decision-making: Quality 4.0 provides real-time quality data and analytics, enabling businesses to make better, data-driven decisions.
4. Enhanced collaboration: Quality 4.0 workflows can bring together all stakeholders involved in quality management, from suppliers to customers, improving communication and collaboration.
Quality 4.0 resources
There are a variety of resources available to businesses that want to adopt Quality 4.0 principles, including:
1. NIST Cybersecurity Framework: The NIST Cybersecurity Framework provides guidelines for securing digital systems, a key element of Quality 4.0.
2. ASQ Quality 4.0 Resource Center: The ASQ Quality 4.0 Resource Center provides information, webinars, and training on Quality 4.0.
3. Industry 4.0 playbooks: There are a variety of Industry 4.0 playbooks available that apply to Quality 4.0 processes.
In conclusion, Quality 4.0 is an approach to quality management that leverages digital tools, automation, and data-driven insights to improve quality processes. Businesses that adopt Quality 4.0 principles can improve product quality, reduce quality costs, and enhance productivity. To succeed in the digital revolution, businesses must embrace Quality 4.0 and reimagine quality management processes in the context of Industry 4.0.
Differences between Quality 4.0 and Industry 4.0
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