Industry 4.0 as a Key Enabler toward Successful Implementation of Total Quality Management Practices

Abstract

Industry 4.0 refers to the new technological development occurred at the industrial production systems. It evolved as a result of integrating Internet of Things, Cyber-Physical Systems, Big-Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud Computing in the industrial systems. This integration aided new capabilities to achieve a higher level of business excellence, efficiency, and effectiveness. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a managerial approach to achieve an outstanding business excellence. There are several approaches to apply TQM principles at any organization. Industry 4.0 could be utilized as a key enabler for TQM especially by integrating its techniques with the TQM best practices. This paper suggests a theoretical framework for integrating Industry 4.0 features with the TQM principles (according to ISO 9000:2015 standards family) in order to open the door for further research to address the real impact of utilizing Industry 4.0 for serving the TQM implementation approaches.

Complex Customer Loyalty Measurement at Closed-Loop Quality Management in B2B Area—Czech Example

“…How to integrate customer loyalty measurement into closed-loop quality management systems based on combinations of internal, external, horizontal, and vertical loops represents another research gap. This statement complies with the suggestions of Sader et al [68], who argue that direct communication of customers expectations and perceptions is one of the serious topics of further research. Additionally, Goecks et al [69] confirm, on the basis of literature review, that all decision-makings within quality management systems must be supported by objective input data.…”

“…The main results presented in the previous section should be assessed from this perspective. They also comply with the statements declared by [24,68,69].…”

Stories Told by Publications about the Relationship between Industry 4.0 and Lean: Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

“…Industry 4.0 (I4.0) brings together a series of initiatives to improve processes, products and services favoring the interconnection between people, objects and systems through the exchange of data in real-time [8][9][10][11]. This phenomenon contributed to the paradigm shift of production from a centralized to a decentralized system [12]. If production data are related to consumer behavior, enterprises can dynamically answer to changing market demand [13,14], increasing capability to adapt quickly to products with shorter cycles [2,14].…”

Does Provision of Smart Services Depend on Cooperation Flexibility, Innovation Flexibility, Innovation Performance or Business Performance in SMEs?

“…They provide the opportunity to learn from customers, establishing a basis for research and development, sales or marketing activities (Laine et al, 2010). Smart services allow to detect or early predict machine failures or defective products at early stages and can offer instant root cause analysis as well as instant recommendations of proper remediation (Sader et al, 2019). Porter and Heppelmann (2014) summarize their position: "Smart services offer exponentially expanding opportunities for new functionality, far greater reliability, much higher product utilization, and capabilities that cut across and transcend traditional product boundaries".…”

“…Digital technologies assist companies to produce and deliver "individual customized" products and services. Hence, customers could be operated on an individual basis, which could improve customer satisfaction and conforming their quality expectations (Sader et al, 2019). The process of integrating services to tangible products is called servitization, and the integration of smart services is called smart servitization.…”