Quality 4.0 – a review of and framework for quality management in the digital era

• Published in: The International journal of quality & reliability management Vol. 39; no. 6; pp. 1385 - 1411
• Main Authors: Ranjith Kumar, Rajan, Ganesh, L.S., Rajendran, Chandrasekharan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 19.05.2022; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Blockchain; Context; Customer relationship management; Customer satisfaction; Digital Age; Horizontal integration; Industry 4.0; Internet of Things; Knowledge acquisition; Knowledge management; Literature reviews; Organizations; Quality management; Transformations; Conceptual framework; Industry 4.0; Digital transformation; Quality 4.0; Quality management
• ISSN: 0265-671X; 1758-6682
• DOI: 10.1108/IJQRM-05-2021-0150

PurposeIndustry 4.0 has brought about a paradigm shift in value delivery with the introduction of disruptive technologies. This has resulted in efforts by organizations to re-invent their business processes and reskill their workforce while attempting to realize digital transformation. Quality management in the context of Industry 4.0 is still in its nascent stage with researchers trying to identify key and relevant components of quality management with respect to Industry 4.0. The current study attempts to address the knowledge gap through a literature review and subsequently provide a conceptual framework for quality in the digital transformation context.Design/methodology/approachAn integrative literature review was conducted to analyze and abstract knowledge from the literature on Quality 4.0 and a conceptual framework was developed based on the review.FindingsThe review revealed the motivators, building blocks and challenges for Quality 4.0. The conceptual framework discusses the salient points relevant to Quality 4.0 with respect to the people, process and technology dimensions and their sub-dimensions that can be used to build 4.0 capabilities. The proposed framework is represented to depict the conceptualization and the relationships among its components.Originality/valueThis study aims to contribute to the model building efforts of researchers towards Quality 4.0. The points discussed here provide an actionable direction to augment the efforts of practitioners and organizations in quality management in the context of Industry 4.0, especially digital transformation.