Quality 4.0: Managing Disruptive Change

The feeling is sometimes created that technology itself leads the waves of change.

As a consequence, companies look at their IT department thinking that digitization will make the company better and more competitive. But the key to success is to use the right technology at the right time and in the right way.

Customers need be to served better and in a more efficient way to increase profitability. Better business is the goal, new technology offers additional means. Focusing on improvement and smart application of technology, makes the quality function well placed to guide an organization through the necessary transformations. We do not think within departments, we look at processes and the various interactions between processes creating value for the company.

Big data offers great opportunities, but only if that data is reliable and turned into useful and correct information that flows through the organization in an efficient way. Quality has both the view and the tools to maximize the gain that can come from big data analytics. As an example: Quality Function Deployment (QFD) helps us to translate the voice of the customer into designs and product specifications that improve customer satisfaction.

We can define what information has to be drawn out of the big data and guide the data analytics team, so their technical skills are used to improve the competitiveness of the organization. The clearer and more detailed understanding of customer needs and experiences will in turn help us to come to more correct and more relevant QFD conclusions.

This all looks very positive for the quality function. However, if we want to play this leading role we will need to go through a disruptive transformation ourselves. And the changes needed cover psychological, organizational and technical areas.

Unlearn old habits
We are not talking about "bad" habits, but habits that are no longer suited to today's environment. In the presentation we will expand on this, here we just give some examples. We need to ask ourselves a couple of truly fundamental questions.

As quality specialists we have learned to make sure that everything has been studied, tested, approved, … to the last detail before it can be released. Everything needs to be "under complete control". But how does this fit with design systems based on scrum and agile? How can new technology help us with this?

On a technical level, we need to evaluate and maybe even abolish some of our basic quality tools. How much value do quality management standards really offer? What will be the use of Statistical Process Control (SPC) in a highly automated and extremely accurate production environment? Is continual improvement interesting for products with an ever shorter lifespan?

Master new knowledge
We will show two categories of "new" knowledge needed: in depth knowledge of other quality tools then we currently promote and more knowledge on new IT technologies like big data and artificial intelligence.

In view of the enormous possibilities of automated manufacturing and machine learning, much more emphasis will have to go to the quality of the design of a product or service. New products need to fit customer expectations immediately to be successful. This means that quality professionals will need to focus more on tools relating to voice of the customer and quality of design. QFD, TRIZ, Scrum, Agile, Axiomatic design, are all tools that we need to master if we are to support the organization better in the future environment.

For the disruptive IT technologies we are looking at knowledge at a different level. Here we need to understand very well what the principles and possibilities of these techniques are. We will show several examples, with an emphasis on AI and machine learning so quality professionals can start thinking about the possibilities for their own organization.

Be more ambitious
In order to lead a change, you must have the vision and the knowledge. But to make the change happen, you also need the ambition and the authority. If we want to play a major leading part in transforming our organizations, we need to show more managerial and leadership capacities.

Why should you Attend: We are living in an age of high speed change. This is driven by powerful new information technologies like big data, internet of things and artificial intelligence. But the digitization in itself only offers opportunities and possibilities.

What a company does with the technology, how it integrates it within its activities, is what will make it more - or less - successful than its competitors. There is a big risk that a company gets lost in the technical possibilities and fails to focus on what really matters: customer satisfaction and profitability. Not all that is technically possible is by definition needed or good for the company. That is why you must think very carefully about how to implement quality 4.0 and who should lead this effort.

This presentation will show that quality is perfectly placed to lead the organization through this transformation. However, to do that quality itself will have to go through a transformation and that will require a willingness to change from the quality professional. Old habits need to be unlearned and new knowledge has to be mastered. But above all: the quality professional needs to show the ambition to guide the company to improved performance using disruptive technology. Are you willing to take up the challenge?

Areas Covered in the Session:

• The real world is analog
• The difference between means and goals
• Why quality is best placed to handle digital disruption
• The changes quality will need to go through
  • Part 1: knowledge
  • Part 2: approach and attitude
  • Part 3: ambition
• Concluding remarks

• CEO
• Quality Manager
• IT Managers
• Everyone interested in Digitization and Quality 4.0