Quality 4.0 for Processes and Customers

Abstract

Purpose: Considering the speed of technological development towards the Industry 4.0 era the change is necessary for managerial aspects in industrial companies. In this paper an attempt is made to understand the influence of Industry 4.0 technologies on the Quality 4.0 concept better.      Methodology/Approach: Two aspects were analysed in order to achieve the goal – the influence of Industry 4.0 on quality management and the influence of Quality 4.0 on customer satisfaction. The paper is based on a literature review and a pilot study based on questionnaires prepared for research purposes. Findings: It was found out that the emergence of new technologies is beneficial for Quality Management processes and customer satisfaction. Moreover, the influence is greatly described by the amount of data now available for analysis. However, as the concept of Quality 4.0 is in its infancy, the necessary change is still required. Research Limitation/Implication: As the research was conducted in the Czech Republic, the results are limited according to the territory. Also, the study was based on the literature review available from SCOPUS and WoS databases in English, thus further studies of available literature in other languages might be needed. Originality/Value of paper: Although the quality tools that are used in Quality 4.0 are already known and accepted the influence of advanced technologies on quality management is not clear. In this paper an attempt is made to understand the influence.