Quality 4.

0
Better Processes & Better Performance
for Better Products

One would think that the acceleration of technological growth would automatically result in
improvements in manufacturing quality, but it seems that the opposite is true in many cases.
There are a number of factors making it more challenging than ever for manufacturers to
maintain a high level of output quality.

Today’s products are complex, often incorporating or integrating with software, and the
highly competitive nature of the manufacturing sector means that time-to-market goals are
shorter than ever.

Managers are aware of this phenomenon, and quality is moving up to take its place as
a top priority for many companies. With Industry 4.0 making such a huge impact on
manufacturing, it’s only natural that these methodologies be leveraged to meet the new
quality demands. And so, the birth of Quality 4.0 – a term used to describe a new focal point
in industry – is finally upon us.

What is Quality 4.0?

Like Industry 4.0, Quality 4.0 isn’t a closed-ended term that defines just one technology or
activity. Instead, Quality 4.0 describes a new approach to manufacturing, where production is
not just gauged based upon output rate and cost, but on the quality of the product, the quality
of the process, and the quality of the services provided surrounding the product.

The “4.0” is a reference to Industry 4.0 and its associated technologies such as Industrial IoT,
Digital Twin, AI in the form of machine learning algorithms and artificial neural networks, and
others.

These are all technologies that can be leveraged to improve quality. For example, Predictive
Quality Analytics is a use case that utilizes the aforementioned technologies to predict changes
in production quality. This information is crucial to manufacturers who realize the importance
of quality to customers, and who are interested in developing a much leaner operation while
making better products.

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Quality 4.0 – The Time is Now
In our current reality, Quality 4.0 is still in its early stages of adoption. In fact, most
manufacturing facilities still rely on traditional quality evaluation methods; methods that
in many cases are no longer relevant for current products. Companies that fail to take an
innovative stance on quality, for current and new production processes, will find it hard to
survive, let alone lead, in future markets.

The bottom line is that quality issues cost companies a lot of money, and in doing so, affect the
potential longevity of a manufacturing operation especially in a market that is ever-changing
and more competitive than ever.

The Opportunity Presented by Quality 4.0

Advancing to Quality 4.0 requires financial and organizational resources, but the process
presents a huge opportunity for manufacturers. Searching for new innovative ways to optimize
quality is an opportunity to nurture a culture of development which can lead to better products
that cost less to produce.

Introducing Quality 4.0 can also help to strengthen and differentiate a brand within its market,
and improve awareness among existing and potential new customers.

As with Factory 4.0, Quality 4.0 levels the manufacturing playing field since mid and even
small-scale enterprises can leverage new technology to make significant advances in
production efficiency and better meet the demands of customers.

Challenges in the Current Quality Arena

Today’s manufacturers face a number of quality-related challenges:

• Maintaining a high level of quality amidst high expectations and changes in customer
demands.
• Allocating resources for innovation and for research into new methods of quality
improvement.
• Compliance with changes in regulation laws.
• Agility: increases in product variety demand work on multiple products simultaneously
(development and production stages).
• Global standardization: companies producing from a number of locations have to offer
consistent output quality regardless of differences in the standard of local raw materials and
production conditions.

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Industry 4.0, along with its suite of powerful use cases such as predictive quality &
maintenance, remote monitoring, and digital twin, enables manufacturers to meet the above
challenges head-on. For example, changes in regulations can be directly communicated to
production lines or code can be modified remotely so that new and existing products comply
with the new laws.

The Four Zones of Quality 4.0 Adoption

1. Concept & Design

In the past, “quality” has usually been associated with production processes – raw materials
used, assembly, finishing and packaging – but quality should be an integral part of the
conceptualization/design and industrialization phases as well.

By including the quality perspective in the early stages of the product lifecycle all the way
through production and delivery, manufacturers will be able to achieve higher levels of
customer satisfaction. After all, the quality of a product’s concept is an attribute that affects
how a customer experiences the use and value of that product.

2. Production

This particular zone represents where most of the quality activity has taken place in
manufacturing prior to the Industry 4.0 revolution. Traditional data analytics and process
harmonization methods are being replaced by techniques that involve artificial intelligence
such as Machine Learning, and advanced levels of monitoring and connectivity such as
Digital Twin.

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3. Service & Performance in the Field

A unique characteristic of Quality 4.0 is that a product’s performance is monitored (and

modified, if necessary, and possible) even after delivery.

By collecting and making sense of user data from the field, future failures can be prevented
with minimum loss of materials in rejected batches. The time it takes from failure
identification to elimination can be extremely short, reducing wastage and maintaining
customer satisfaction despite temporary disappointments.

In software-integrated products, updates can be made remotely, eliminating bugs and adding
features requested by users.

4. Company Culture

Quality 4.0 is a broad field of activity, and companies should aim to instill the quality
approach as part of the overall company culture.

Since every employee, and every interaction with the manufacturing process, can be
considered within the quality paradigm, Quality 4.0 is not limited to a particular segment of
manufacturing.

Industry 4.0 – Taking Quality into the Future

Technologies associated with smart factory – IIoT, Big Data, AI, Machine Learning etc. – can
all be utilized to improve quality. However, methods for quality improvement are lagging
behind the development of other production-enhancing technologies. This is especially true
for methods involving B2C communication and feedback loops. In other words, the power of
Quality 4.0 has yet to be fully unleashed.

The good news is that industrial IoT techniques – connectivity protocols, sensors, gateway
devices, dashboards, analytics – provide the perfect toolbox for Quality 4.0 implementation.

One way of demonstrating this is through examining remote monitoring as a Quality 4.0 use
case…

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Remote Monitoring for Quality 4.0

Using sensors to collect data for root cause analysis, diagnosis techniques can be performed
remotely. By gathering feedback from a number of devices, “swarm intelligence” can also be
used as a method of further analysis into machine behavior or product performance.

By using predictive analytics on the collected data, we can identify correlative patterns
and enable predictive maintenance. Beyond efficient maintenance and the prevention of
malfunction, this analysis provides insight into parameters affecting output or performance
quality.

A common argument is that only software or data-related issues can be handled remotely,
but in the field it’s become evident that extremely often, service technicians are summoned
for just that reason. In the automotive industry, for example, software issues represent a
significant portion of all the reasons behind service requests. And in cases where an on-site
visit is needed, technicians arrive informed of the details of the issue, and equipped with the
necessary components, tools and methods for the specific repair.

Remote monitoring and maintenance allows manufacturers to continually improve quality

over time while the usage and performance data collected from products or production
machines provides an invaluable source of information for business and product
development insights.