Quality 4.0: results from a systematic literature review
Abstract
Purpose
Quality 4.0 is being presented as the new stage of quality development. However, its overlying concept and rationale are still hard to define. To better understand what different authors and studies advocate being Quality 4.0, a systematic literature review was undertaken on the topic. This paper presents the results of such review, providing some avenues for further research on quality management.
Design/methodology/approach
The documents for the systematic literature review have been searched on the Scopus database, using the search equation: [TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Quality 4.0”) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (Quality Management” AND (“Industry 4.0” OR “Fourth Industr*” OR i4.0))]. Documents were filtered by language and by type. Of the 367 documents identified, 146 were submitted to exploratory content analysis.
Findings
The analyzed documents essentially provide theoretical discussions on what Quality 4.0 is or should be. Five categories have emerged from the content analysis undertaken: Industry 4.0 and the Rise of a New Approach to Quality; Motivations, Readiness Factors and Barriers to a Quality 4.0 Approach; Digital Quality Management Systems; Combination of Quality Tools and Lean Methodologies and Quality 4.0 Professionals.
Research limitations/implications
It was hard to find studies reporting how quality is actually being managed in organizations that already operate in the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Answers could not be found to questions regarding actual practices, methodologies and tools being used in Quality 4.0 approaches. However, the research undertaken allowed to identify in the literature different ways of conceptualizing and analyzing Quality 4.0, opening up avenues for further research on quality management in the Industry 4.0 era.
Originality/value
This paper offers a broad look at how quality management is changing in response to the affirmation of the Industry 4.0 paradigm.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support given by the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (FCT), within the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), project UIDB/00757/2020 and the Centre for Research and Development in Mathematics and Applications (CIDMA), project UIDB/04106/2020. Additional support has been provided by project 2022.04049.PTDC.
Citation
Oliveira, D., Alvelos, H. and Rosa, M.J. (2024), "Quality 4.0: results from a systematic literature review", The TQM Journal, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-01-2023-0018
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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