Citation
Majstorovic, V. and Weckenmann, A. (2015), "Guest editorial", The TQM Journal, Vol. 27 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-09-2014-0076
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Guest editorial
Article Type: Guest editorial From: The TQM Journal, Volume 27, Issue 3.
We present a special issue for The TQM Journal (volume 27, issue 3) with selected papers from the Seventh International Working Conference on “Total Quality Management – Advanced and Intelligent Approaches”, which took place in Belgrade, Serbia, from 3rd-7th June, 2013. This traditional conference was supported by the world’s most important scientific and professional organizations for quality and engineering (CIRP, IFIP, IMEKO, IFAC, EOQ, JUSE, AAQ, PAQ etc.). The conference accepted 112 papers from 37 countries in Asia, Africa, North and South America and Europe. The conference included 384 participants (along with ICQ), of whom 92 came from abroad, across five continents.
The seventh conference, with its scientific and professional points of view, was particularly marked by the following events:
Introduction Plenary Presentation: Quality Management - History and Trends, by Prof Dr Albert Weckenmann, from Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany. Professor Albert Weckenmann is the most distinguished professor/researcher for QM and metrology in production engineering in the world today. His basic message was that without the production of new, innovative products with added value, in which are incorporated new concepts of QM, there is no progress in the national economy. This means that, without new industrial development supported by new models of QM, Serbia cannot join the EU.
Introduction Plenary Session: Advanced Quality – World-wide Approaches. Six world- prominent researchers exposed the latest trends in new approaches to quality management/metrology, particularly in the field of advanced technology systems. Particularly interesting was the presentation from Prof Dr Marco Taisch, of the Politechnico de Milano, Milan, Italy, on the subject of Sustainable Manufacturing and some of the social and environmental megatrends. The main message of this session was to develop the concept of QM in the technological system moving towards its integration with other engineering disciplines in this area, and it’s all based on sustainable development.
3rd Special Conference: “Manufuture in Serbia 2013”/Manufuture Village Workshop - Industrial Technologies – SEE Regional Cooperation – Horizon 2020. Europe, and since 2010 the World Program, Manufuture is considered an extremely current topic – “Regional Cooperation – Strategies for 2020”, with the participation of more than 30 experts of the Manufuture program from the EU, the region and our country. Introductory presentations were made by: Dr José Caldeira, Chaiman of the Manufuture NRTP; Dr Liviu Jalba, President of Manufuture Village, Romania: “Prosecutor’s fallacy” pattern as Governmental Economic Model for Industry”; Dr Roland Wertz, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, Germany: “Project “LuminaLED” and “PERiMETER” – Conception, realization and ramp-up of a LED research center (LuminaLED) including a quality competence center for Eastern Europe (PERiMETER)”; and Prof Dr Dimitris Mourtzis, from the University of Patras, Greece: “The Engineering Learning Paradigm”, and six other experts from Serbia and the region. The conclusion of this workshop is that the new technologies that define the Manufuture program make a good basis for the cooperation of countries in the region. The next conference on the same topic will be held in two years, where special attention will be given to the results of cooperation in this field. The EU Manufuture Conference 2013 was held from 6th to 10th October, and will be held this year (2014) in Vilnius, Lithuania; a report will be submitted to the Conference.
5th Balkan Conference on Quality/6th Balkan Quality Forum: The Balkans as a Region of Quality. This conference has traditionally given highlights of QM practices in the Balkans in different areas (manufacturing, education, etc.). At this conference, reuslts of QM practice from seven countries are presented. It was concluded that the approach to QM practice in these countries are similar, which also gives a good basis for future cooperation in this field.
Closing Plenary Session: QM, TQM and IMS New Dimensions, which are considered to be new directions in the field of QM, TQM and Integrated Management System (IMS). The speakers were all world-renowned experts in this field from Europe, North America and Serbia. The conclusion of this session is that standardized management systems are rapidly evolving, and it is very important for a country like Serbia for its scientific and professional community to be aware of these developments, which happens via this conference but also over a longer period of time.
Workshop 1/Round Table Disscussion 1: “ISO 9001: Excellence and Augmentation”! This round table consists of the most famous four presentations of experts from Canada, Spain and Romania, considered to be the latest approaches in relation to the ISO 9001 model and business excellence. Model ISO 9004:2009 represents the link between the two, now the most famous and second most widespread QM model. With nearly 1.2 million certificates of ISO 9001 in the world, we can conclude that the QMS has become the world’s QM practices. The same facts apply to our country, which with 3,500 QMS certificate is still lagging behind compared to other countries in the region. This conference has already contributed to the development of QM practices in our country over 12 years.
Young PhD Researchers’ Session: this is one of the most important parts of the TQM conference. This session was introduced 2007 and the opening was awarded for the best PhD student working in the area of his thesis. This year’s was awarded to Malte Schröder, Chair of Metrology and Quality Management, Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL, Aachen, Germany, for the paper “Strategies For The Design and Implementation of Quality Control Loops to Reach Stable Business Processes”.
This year saw the introduction of a Special Session on Quality and Leading Innovation. This session was prepared and led Prof Dr Kristina Zgodavova from the Department of Integrated Management, Technical University of Kosice, Kosice, Slovak Republic. Very interesting experiences from Slovakia, which successfully carried the re-industrialization, were presented.
Last but not least, it was the Excursion Tour: Serbia’s digital factory. The host was 28 IVA Company, Obrenovac. Participants had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with digital production, where very complex parts are installed in the machine tools of world-renowned manufacturers from Germany and Switzerland. The basis of the whole concept of the digital product model, which uses the concept of integrated CAD/CAM/CAI, with the intention of developing and implementing a PLM model.
From this number we have selected seven of the best papers that were related to TQM approaches.
Finally, we want to thank Ms Sophie Barr, the Managing Editor of The TQM Journal along with the technical staff at Emerald Group Publishing, and Dr Alex Douglas, the editor of this journal, without whose continuing help and guidance it wouldn’t have been possible to finish the publication of this special issue on time.
Looking forward to welcoming everyone to the Eighth International Working Conference on “Total Quality Management – Advanced and Intelligent Approaches”, Belgrade, Serbia, from June 2nd – 5th, 2015. Hope to see you all there!
Professor Vidosav Majstorovic - Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Belgrade, Serbia, and
Dr Albert Weckenmann - Quality Management and Manufacturing Metrology, University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany