Do Quality Practitioners have a role in Industry 4.0?
In recent months, I have had a chance to participate in several informal and formal forums where the conversation largely centered around what does the future hold for quality practitioners in Industry 4.0. The reference to Industry 4.0 is centered in a world where transactions, interactions, product development, insights and decisions are largely driven by technologies such as AI, big data, automation/ robotics and IoT.
The most common topics forming part of our conversations include,
- will formal improvement programs enabled by Lean and Six Sigma still matter,?
- would organizations still seek certifications based on ISO, CMMI etc.?
- does quality take on a new meaning in Industry 4.0 organizations?
- what would upskilling mean for quality practitioner so that they can prepare for rapid changes sweeping their organizations (or their customers)?
Although I dont have a crystal ball to predict what Industry 4.0 holds for quality practitioners, here is what I think the changes mean for quality practitioners (including myself).
1. Technologies driving the evolution of Industry 4.0 still require well designed business processes. Automation of inefficient processes or attempting to draw deep insights from data pumped out by applications whose reliability and integrity are questionable only adds
more risk to the organization
2. With the increased number of system integrations and potential technical complexity led by connected devices, there will be a need for quality practitioners to view platforms as the context (in place of systems and products). This evolution will also require quality practitioners to extend their skill sets to include risk management, quality management and UX. Industry 4.0 is already driving alignment across these three areas and the emergence of platforms will require quality practitioners to be able to work across these connected domains to deliver consistent quality of experience at every touchpoint in the customer journey
3. As mentioned earlier in this post, accelerating flow and driving efficiency cannot afford to result in trade-offs in effectiveness nor should it negatively impact the risk profile of the platform. This is where the design for quality perspective will become important and I foresee quality practitioners playing an important role in enabling organizations succeed on this front
4. It is important for quality practitioners to go beyond the use of quality and process improvement methods and number crunching to be effective change agents. This should be a very natural transition for them since they will have the right mix of knowledge in organizational processes and technology to help teams navigate through the changes led by transformation initiatives to embrace and transition to Industry 4.0
5. Standards, models, frameworks and methods will not go away but it will be immensely important for quality practitioners to integrate those in their improvement toolkit without those elements being on the frontline. Impact of outcomes and customer experience has to be the primary focus so that quality practitioners have a good story to tell on value delivery and impact on customer experience.
I look forward to hearing the views of my peers in ASQ and readers who are preparing for Industry 4.0.
“ I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive an honorarium from ASQ for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are my own.”
