As Industry 4 - Continues

28/11/2017 As Industry 4.
0 continues to evolve, what can quality professionals do to ensure they will be an integral asset throughout this industrial revolution? - A View…
A View From the Q

For the global quality community
As Industry 4.0 continues to evolve,

what can quality professionals do to
ensure they will be an integral asset
throughout this industrial revolution?
As Industry 4.0 continues to evolve, what can quality

professionals do to ensure they will be an integral asset
throughout this industrial revolution?
http://asq.org/blog/2017/07/as-industry-4-0-continues-to-evolve-what-can-quality-professionals-do-to-ensure-they-will-be-an-integral-asset-throughout-this-ind… 1/12
28/11/2017 As Industry 4.0 continues to evolve, what can quality professionals do to ensure they will be an integral asset throughout this industrial revolution? - A View…
Robert Mitchell: Quality Matters
First, let’s begin with an operational de nition of Industry 4.0.

Wikipedia de nes Industry 4.0 as “the current trend of automation and data
exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the
Internet of things and cloud computing. Industry 4.0 creates what has been called a
“smart factory”. Within the modular structured smart factories, cyber-physical
systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and
make decentralized decisions. Over the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems
communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time, and via
the Internet of Services both internal and cross-organizational services are o ered
and used by participants of the value chain”.
Accenture released a report in January 2015 that concluded an industrial-scale

version of Industry 4.0 could add $14.2 trillion to the world economy over the next
15 years.
Christoph Roser at AllAboutLean.com illustrates the four industrial revolutions:
So, the fourth industrial revolution is the move towards digitization including

automation, robotics, arti cial intelligence. The Smart Manufacturing Leadership
Coalition (SMLC) in the United States is a non-pro t organization comprising
manufacturers, suppliers, technology rms, government agencies, universities and
laboratories that share the goal of advancing the thinking behind Industry 4.0. Its
purpose is to construct an open, smart manufacturing platform for industrial-
networked information applications.
In a Forbes article dated June 20, 2016, Bernard Marr states that in order for a
factory or system to be considered Industry 4.0, it must include:
Interoperability — machines, devices, sensors and people that connect and

communicate with one another.
Information transparency — the systems create a virtual copy of the physical
world through sensor data in order to contextualize information.
Technical assistance — both the ability of the systems to support humans in
making decisions and solving problems and the ability to assist humans with
tasks that are too di cult or unsafe for humans.
Decentralized decision-making — the ability of cyber-physical systems to make
simple decisions on their own and become as autonomous as possible.
Having de ned Industry 4.0, it is clear that assuring such inter-connectedness of

software, sensors, devices and data centers requires a quality system that delivers
data integrity, privacy and reliability in addition to assuring reliable, rugged,
scalable, fully-integrated systems and processes that seamlessly data-share
between networks while consistently meeting producer, governmental and
customer needs. Opportunities exist for the Quality professional to make
signi cant, innovative contributions in areas of software quality assurance,
reliability, process validation, environmental life testing and accelerated stress
testing, Real Time Process Monitoring, advanced calibration and big data analytics.
Now, more than ever, product development and commercialization teams must
assure reliable machine-human interface ease of use and real-time results-driven
feedback loops. And, of course, discover even deeper insights to the ever-changing
voice of customer (and voice of process) along with a comprehensive
understanding of the customer experience throughout the value chain (e.g. journey
maps), and assure that the organization is measuring the right key metrics to
deliver success.
Industry 4.0 o ers exciting new challenges to the Quality profession while building
on our expertise of problem solving, process improvement, and managing the
organizational white spaces to sustain customer focus and achieve operational
excellence
Natella Isazada: www.natellaisazada.com
The top two areas that quality professionals need to master in order to succeed in
Industry 4 are soft skills and innovation. My opinion is supported by the evidence
below.
Modern scienti c progress and rapid technological advances enable the

automation of more processes and tasks more rapidly and e ectively than ever
before. Contemporary workplaces include many examples where machines are
replacing humans. In an environment like this each of us has to distinguish our
value and contributions from those of automated machines and programmed
applications. One competitive advantage humans have over robots is our people
skills and that is one strength quality professionals need to further develop and to
capitalize on.
During the fourth industrial revolution those quality professionals who limit their
capabilities and contributions strictly to data interpretation and reports, will render
themselves obsolete and face extinction. Quality professionals who desire to adapt
to the new dynamics, need to extend our skill sets beyond the usual statistical
calculations and technical tools. Aptitude in knowledge transfer, business
management and the humanities will be essential in the near future. Quality
professionals are already becoming internal management consultants leading
strategic planning and risk management initiatives as well as building knowledge
management systems. Our ability to translate quality concepts across departments
can help us further solidify our positions and sustain our importance within the
organization.
The key to our profession’s survival and success throughout the new industrial
revolution is to continue adding sustainable value in the ever changing
environments. As Quality professionals, we have to go beyond traditional methods
and use innovative strategies and tools including
Design Thinking,
Internet of Things,
Quality as a Service, and
Mastery of technological solutions like Big Data and Cloud-based capabilities.
To be an integral asset in Industry 4 we have to really tune in to customer needs

and think what requirements customers will have in the future. The value of every
great idea is determined by its ability to solve customer pain. Most likely the
solution to the future pain lies somewhere outside of our current capabilities,
requiring our full e orts to prepare for the expectations and demands of the new
era.
John Hunter: Curious Cat
Technological innovation brings great opportunity for improving results and

quality of life. But transforming potential bene ts into real results comes with
many challenges.
One of the aspects of management that the fourth industrial revolution makes

more important is the ability for organizations to rapidly adjust to drastic changes
in the market and competitive landscape. Organizations need to be designed to be
robust and to cope well with the increasingly rapid pace of transformative
innovation.
Many organizations will hope the fourth industrial revolution allows them to avoid

making the necessary improvements to their management thinking and
management systems. Adopting quality management practices requires that
executives change their behavior and decision making processes but the last 50
years has shown that is a di cult task. Most often management improvements at
the executive level are very limited (even while signi cant improvements are made
to operational level processes).
I fear the hope that the fourth industrial revolution will be possible without
transforming the executive level management practices will fair as badly as GM’s
investment in robotics in the 1980s fared.
Pam Schodt: Quality and Improvement in Work and Life
Some aspects of Industry 4.0 are automation, data exchange, the internet of
things, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and computer innovations.
Quality professionals need to stay relevant. By relevant, I mean they need to

understand these aspects on a general level and stay updated on technical
applications and systems that interconnect, exchange data, and prompt
autonomous decisions in their industries.
In some cases, this understanding is no further away than a youtube video. The
internet has made staying technically relevant easier. The quality professional
should take advantage of all in-company resources as well as local chapter and
national ASQ educational opportunities. If you want to request speakers on new
technology, reach out to chapter leadership. If you have Industry 4.0 experience,
o er to exchange information in the form of a talk or tour with your local chapter
membership.
Chris Moustakas: www.devonway.com
There are two kinds of data scientists, the joke goes: 1) Those who can extrapolate
from incomplete data.
If you got that, congratulations, you’re a natural! If not, don’t worry, it’s still early
days. Although talk of big data, arti cial intelligence, and internet of things
dominate the tech airwaves, the truth is that we’re only just starting to scratch the
surface of what we can do with all the data we’re collecting.
If you’re a quality professional and you feel overwhelmed or even threatened by the
subject, you shouldn’t: in fact, you should welcome it, because it’s going to make
your role that much more critical to your organization. Ultimately, the purpose of
data is to derive insights regarding trends and patterns, so as to uncover

bottlenecks and ine ciencies. Sound familiar? The tools and methods may be
evolving, but at the end of the day a human (you) needs to translate those insights
into organizationally appropriate actions.
Quality has always been about collecting and understanding data. By making it
easier to gather and analyze information from sources previously prohibitive,
technology has thrown open a wonderful door of opportunity. IT may know how to
install the sensors and implement the software to crunch the inputs, but why they
crunch and to what end needs to be done with purpose – and Quality professionals
can play a central role in shaping that purpose.
Just as excitingly, this is a fantastic chance to work closely with IT, a part of the
organization from which Quality has often been separated, if not completely
alienated. Both teams pack signi cant brainpower – enabling them to work
together through a common objective will be transformative to those
organizations willing to take the plunge.
Luciana Paulise: Biztorming
A report from Mc Kinsey Global Institute “Big data: The next frontier for
innovation, competition, and productivity” said that as big data “become an
increasingly valuable asset, their intelligent exploitation will be critical for
enterprises to compete e ectively. The use of big data will become a key basis of
competition across sectors, so it is imperative that organizational leaders begin to
incorporate big data into their business plans.” They de ned 5 themes leaders need
to start thinking about to keep their companies in the loop: manage inventory data
assets, identify potential opportunities and threats, buildup internal capabilities to
create a data driven organization, develop an enterprise information strategy and
address data policy issues.
In God we trust, all others must bring data
As Edwards Deming once said, In God we trust, all others must bring data. These 5
characteristics sound really like a Deming company where measuring data and
following the Plan Do Study ACT cycle has to be part of the company culture. The
problem is that unfortunately there are many companies in the world that are still
lacking this insight. In my recent book SOS PYMES (A.k.a. Small business Help) I
describe the situation of small business in developing countries where measuring
data is not exactly part of their day to day activities.
Here is where quality experts can help the new generation of business leaders all
across the world. Teaching about the importance of big data and all kind of
company measures to capture, communicate and analyze as part of the decision
making process is key. Six Sigma or the Deming System of profound Knowledge are
such great examples of starting points for training people to think about data as an
asset.
Companies will need not only supporting technology personnel to implement big
data, but also managers and analysts who know how to request and consume big
data analyses.
All of the business leaders in an organization will have to develop a baseline

understanding of analytical techniques in order to use big data e ectively. As
McKinsey report mentions, “Organizations can modify their recruiting criteria to
take this requirement into account, but more importantly, they will need to
develop training programs to increase the capabilities of their current management
and analyst ranks.”
Prem Ranganath: Medium
In recent months, I have had a chance to participate in several informal and formal
forums on 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 questions I
have heard at these forums include,
will formal improvement programs enabled by Lean and Six Sigma still matter,?
would organizations still seek certi cations 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 don’t 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). I look forward to hearing the views of my peers in ASQ and in
industry.
1. Technologies driving the evolution of Industry 4.0 still require well designed
business processes. Automation of ine cient 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
skillsets 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
3. As mentioned earlier in this post, accelerating ow and driving e ciency
cannot be lead to tradeo in e ectiveness nor should it negatively impact the
risk pro le 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. E ective quality practitioners go beyond the use of methods and number
crunching to be impactful change agents. They bring the right balance of
knowledge in organizational processes and technology so that they can help
teams navigate through the changes led by transformation initiatives to

embrace and transition to Industry 4.0.
Luigi F. Sille: Share Quality
Being a quality manager, I strive for continuous improvement; making procedures /

processes more e cient and also more e ective. Continuous Improvement has to
do with CHANGE, and Quality Management is the KEY for making products, and/or
services better for the end users (customers).That’s why quality professionals have
a crucial Job.
Technological innovations (technological changes), are related to technological

development, and progress. These innovations contribute to some huge changes in
the way we operate as a society; RADICAL CHANGES.
Changes that will impact the way we live, work, and connect to one another.
How are companies going to do business in the future, and what part will the
quality professional play throughout this industrial revolution?
Fast changes in the digital area means that the world is becoming smaller.
Everybody can do business all over the world. So there will be NO limitations in
where/who we choose to a liate ourselves with. We experience
videoconferences, mobile devices, so o ce work will become somewhat obsolete
in certain areas.
Partnerships between organizations will become more widespread. This
partnership will be close with one speci c aspect in mind: to have a win-win
situation for every partner.
One other thing that we will experience is that: we will see everybody
(customers, organizations, and partners) working together to develop new
opportunities (the win-win relationship). Continuous improvement is present,
and ALIVE.
http://asq.org/blog/2017/07/as-industry-4-0-continues-to-evolve-what-can-quality-professionals-do-to-ensure-they-will-be-an-integral-asset-throughout-this-in… 10/12
What will the role of the quality professional be throughout the industrial
revolution?
I think that we quality professionals have to keep educating ourselves, come

together and brainstorm about new programs that t this new ERA. Quality will
always be a very crucial aspect for every organization. So the presence of quality
professionals is very important. But the way we are used to working, doing our jobs
will change (it has already been changing).
The Fourth Industrial revolution will have some huge impacts, but in the end it will
all come down to PEOPLE. We have to improve the future, where we can all live
happily, and in peace. I look forward to a future where people are our rst priority.
Where we educate them properly, and after that, empower them. Technical
innovations can also have a negative impact on people, but on the other hand it can
push mankind to use their skills (creativity) to lift us to the next level.
Sarah Haynes: Sigma Solutions
It’s in the news every week now – a new development in Arti cial Intelligence (AI)
that makes a real-life version of Terminator look ever more possible. From the
trivial to the amazing, AI appears poised to become part of our lives.
History is littered with examples of people who resisted change because it was
threatening, scary, or overwhelming, and then were left behind. I’m pretty sure
some of my high school teachers still think the internet is “just a fad”. As Elbert
Hubbard said, “The world is moving so fast these days that anyone who says it
can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it”. A better way forward
is to try to learn about and understand new technology, and think about how you
might use it to add value to your workplace.
I can already hear people saying “I don’t have time”. As a consultant, blogger and
mom, I don’t have a lot of time either. So take baby steps. My favourite: talk to
other people (especially millennials!!) about what apps or software they like, and
try them out. Some will be dumb, and some may just change your life. I tried out
Snapchat and deleted it after 2 days. I tried Zoho books and now I don’t know
how I lived without it. Join a technology group on LinkedIn. Read the new
technology reviews in Saturday’s paper. Browse through CNET magazine once in a
while.
AI will change our world. How will you move with it? Joyfully, or fearfully?
Shannon Connell / July 10, 2017 / Uncategorized
1 thought on “As Industry 4.0 continues to evolve,

what can quality professionals do to ensure they will
be an integral asset throughout this industrial
revolution?”
Ryan
August 21, 2017 at 2:52 am
The basic principle of Industry 4.0 is that by connecting machines, work pieces and
systems, businesses are creating intelligent networks along the entire value chain
that can control each other autonomously. This interview addressed the prevalence
of the Internet of Things in manufacturing and the consequent technology-driven
changes which promise to trigger a new industrial revolution.
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28/11/2017 As Industry 4.

A View From the Q

As Industry 4.0 continues to evolve,

As Industry 4.0 continues to evolve, what can quality

Robert Mitchell: Quality Matters

First, let’s begin with an operational de nition of Industry 4.0.

Accenture released a report in January 2015 that concluded an industrial-scale

Christoph Roser at AllAboutLean.com illustrates the four industrial revolutions:

So, the fourth industrial revolution is the move towards digitization including

Interoperability — machines, devices, sensors and people that connect and

Having de ned Industry 4.0, it is clear that assuring such inter-connectedness of

Natella Isazada: www.natellaisazada.com

Modern scienti c progress and rapid technological advances enable the

Mastery of technological solutions like Big Data and Cloud-based capabilities.

To be an integral asset in Industry 4 we have to really tune in to customer needs

John Hunter: Curious Cat

Technological innovation brings great opportunity for improving results and

One of the aspects of management that the fourth industrial revolution makes

Many organizations will hope the fourth industrial revolution allows them to avoid

Pam Schodt: Quality and Improvement in Work and Life

Quality professionals need to stay relevant. By relevant, I mean they need to

Chris Moustakas: www.devonway.com

data is to derive insights regarding trends and patterns, so as to uncover

Luciana Paulise: Biztorming

In God we trust, all others must bring data

All of the business leaders in an organization will have to develop a baseline

Prem Ranganath: Medium

teams navigate through the changes led by transformation initiatives to

Luigi F. Sille: Share Quality

Being a quality manager, I strive for continuous improvement; making procedures /

Technological innovations (technological changes), are related to technological

I think that we quality professionals have to keep educating ourselves, come

Sarah Haynes: Sigma Solutions

Shannon Connell / July 10, 2017 / Uncategorized

1 thought on “As Industry 4.0 continues to evolve,

A View From the Q / Proudly powered by WordPress

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