EDITOR’S CHOICE
IHE QUALITY REVOLUTION
SEMPRE
Industry 4.0: Approaching quality in the digital era
Historically, quality has been like Cinderella-
last in line for an invite to the ball. But
with UK industry struggling to match the
productivity of its European competitors,
British manufacturers can’t afford to wait
for a fairy godmother. Here Mike John,
managing director of industrial metrology
specialist, The Sempre Group, shares
a model for approaching quality in the
Industry 4.0 era.
British industry has a productivity problem.
Compared with major competitors like the
USA, Germany and France, its productivity
lags. Why is this? It’s certainly not because
we’re not working hard enough- studies
have shown that British workers put in the
longest hours in the EU. So, if we’re working
longer, but are still less efficient, where are
we going wrong? From my experience,
UK industry has been slow to adopt
technology- particularly quality control
systems- and this reluctance is holding it
back.
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PECM Issue 44
To up its productivity game, British
manufacturers require a high skill level
a good knowledge base and, most
importantly, a willingness to adopt the
latest technologies. The British Chambers
of Commerce surveyed over 6,000
manufacturing businesses with more than
a million total workers and found that 81
per cent had trouble finding staff with the
right qualifications and experience. As the
ageing workforce retires, it will be more
and more difficult to find staff with the skill
level, knowledge and technological mindset
needed. So, the future competitiveness
of UK industry depends on improving
efficiency, without expanding headcounts. It
depends on technology.
I have observed many manufacturers
treating quality as an afterthought,
reluctant to spend money on measurement
equipment, testing systems or quality
infrastructure. Quality has previously been
more like a policing engine than a vehicle
for improvement. However, Industry 4.0
brings with it a data-driven, digital approach
to quality, which manufacturers can use to
glean insights and for decision making. A
fully digitised approach to quality removes
the challenge of integrating data from
fragmented sources, reduces room for error
and enables manufacturers to improve their
productivity.
A MODEL FOR QUALITY 4.0
The model we recommend for digitalised
quality management is integrate, automate,
connect, comply (IACC). The first point is
to integrate all quality management into
one unified electronic quality management
system (EQMS). In a paper system, suppliers
may be performing quality checks, only for
the parts to inspected for compliance again
when they arrive on the manufacturer’s site.
In contrast, by taking a digital approach,
where the manufacturing company could
simply access the relevant data on its
EQMS, the extra step is eliminated.