Quality 4.0 is claimed to be the latest incarnation of Quality. It is claimed to be "a top priority for Quality Managers", "the future", "a revolution". Now where have I heard hype like that before? Quality 4.0 has an amazing assembly of acronyms such as: AI, AR, VR, 5G, IoT. It has almost everything you could ever think of ... although descriptions of Quality 4.0 say nothing about Quality.
Of course, Quality is passé these days. Quality went out the window with the previous fad, when psychologist, Mikel Harry, pointed out that every process was wildly out of control, with a 1.5 sigma shift/drift, because of a stack of discs on his desk. Ridiculous as it sounds, thousands believed it. Before Harry died, he admitted in his "Shifty Business" article, "opponents", like me, were "absolutely correct."
Quality has indeed gone down the toilet. The world is in crisis. Of the 58 large companies that announced Six Sigma programs, 91 percent have trailed the S&P 500 since. Six Sigma helped destroy its once best reference, GE ... before they tossed it out. More recently, the Six Sigma company, Boeing, not only tossed Quality out the window in an attempt to cut costs, but they lost $19,000,000,000 and killed 346 people in the process. How's that for Quality!
Focus on Quality: costs are minimized.
Focus on cost cutting: disaster follows.
Indeed, Quality was such a disaster with Six Sigma, the creators of Quality 4.0, in their infinite wisdom, seem to have decided to play it safe and leave out Quality altogether.
Integrated Cyber-Physical Interfaces
According to ASQ, top of the list in Quality 4.0 is "integrated cyber-physical interfaces". Now, "cyber" means computer, and "physical" is the other stuff. For example, your air-conditioner has a cyber (computer), controlling the physical compressor, fan and such. The "interface" is the dial that lets you set a temperature. The dial is an "integrated cyber-physical interface". Now what's not to love about that? Imagine an air conditioner without one! Quality 4.0 to the rescue!
End-to-End Systems
End-to-End Systems are number 2 on the ASQ Quality 4.0 list. The end-to-end principle concerns the reliable transmission of data across the internet. That's got to be a good thing, doesn't it? We all want to see web sites on our computers that look the way they were transmitted. Once again, this has nothing to do with Quality in production processes. However it sounds cool, which makes it a great addition to Quality 4.0.
"Humans" only when Essential
The old way of Quality was to support employees, 'drive out fear', 'pride of workmanship', and 'break down barriers between staff areas'. The new way is to get rid of everyone, except when a robot has trouble making up its mind. The brave new world of Quality 4.0
AI Artificial Intelligence
If you want to sound really modern, you need to drop "AI" into every second sentence. In reality, AI isn't very intelligent at all. If you get it to run a maze, a couple of million times, it will learn to run that maze. Ask it the best path to follow, taking into account linear inertia, rotational inertia, friction, air resistance, gravity and energy, it has no clue. For some things, like differentiating characters, on either end of a dog leash, after millions of tries, it is great. It is even great at simulating the look of a fluid simulator, without knowing anything about physics or fluids. Quality 4.0 needs to sound modern, and flashy, so AI is tossed into the pot.
AI is great for identifying patterns. Then you will jump in and say, 'we need to see patterns in processes'. We need regular in-control patterns but we need to recognize out of control situations, then to immediately be able to investigate. That requires real intelligence.
Big Data
Big is so much better than the old 'little data'. I'm surprised no one has thought to add a warehouse. 'Data Warehousing' is as cool sounding as 'big data'. Slide in data snooping, and you will really impress your CEO with your lexicon.
Data warehouses are central repositories for all that data, of which you have too much (big data). Data snooping is the art of rummaging through your warehouse.
Dr Wheeler gives an excellent and very detailed analysis of data snooping big data, over 4 papers. He points out: "We can never establish nor prove that a given relationship exists using an existing data set." Dr Wheeler points out that the best approach is control charts. Of course despite most folk having a very poor understanding of control charts, they are old hat. Yes, I've actually encountered folk who claim control charts are obsolete and have been replaced by 'big data'. 'Big data' sounds very 2021, so we toss it into Quality 4.0.
Blockchain
I wonder why ASQ doesn't mention gravity waves or Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance'. Both seem more relevant than 'blockchain'. A blockchain is a peer to peer network where each node has a full record of everything that has happened to each block of data. The purpose is for security, with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. What on Earth does Bitcoin have to do with Quality. Nothing! Process management has very different needs to money laundering.
At this point, everyone should stop and ask "How on Earth is Bitcoin going to improve Quality in my company?" "Why should I be learning about Bitcoin and some new fad, rather than learning more about control charts?" "Am I being led by the nose?". Do you really understand control charts? For example, how many quality managers understand how power curves are used to compare the efficacy of different types of control charts, or how ANOM is used, and how many have leptokurtophobia?
Mishmash of other bits
Finally we have the Quality 4.0 lucky dip bin of anything you can think of:
"affordable sensors and actuators" - Better to buy Quality ones.
"cloud computing" - Over 40 years old. Oh no! It must be obsolete!
"open-source software" - Yes, free stuff!
"data streaming" - A century old, oh no! It too must be obsolete!
"5G networks" - And 6G, and cable networks, and satellites.
"IPv6" - New version of 47 year old technology, oh no, again!
"IoT" - That internet thingy.
Augmented Reality (AR)
A cool tool for quality training, especially now that you can run it on a mobile phone with no special hardware. We use it in our new management training - Deming Red Beads in Augmented Reality. We also use it in our free Deming Funnel experiment in AR. Lots of fun and learning. Look for them in the app stores.
The Future
Two technologies that are prime candidates for Quality 4.0 are Spectral Projectors and Photon Gloves. These technologies were developed by Ghostbusters Inc. They are not related to Quality in any way, so it is likely we will see them become part of Quality 4.0 in the near future.
However, don't get too comfortable, Quality 4.0 is already obsolete and been superseded by the new fad, Quality 5.0.
Conclusion
Will Quality ever become a profession, or will it continue to be dominated by hacks peddling worthless fads and nonsense, such as Six Sigma, Quality 4.0 and Quality 5.0? Real professions such as, engineering, physics, mathematics, statistics, and medicine, don't have fads.
The foundations of Quality as a profession, have already been laid down by the greats: Professor Deming, Professor Lewis, Professor Ishikawa, Dr Shewhart and Dr Wheeler ... but the masses turn their backs on them. I fear that people will continue to turn their backs on a professional approach to Quality.
Turning Quality into a profession is not difficult. Simply starve the hacks. Do not feed them. Do not attend conferences on futile fads such as Six Sigma and Quality 4/5. There is a huge amount to learn about Quality. Get back to the fundamentals. If as much effort was placed into learning the basics of Quality, as chasing silly fads, the world would be a far better place. If Quality was a profession, 346 Boeing 737 passengers might still be alive.
by Dr Tony Burns BE (Hon 1) PhD (Chem Eng)