Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – September, 2017

Welcome to September, 2017 edition of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

Our topic for September 2017 is Industry 4.0. This was a concept that had been mentioned in our July, 2017 post for further discussions in the next issue. We will take a quick look at the first few articles appearing in Google search.

Industry 4.0 is a name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive 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.

Industry 4.0 – The future of the Factory: The fourth industrial revolution has been introduced in recent years. It’s said that Industry 4.0 is the future of the factory where both the objects, which will be equipped with RFID devices, and the machines, will intelligently to communicate with each other in a secure networked environment. In the smart factory, intelligent machines can perform complex tasks while communicating with other machines. The machines will be able to detect mechanical issues or material shortages and then send instant messages to a live person for immediate troubleshooting.

What Everyone Must Know About Industry 4.0 – Bernard Marr – The question, then, is not if Industry 4.0 is coming, but how quickly.

5 things you should know about Industry 4.0 – Jamie Hinks – First things first – this isn’t a new technology. Nor is it a business discipline. It is in fact a new approach to achieve results that weren’t possible 10 years ago thanks to advancements in technology over the past decade.

Industry 4.0: Building the digital enterprise – This PwC research shows that first movers are transforming into digital enterprises. Industrial companies need to act now to secure a leading position in tomorrow’s complex industrial ecosystems.

Manufacturing’s next act – Cornelius Baur and Dominik Wee – A closer look at what’s behind Industry 4.0 reveals some powerful emerging currents with strong potential to change the way factories work. It may be too much to say that it is another industrial revolution. But call it whatever you like; the fact is, Industry 4.0 is gathering force, and executives should carefully monitor the coming changes and develop strategies to take advantage of the new opportunities.

Industry 4.0: It’s all about the people– Douglas K. Gates   : The adoption of i4.0 will have a profound impact on the manufacturing workforce. Organizations should start planning the transition today.

We back up these this broad overview with a few video clips:

Industry 4.0 – Germany’s 4th industrial revolution

Industrie 4.0 – The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Documentary | The Fourth Industrial Revolution

The next manufacturing revolution is here | Olivier Scalabre

Implementing Industrie 4.0: This is how it works!

The World In 2050 – Future Earth – BBC Documentary 2017

We will now turn to our regular sections:

For the present episode we have picked up one article The 3 Reports Every Manager Should Use To Identify High-Performers @ the column Measuring Performance (People & Enterprise) @ Management Matters Network. The article is an excerpt originally published on Entrepreneur and is from Riaz Khadem and Linda Khadem’s book Total Alignment. The Focus Report shows an employee’s performance as it relates to the actual status of each of the process indicators assigned to them. The Feedback Report is a summary of the “good news” and the “bad news” based on the status of your employee’s indicators. It illustrates the factors that have fallen below the unacceptable range in status and those that are above the satisfactory level. Those that fall in between the two are considered in the acceptable range. And the third report is The Management Report, which gives you a quick overview of the highlights of the Feedback Reports of everyone in your pyramid of responsibility, people reporting to you directly as well as indirectly. This approach is “management by exception.”

From Ask The Experts, I have picked up a question – Special Process NCRs During Audit – that relates to a very specific set of qualifications for special processes. The answers are affirmatives Nos, as long as The organization has a process, and if it is effectively implemented that should be satisfactory evidence of conformity.

ASQ CEO, Bill Troy seems to have gone into an irregular mode. Therefore, we will take up one of the recent article post form the ASQ Home page every month now.at present.

We will begin with: Why Customer Service Teams Are Crying Out for Artificial Intelligence. The article presents certain basic advantages and needs to supplement “Why’ of the title of the article. The conclusion of the article sums to message in no uncertain terms: “There is no reason to fear AI, but neither is there any choice. If your business doesn’t utilize the technology, your competitors will. Chatbots and virtual assistants may be limited now, but they’re constantly evolving, and the potential impact they could have on your customer service team is staggering. Experts are all in agreement: AI is here to stay.”

We now watch one of the latest ASQ TV  episodes:

Supply Chain Management: Building a Stronger Supply Chain – In this episode, learn how to build a better supply chain by implementing supplier metrics and a supplier scorecard.

Additional references:

• Supplier Risk Management Webinar, Steven Walfish
• Scorecard Article 1
• Scorecard Article 2 
• Scorecard Article 3

Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems for the month of August, 2017:

The Role of Specification Limits – Determine if a process is in a state of statistical control- In the previous column Jim Smith discussed the role of specification limits in manufacturing, which led to thoughts about process control limits. When there are data points falling outside the control limits, there is an indication of a special-cause event, so the process should be discontinued until the issue’s root cause has been found and resolved which will then return the process to a state of statistical control. With that said, however, it seems that effective implementation of process control charts remains elusive to many. The control limits provide information about process behavior and have no intrinsic relationship to engineering specifications. Control charts shouldn’t be used without first performing process capability studies to determine the relationship between natural process limits and engineering specification. When capability is known the purpose of control chart limits is to permit simple detection events that are indicative of actual process change. When significant change (special cause variation) is detected the culprit must be identified and eliminated with affected data points eliminated from control chart limit calculation…..Bottom line, after the process capability study has been conducted, engineering specification limits are infrequently consulted by the manufacturing process personnel.

I look forward to your active participation in enriching the blog carnival as we pursue our journey in exploring the happenings across quality management blogs…………

Note: The images depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images.