The topic of Quality 4.0 is rapidly becoming a legend due to its mysterious nature; it seemingly has no formal description. Very few people can confidently say that they have seen it or used it.
Multidimensionality has a specific definition, but like many other words, the definition shifts, or is tweaked, depending on the subject being spoken of and its context.
Quality is not a single field, but in fact the integration of knowledge from many fields of science, technology and management. This can be seen by looking at some of the quality gurus and their more well-known contributions.
Recently I had a discussion with a quality manager concerning the focus of quality and what skills are important to success. It centered on the degree of focus which should be placed on the quality tools versus people and teams.
The Resonance Acoustic Method (RAM) is a long-standing nondestructive test (NDT) that measures the structural responses of a part. These responses are a set of unique and measurable natural frequency (resonance) data.
As surface finish measurement increasingly moves to the point of manufacture, adding automation to the process helps maximize productivity and increases quality and machining efficiency.
The phenomenal rise of collaborative automation systems over the past decade or so has seen collaborative technologies deployed on a growing number of quality control applications. Collaborative automation enables companies of all sizes to improve throughput and reduce cycle times on inspection tasks.
Manufacturers are now embracing the move to the digitization of their production processes. Many initial project goals are very narrowly focused around removing manpower, manual errors, and running 24/7 to improve total output. These are all worthy goals for sure. Yet, this approach leaves many facets in their overall process often overlooked. There are critical questions that must be asked.