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International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management

ISSN : 0265-671X

Article publication date: 24 December 2021

Issue publication date: 25 January 2023

Quality 4.0 is an emerging research topic concerned with rethinking how quality management needs to be adopted in the digital era. The purpose of this research is to conduct a systematic review on the state of the research in the field of Industry 4.0 impact on improving quality management aspects and how technology can be leveraged to enhance its practices.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic review of the literature published in the last 5 years is conducted. 52 papers were selected, mapped based on the technology they focused on and categorized based on the addressed quality aspects.

The review revealed various areas where quality management can benefit from Industry 4.0 technologies, identified several research gaps and suggested new directions for future research. Firstly, the literature provided some insights about industry 4.0 potential contributions but lacks further detail on the exact applications and solutions through use cases and case studies. Secondly, there has been a focus on the potential benefits provided for quality control while there is a clear scarcity in terms of the other quality management tools and methodologies. Thirdly, there is a lack of studies on economic analysis or detailed impacts on quality costs that justifies the substantial investments needed. Finally, there is a need for including more studies about the mapping and integration of ISO 9001 requirements and Industry 4.0 features.

Originality/value

This is the first attempt to conduct a comprehensive review on the ways industry 4.0 technologies can be leveraged for the field of quality management. Based on this review, several directions for further research in this area are identified.

• Quality 4.0
• Industry 4.0
• Quality management
• Internet of things
• Machine learning
• Quality control
• Predictive quality
• Decision making

Saihi, A. , Awad, M. and Ben-Daya, M. (2023), "Quality 4.0: leveraging Industry 4.0 technologies to improve quality management practices – a systematic review", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management , Vol. 40 No. 2, pp. 628-650. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-09-2021-0305

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From total quality management to Quality 4.0: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

• Review Article
• Open access
• Published: 13 March 2023
• Volume 10 , pages 191–205, ( 2023 )

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• Hu-Chen Liu 1 ,
• Ran Liu 1 ,
• Xiuzhu Gu 2 &
• Miying Yang 3  

2606 Accesses

9 Citations

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Quality 4.0 is an emerging concept that has been increasingly appreciated because of the intensification of competition, continually changing customer requirements and technological evolution. It deals with aligning quality management practices with the emergent capabilities of Industry 4.0 to improve cost, time, and efficiency and increase product quality. This article aims to comprehensively review extant studies related to Quality 4.0 to uncover current research trends, distil key research topics, and identify areas for future research. Thus, 46 journal articles extracted from the Scopus database from 2017 to 2022 were collected and reviewed. A descriptive analysis was first performed according to the year-wise publication, sources of publication, and research methods. Then, the selected articles were analyzed and classified according to four research themes: Quality 4.0 concept, Quality 4.0 implementation, quality management in Quality 4.0, and Quality 4.0 model and application. By extracting the literature review findings, we identify the Quality 4.0 definitions and features, develop the quality curve theory, and highlight future research opportunities. This study supports practitioners, managers, and academicians in effectively recognizing and applying Quality 4.0 to enhance customer satisfaction, achieve innovation enterprise efficiency, and increase organizational competitiveness in the era of Industry 4.0.

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School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

Hu-Chen Liu & Ran Liu

Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, 152-8552, Japan

Group of Sustainability, School of Management, Cranfield University, Cranfield, MK43 0AL, UK

Miying Yang

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Correspondence to Ran Liu .

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This work was partially supported by the major project of National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 21ZDA024).

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Liu, HC., Liu, R., Gu, X. et al. From total quality management to Quality 4.0: A systematic literature review and future research agenda. Front. Eng. Manag. 10 , 191–205 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-022-0243-z

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Received : 31 July 2022

Accepted : 01 November 2022

Published : 13 March 2023

Issue Date : June 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-022-0243-z

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