Contributions of Industry 4.0 to quality management - A SCOR perspective

Abstract

Industry 4.0 is a concept for future industrial value creation, aiming to generate economic, ecological and social benefits, relating to the Triple Bottom Line of sustainability. This shall be achieved through horizontal and vertical interconnection on the basis of cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things. So far, the majority of scientific papers has dealt with technological foundations or showcases within the concept, whereas economic, ecological and social aspects have been considered less. In particular, the exact potentials of Industry 4.0 remain opaque in industrial application. The paper aims to contribute to this research gap by identifying potentials related to quality management achieved through Industry 4.0. Therefore, 204 manufacturing plants worldwide of a German industrial company are investigated through a quantitative survey. Potentials associated to quality management are assessed, applying the SCOR model. On this basis, the paper can highlight to which potentials Industry 4.0 so far contributes.