Industry 4.0 as a Key Enabler toward Successful Implementation of Total Quality Management Practices

Abstract

Industry 4.0 refers to the new technological development occurred at the industrial production systems. It evolved as a result of integrating Internet of Things, Cyber-Physical Systems, Big-Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud Computing in the industrial systems. This integration aided new capabilities to achieve a higher level of business excellence, efficiency, and effectiveness. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a managerial approach to achieve an outstanding business excellence. There are several approaches to apply TQM principles at any organization. Industry 4.0 could be utilized as a key enabler for TQM especially by integrating its techniques with the TQM best practices. This paper suggests a theoretical framework for integrating Industry 4.0 features with the TQM principles (according to ISO 9000:2015 standards family) in order to open the door for further research to address the real impact of utilizing Industry 4.0 for serving the TQM implementation approaches.