Quality management potentials – A future trend based analysis and strategy

Purpose – This paper explores the future challenges for quality management. It focuses on the role of an innovative quality management for the future viability of companies within rising megatrends such as digitization, individualization, globalization, new ecology and new work.
Design/methodology/approach – Future trends and their impact on quality management are analyzed. Within an expert panel, the changes are transferred to a comprehensive understanding of quality. Finally, a change management approach is derived to transform the role of quality managers.
Findings – The paper shows, that the current role of quality management in companies, based on continuous improvement and guaranteeing the ISO 9001 certificate, needs to be evolved to a role up to the strategic management level again for staying competitive. Within this process, quality management methods should be enriched by technological developments and innovation approaches to guarantee the competitiveness within a world of revolutionary changes.
Practical and social implications –The trend analysis implicates possible fields of action like developing new and adapted quality methods, utilizing innovative potential or ensuring adequate just-in-time education for required new competencies, methods and technical understanding. By exploiting these potentials, quality management has the opportunity to play a leading role within change processes to gain in importance again.
Originality/value – The paper emphasizes the role of quality management as a holistic approach that holds a tremendous potential to shape the future of a company. It proposes a strategy to strengthen the role of quality management.

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quality management, future trends, digitization, strategy