Quality 4.0: a bibliometric study and research agenda

Purpose – Quality 4.0 is an emerging research issue regarding how to adopt quality management in digital era or otherwise, as the application of Industry 4.0 technologies (big data, machine learning, internet of things, among other) into quality field. Technology integration in some areas has been mapped, for example the integration of process mining, big data and data science in the digital quality management. Based on these transformations, it is important to recognize what has been researched in the Quality 4.0 domain.

Design/methodology/approach – To answer these questions, it was analysed 105 documents published on the Quality 4.0 domain until mid-April 2022 in academic journals according to Web of Sciences and Scopus databases. A bibliometric analysis covering citation, co-citation (of authors, journals, and documents) and co-word was applied. Graphical analysis using VOSviewer software enhances the investigation.

Findings – The study provides trends in the Quality 4.0 domain, mainly for the 2020-2021’s period. The result presents the most influential journals, papers, and authors. Moreover, the results show what has been researched in the Quality 4.0 domain.

Practical implications – This study grants many starting points for researchers and practitioners and contributes to expanding the Quality 4.0 domain vision.

Originality/value – This paper use Science Mapping Analysis, a methodology still poorly applied on Quality 4.0 domain.

Paper type: Research Paper

Quality 4.0, Bibliometric study, Science mapping analysis, VOSviewer