Investigating changes of total quality management principles in the context of Industry 4.0: Viewpoint from an emerging economy

Abstract

Industry 4.0 will radically affect Total Quality Management (TQM) practices and principles, which are still widely used in businesses and one of the management practices. Some TQM principles, with the developed technology and systems, have become “natural management principles” whose application in the organization is fully guaranteed and the system is made to exist on its own. While some principles become easier to implement, some TQM principles and practices may need to be repositioned in terms of business management. For this reason, in this study, after a comprehensive TQM and Industry 4.0 literature research and analysis, the situation and interaction of TQM principles in enterprises that implement Industry 4.0 (I4.0), both a modeling and a survey study were made within the framework of ISO 9001:2015 TQM Principles to determine the changes in TQM principles in the I4.0 environment. Statistical analyses were performed determining relationship among TQM principles and direction of these relationships. In addition, the fuzzy DEMATEL method was applied to determine the interactions of TQM principles in the I4.0 environment. As a result, evidence-based decision making, continuous improvement and process management principles are applied much more easily with I4.0, the principles of leadership and employee participation continue to develop.