Quality 4.0 – An Analysis from the Perspective of Method Engineers in Quality Management

“Quality 4.0” is a central research field of quality management in times of industry 4.0. However, the topic is rather new, and a profound theoretical foundation of the concept does not yet exist. Hence, it is not clear whether existing quality management methods can be smoothly transferred to industry 4.0 settings or not. Moreover, companies often lack the time to design quality management approaches for this field and to critically scrutinize the skills needed by quality managers for quality 4.0. Based on a structured literature review, this study takes the perspective of method engineers in quality management. It provides an overview of those quality management methods and quality techniques that are frequently discussed in quality 4.0 literature and seem promising for quality projects in industry 4.0 settings. In this way, insights for method engineers are derived for the purpose of method construction for quality 4.0

STATE OF THE ART CONCERNING THE INTEGRATION OF METHODS AND TECHNIQUES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT – LITERATURE REVIEW AND AN AGENDA FOR RESEARCH

Quality management is becoming more and more important for the manufacturing as well as the service industry. In the last couple of years manifold approaches for quality management have been developed such as Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean Manage-ment or KAIZEN for example. The increasing variety of quality management methods leads to challenges for quality managers since enterprises often use several approaches in parallel. Integration becomes a mean in handling this variety of methods and can lead to value-creating synergies. Nevertheless, integration in quality management is a poorly understood discipline yet. The main problem is a lack of guidelines, helping a practitioner in integrating heterogeneous approaches in a value-creating and systematic way. This paper approaches the complexity of the topic by taking a closer look at existing efforts concerning the integration of quality management methods and techniques. Based on the find-ings a research agenda is derived

SITUATIONAL ROADMAP DEVELOPMENT FOR BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT VIA A MODELING TOOL

The integration of new technologies as well as the need to increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs require companies to continuously analyze and improve their business processes. Hence, Business Process Improvement (BPI) ranks high on the agenda of many companies. However, existing methods like Six Sigma are often perceived as overly complex for projects with a limited scope. Therefore, more and more companies focus on the application of a few selected BPI techniques only, which are logically arranged in the form of “roadmaps” to tackle process weaknesses. Against this backdrop, the concept of “tool-supported situational roadmap development for BPI” along with a corresponding prototype are introduced. The approach builds on conceptual modeling and is technically realized by means of a metamodeling platform. Accordingly, the research offers practitioners a solution to systematically create project-specific roadmaps for BPI to improve process performance

Functional Interdependencies between Quality Techniques reverting to Meta Models

Considering the digitalization of the economy, process-oriented quality management (PQM) has increasingly been gaining attention. In the course of a PQM project, quality techniques are applied to elicit employees’ process knowledge and transform it into solutions to overcome process weaknesses. However, quality techniques may support each other during application or produce contradictory results, depending on the so-called “functional interdependencies (FIs)” between them. Little understanding exists of how such FIs can be properly identified, which is a prerequisite to exploit valuable synergies between quality techniques. To uncover the corresponding interdependencies, we revert to meta models in this paper, which allow to precisely describe a technique’s functionality. Generally valid indicators on a meta model level are derived to unveil the existence of FIs

Erratum to: Wand and Weber’s Decomposition Model in the Context of Business Process Modeling

Whereas the benefits of decomposing process models are obvious, the question what actually characterizes a “good” decomposition of a business process model has been given little attention to date. In addition, the process of decomposition itself is considered as being an “art” in literature. Our approach for achieving a “good” decomposition is Wand and Weber’s decomposition model for information systems. As a first step in our investigation we aim to explore in how far the decomposition model can be adapted for business process modeling at all. The potential this model might bear for evaluating decompositions of process models has been promoted in literature quite often, while a corresponding investigation is still missing. We address this gap by the following research. In the long term, we intend to establish guidelines for decomposing business process models in a structured way

Political determinants of the extensive and intensive margins of international arms transfers

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the political determinants of international arms transfers. We distinguish between the decision to exports arms (extensive margin) and the value of the arms exported (intensive margin). A theoretically-justified gravity model of trade augmented with political factors is estimated using a two-stage panel-data approach for 104 exporting countries over the period 1950 to 2007. As main political factors the level of democracy in the trading partners as well as the political orientation of the ruling governments are considered. Furthermore we account for the political differences between trading partners, the political environment differences in their respective regions and the existence of military pacts. The main results indicate that political closeness between countries is an important determinant of transfers in arms and that economic and strategic interests are not the only drivers of the transfers

What Explains Indirect Exports of Goods and Services in Eastern Europe and Central Asia?

This paper investigates the determinants of indirect exporting, using firm- level data for 27 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Indirect exporting depends on a combination of fixed and variable trade cost factors. We first hypothesize that firms that perceive customs, transportation, crime and legal sys- tems as severe obstacles anticipate higher fixed costs and are more likely to export indirectly. The second hypothesis is that indirect exporting tends to be a temporary strategy. Econometric models are used to test the first hypothesis and transition matrices to test the second. In particular, probit, Heckman-probit and fractional response models are estimated to analyse the determinants of the export mode and the share of indirect exports. The results indicate that the factors that account for the fixed cost of exporting, mainly affect the decision to export indirectly (extensive margin), but some of them also affect, to a lesser extent, the amount exported indirectly (intensive margin). More specifically, factors such as customs and trade restrictions and transportation obstacles affect the extensive margin only, whereas crime affects both margins. Secondly, trade agreement membership mainly affects trade in manufactured goods, while exchange rate volatility affects positively the extensive and intensive margin of indirect exports of services. The results also indicate that firms are more likely to change their status as an indirect exporter than they are to change their status as a direct exporter or a non-exporter, which provides support to the second hypothesis

Euro Effect on Trade in Final, Intermediate and Capital Goods

The aim of this paper is to provide fresh evidence on the effect of the adoption of the euro on exports of different types of goods. The novelty with respect to previous research is threefold. First, disaggregated trade data are used to allow for heterogeneous effects for final intermediate and capital goods. Second, we distinguish between the euro effect on the extensive and the intensive margins of trade. Finally, we estimate the impact of the Euro adoption controlling for exchange rate volatility, exchange rate movements and EU membership. This allows us to disentangle the effect of a common currency beyond the elimination of trade barriers and of any variation in the exchange rate. The main results indicate that the impact of the Euro on trade values (intensive margin) is around 9% for intermediates, 7% for final goods and it is negative for capital goods. Interestingly, the Euro effects on the extensive margin of trade are found to be negative and significant for the three types of goods, pointing to increasing specialization.Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness is grateful acknowledged (ECO2014-58991-C3-2-R)

The Gravity of Arms

1 The Gravity of Arms Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants of international arms transfers in a gravity model framework . By distinguishing between the decision to export arms (extensive margin) and the value of the arms exported (intensive margin), while also considering its interdependence, is what differentiates this paper from previous research . A theoretically - justified gravity model of trade augmented with political and security motives is estimated using a two - stage panel data approach for 104 exporting countries over the period from 1950 to 2007. In addition to the usual gravity variables related to the economic mass of the trading countries and the trade cost factors, the model is extended with political and security factors. T he level of democracy in both trading partners , political differences between trading partners and voting similarity with the United States in the UN General Assembly of the countries engaged in trade are the main political factors , whereas the existence of conflicts, military pacts and embargoes are taken as security motives . The key result indicates that both political and security motives are an important determinant of an arms trade , but their effects on the extensive margin of exports (the decision to order a transfer) differs from their effect on the intensive margin (average value of exports) . Moreover , the relative importance of the fa ctors under study has changed since 1989 . In the post - Cold War period , countries that are less democratic are more likely to export arms , military pacts are less relevant and embargoes play a role