Innovation, Quality Engineering, and Statistics

Abstract

We discuss the key roles of statistics and quality engineering in the innovation process in business and industry. We review approaches that can be used in order to increase the chances of innovative discoveries. Most important, we stress the necessity for the quality engineering community to strengthen and promote its role in innovation. As Bisgaard (2006) has said, we should reframe much of what we do as systematic innovation. Adapting to the changing business and economic climate can revitalize our profession; failure to adapt threatens it.

Status of Quality Management practices in manufacturing SMEs: a comparative study between Australia and the UK

“…The relationship between QM practices and innovation has received mixed viewpoints from academics and practitioners. Nonetheless, there seems to be an emerging viewpoint when we discuss about QM promoting incremental innovation through process innovation (Antony, Setijono, and Kumar 2012;Box and Woodall 2012). A recent qualitative study conducted by Antony, Setijono, and Kumar (2012) in the UK manufacturing and service sector highlights the positive role played by QM practices such as Lean Six Sigma in fostering incremental innovation and process innovation, but not product or radical innovation.…”

“…The results indicate that it is the softer/organic factors that make the QM implementation successful in an organisation, and therefore priority should not be given to the mechanistic factors like project management and usage of tools and techniques of the QM only. Again, the factors listed above are equally important for innovation management (Box and Woodall 2012;Keathley 2012;Prajogo and Sohal 2004). The CSFs support organisational culture for continuous quality improvement and developing capability of inductive-deductive reasoning (through QM projects, education and training, cross-functional team and knowledge sharing) that may promote creative thinking in employees involved in QM implementation.…”

“…As indicated above, SMEs implementing Lean and Six Sigma realised more benefits from implementation of QM practices compared with non-adopters of Lean and Six Sigma. Both basic and advanced tools of quality management promote inductive-deductive discovery process (by going back and forth between idea and data), which is the key to process innovation (Box and Woodall 2012). Inductive-deductive iteration in the form of the DMAIC process improvement framework or Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle or the Lean five principles can also lead to innovations (Box and Woodall 2012;Browning and Sanders 2012;Hoerl and Gardner 2010).…”

“…As indicated in the literature, vast majority of innovations are combinations of existing ideas and technology. Six Sigma is one of the most successful innovations in the field of QM, combining existing approaches and statistical tools that are adding significant value to the business on an ongoing basis (Box and Woodall 2012;Jensen 2012). This research attempts to indirectly capture the link between QM practices and incremental innovation (Oke, Burke, and Myers 2007).…”

Quality Assurance through Process Improvement - A Concise Review

“…Different methodologies for achieving Quality Assurance through process improvements, are adopted and are discussed as follows. In all the works referred, statistics form a very important aspect in quality improvement [2] particularly in the six sigma DMAIC improvement works [3].…”