Entwicklung eines standardisierten Vorgehensmodells zur Integration manueller, automatisierter und virtueller Quality Gates in produzierenden Unternehmen; 1. Auflage

RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen)

Abstract

Globalization, volatile markets, and ever-increasing customer demands pose a particular challenge for manufacturing companies in terms of producing the right quality at optimal costs. Since the quality capability of a manufacturing company is considered a fundamental component of economic success, innovative technological solutions are becoming increasingly relevant in order to remain competitive in the considered markets. Data-based systems, artificial intelligence, and automation offer potential technological enablers for the quality sector. In combination with the traditional quality gate approach, similar approaches offer the opportunity to reduce inspection times and costs, save resources, and optimize processes within companies. During the roll-out of comparable systems, companies face the challenge of defining suitable strategies and adjustments within the company, comparing the necessary expenditure with the resulting benefits at an early stage, and enabling organizational integration. To address these challenges, the thesis pursues the following goal: enabling manufacturing companies to methodically integrate manual, automated, and virtual quality gates into their production processes. To achieve these goals, existing concepts of quality gates are evaluated, and existing challenges are presented. Subsequently, requirements for the evaluation, design, and applicability of a methodological approach are determined. Furthermore, existing approaches in science and industry are evaluated with regard to the fulfillment of defined requirements, and existing research needs are identified. To address this research need and the defined goal, a standardized process model is being developed that enables manufacturing companies and relevant experts to autonomously select the optimal quality gate configuration (manual, automated, virtual), technical design, and organizational integration. The process model is divided into five phases: initialization, system analysis, scenario generation, scenario selection, and implementation. Finally, the developed process model is applied in two different use cases at manufacturing companies in the construction machinery and agrar industries. Multi-stage process chains in production are examined and a suitable solution scenario with defined manual, automated, and virtual quality gates is selected for both use cases. The application is carried out with various experts from the manufacturing companies, who also classify the functionality of the process model. Finally, further development potential and research needs are defined.

Authors 1

1. Johann-Philip Abramowski corresponding Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen