Research activities

Quality management comprises the four pillars of quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement.

In quality planning, the characteristics of the product to be developed are recorded on the basis of customer requirements and weighted according to customer wishes. Based on this weighting, the product characteristics are categorized into quality or inspection characteristics and corresponding production tolerances are assigned to these quality or inspection characteristics. Appropriate QM methods and techniques are available for quality planning, but these quickly reach their limits, especially when used for complex products.

In quality control, the production processes are controlled/regulated with the help of QM methods in such a way that the product characteristics are within the previously defined production tolerances. In particular, methods and techniques in the area of error prevention and questions of employee behavior when errors occur have not yet been satisfactorily developed.

The area of quality assurance essentially comprises the documentation of test results on the one hand and the management systems in the form of "manuals, process and work instructions" on the other. The structure of corresponding management systems is defined in corresponding standards and guidelines, but small and medium-sized companies in particular have difficulties implementing them. Furthermore, acceptance by employees is still an open problem.

In the context of quality improvement, the classic "continuous improvement programs" and the application of quality philosophies such as Six Sigma, the zero-defect program or lean management should be mentioned. In addition to employee acceptance, the entire spectrum of process management has not been conclusively clarified. The questions of process definition, process mapping, process optimization and process simulation can already be partially answered by software tools. However, many questions remain unanswered in detail, particularly for use in small and medium-sized companies.

The open points described above give rise to a need for research in the areas of customer orientation (quality planning), process optimization (quality control and improvement) and in the area of classic (quality) management systems (quality assurance), which is reflected in the subject areas of this specialist field.