The CEO of Tecnomatrix, Xavier Conesa, and the Quality Control Director of Grupo Antolin, Óscar Ibáñez, discuss the Challenges for Quality Management 4.0 at the 25th AEC Automotive Congress.
The 25th AEC Automotive Congress had Kapture.io among its protagonists. The CEO of Tecnomatrix, Xavier Conesa, talked with the quality control director of Grupo Antolin, Óscar Ibáñez, under the title Win-Win Dialogue “Challenges for quality management 4.0”. Their reflections showed how the global Covid-19 pandemic has influenced companies in the sector and their digitalization processes.
If, according to the cliché, every crisis is an opportunity, the question was clear: what have we learned from the coronavirus and the obligation for everyone to live with temporary confinement and social distance? Is there anything positive to extract from this global crisis? Xavier Conesa posed the questions and Óscar Ibáñez explained the case of Grupo Antolin. All companies globally saw how the 2020 work plan was blown up in March with the obligation to stay at home, but it was mandatory to react. What steps were taken to adapt to the situation? “Everything was upended dizzyingly and on the digitalization side the process perhaps caused some bottlenecks or delays, but it also reflected solutions.
“Everything we have raised now must be more flexible, lighter and adaptable. And so do we, with the digitization process.”
Once we had solved the problem of our teams being able to continue producing safely, the next concern was communication. If we wanted to keep working we had to invest time, and perhaps more, in efficient communication. It’s unfeasible to work without high communication.”
New times demand new approaches to operate because circumstances have changed. Adapt to survive and continue to grow. “Everything we have raised now must be more flexible, lighter and adaptable. And so do we, with the digitization process.” Quality control and digitalization force companies to integrate to form a whole, with the same roadmap and shared decision-making. “It is important for companies to have a decision-making body.
It is a very transversal activity, since digitalization affects the entire business and we must have a clear map. The governing body must be sure to include the areas of value creation, prioritizing the activities that will give us the greatest benefit in the short, medium and long term. All of them must understand each other, even if they sometimes clash. Digitalization is everyone’s business, and if they don’t understand it, it won’t be efficient.”
“Digitalization is everybody’s business and if all areas don’t understand it, it won’t be efficient.”
Xavier Conesa and Óscar Ibáñez analyzed digitalization and the present and short-term future of companies at the AEC Congress. As a farewell, the CEO of Tecnomatrix, wanted to inquire into the future of quality control. What challenges await us? “To take many more steps, perhaps disruptive. Quality has to be much more self-governed, with more interrelation in the whole line of value creation. Subsequently, perhaps there will be the opportunity to also self-govern the production processes, the design processes, giving them more value, and continuous improvement. The challenge is also to understand that technology and digitization are not the solution to all our problems; it must be assumed naturally by our teams. Collaboration between artificial and human intelligence will be the key to the success of our businesses and their accountability.”
