16. October 2018

Sino-German Quality Forum makes quality in the digital era a subject of discussion

 

On 26th and 27th September the Sino-German Quality Forum took place again – it was like building a bridge between German and Chinese quality experts. After the symposium had been carried out under the leadership of the DGQ in Stuttgart last year, in 2018 Shanghai was next again. This time board member Dr. Ümit Ertürk represented the DGQ at this event organised by the Shanghai Association for Quality.

About 200 participants took part in this year’s Sino-German Quality Forum. Two different main topics were stated. On the first day the topic was „Quality in the digital era“. On 27th  September the lectures were mainly about „Quality and innovation“. On the first day Dr. Ertürk gave a lecture on the topic „Quality in the digital era: impact on life and industry in Germany“. He made it clear that digitization creates disruptive business models and shortens product as well as innovation cycles.  On behalf of the customer new requirements arise due to digitization. From his point of view this development calls for a new definition of quality and a revised quality management concept, which put people in the focus again. At the same time he emphasised the chances that these challenges offer for quality managers: chances of positioning the quality management as driving force for the necessary organisational development in times of digitization.

On the second day the participants had the chance to choose between the lecture programme regarding the topic „Quality and innovation“, and a tour of the Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company Limited (ZPMC).  The world’s leading supplier of container gantry cranes demonstrates an impressive production depth and is able to supply ordered machines within short time. There are 400 employees in quality assurance at the location Shanghai. This fact alone proves the company’s high quality standard.

At the end of this event it became clear that nowadays not only digitization and innovation are of huge importance in China but also the qualification of staff. „The digitization was, of course, a crucial topic at the Sino-German Quality Forum“, Dr. Ertürk said, „besides this it also became clear that, in this particular context, the issue education has become increasingly important. Germany’s dual training system has already been partially taken over by China. Here as well, quality and qualification are closely connected.“

The next Sino-German Quality Forum takes place in Frankfurt am Main on 27th November 2019.

You can read the entire lecture here.