Track: Doctoral Dissertation Competition

Abstract

The advances in technology in the recent decade have led to the introduction of a new term called Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution, which has led to the emergence of the term lead to Quality 4.0. Quality 4.0 is the digitalization of traditional quality approaches and focuses on digital tools used to improve an organization's ability to meet customer requirements with high quality. The application of Quality 4.0 practices in higher education institutions (HEIs) has the potential of driving innovation through technological advances in various aspects. Therefore, the digital transformation would be leading to transformation in education to achieve a comprehensive set of practical and significant goals through the formulation and execution of quality initiatives supported by Industry 4.0 related technologies. The research aims to develop a framework to assess the maturity level of HEIs towards transformation to Quality 4.0 while considering the impact of such transformation on the process, people, and technology dimensions defined in the Quality 4.0 model proposed by the LNS Research. Around 93 practices were categorized into 11 Quality 4.0 axes to form a survey that determines the current level of HEIs transformation efforts and finds out their strengths and weaknesses and locates them at one of the five defined maturity levels accordingly. The proposed framework has been validated by determining the maturity level of Quality 4.0 implementation within Saudi HEIs. The result showed that all 26 Saudi HEIs obtained scores in the second, third, fourth, and fifth levels, indicating that all HEIs are above the first level (initial quality). This finding indicates that some HEIs have a basic understanding of digital transformation and are familiar with some processes but are unfamiliar with new technologies, while others are at the most advanced level of Quality 4.0 adoption.