Quality in a fourth industrial revolution world

The rapidly increasing digitalisation of industry and society is changing how products and services are produced, delivered and consumed by the public.  

The speed of technological change and innovation in digital and data-driven industries has been increasing at an unprecedented rate in recent years. These trends were accelerated by the imposition of restrictions on movement in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This has led to further reliance on emerging technologies spanning the digital, physical and biological spheres, collectively known as the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). 

4IR covers a multitude of differing technologies including: artificial intelligence (AI); machine learning; internet of things (IoT); blockchain/distributed ledger technology; big data; wearables; virtual/augmented reality; autonomous vehicles; digital healthcare; genomics; 3D printing/additive manufacturing; cybersecurity; smart devices; nanotechnology; robotics and cloud computing. 

As the UK begins to rebuild its economy, the constantly evolving 4IR landscape will play a vital role in stimulating growth and productivity across the entire production and supply chains. Against this shifting backdrop, the desire for quality, safety and sustainability remains intact. This presents the accredited conformity assessment industry with an opportunity to further reinforce its role as a “provider of trust” that underpins new technologies. We can do this by delivering a world of confidence in the accuracy and integrity of both the underlying data and the processes themselves. 

Confidence through quality 

It is evident that many 4IR technologies have the ability to not only introduce change to the accreditation and the conformity assessment communities, but also to evolve how we all live and work. The potential for products such as smart devices, AI and autonomous vehicles is exciting, but their perceived complexity can make businesses and consumers wary. Prime examples  revolve around issues such as the data security of smart devices or AI systems inheriting the biases against specific demographics from the data they were ‘trained’ upon. 

Regardless of which technologies are being considered and how far organisations have gone with adopting them, there is a fundamental need for businesses and consumers to be confident about them. While it can initially appear complex to provide assurance on emerging and developing technologies, the existing mechanisms used by the conformity assessment sector (namely testing, calibration, inspection and certification, against agreed specifications, regulations or standards) are appropriate to provide the level of assurance required. 

Action plan

One of the key strengths of accredited conformity assessment is that it can be applied to almost any industry sector. UKAS has been closely involved with its National Quality Infrastructure partners, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in producing an action plan for regulating 4IR.  

The action plan, called ‘Standards for the Fourth Industrial Revolution’, will enable standards to respond with agility and flexibly to the changes and opportunities from new technologies, without compromising innovation. 

Regardless of which technologies are being considered and how far organisations have gone with adopting them, there is a fundamental need for businesses and consumers to be confident about them.

Jeff Ruddle

The introduction of any new technology or process has the potential to expose users and the wider markets to new risks. In seeking to mitigate those risks as far as possible, governments are increasingly favouring the speed and flexibility offered by accredited conformity assessment against voluntary standards over the comparatively lengthy and restrictive development of specific regulations. 

The role of accredited conformity assessment to underpin standards-based quality frameworks will, in many instances, be critical. First, in mitigating potential risks and second, in optimising potential opportunities from the introduction of new digital technologies and processes for users and wider markets.  

The conformity assessment sector needs to work with these emerging technologies and develop its skills in 4IR. This will enable us to understand the critical points at which these technologies have to be tested or inspected, so that the standards and specifications developed are fit for purpose. Doing so will support ongoing innovation while providing the necessary assurance demanded by regulators, businesses and customers. 

Developing quality assessments 

As part of its strategic priority “to be agile, enabling the organisation to adapt and innovate”, UKAS has been examining and researching the impact of the 4IR on accreditation and the conformity assessment sector. Through our conversations and meetings with customers and stakeholders about 4IR, the picture that emerges is mixed.  

While it is still early days for many, some are already evaluating 4IR technology to increase their output without compromising either quality or expertise. 

• Pathology labs are currently trialling AI technology that assists pathologists with their analysis and interpretation of tumour samples.  
• Inspection bodies are increasingly using drones to access confined spaces and hazardous environments, both improving inspector safety and speeding up the inspection process. 
• Certification bodies are employing blockchain technology to log a product’s entire history (including its components and the certification process) which can be verified by scanning a QR code. UKAS itself has been using a similar blockchain and QR code system to verify accreditation certificates, helping conformity assessment bodies prove their accreditation status to customers and helping to reduce fraud.   

These examples illustrate that the accredited conformity assessment sector is on its way to embracing 4IR and recognising the many benefits it can bring to regulators, customers and the industry itself. 

The adoption of 4IR technology also has the potential to fundamentally change the way the quality industry operates by assessing a wider range of data over a longer period of time. Both accreditation and certification assessments take a sample of evidence which is then analysed to prove competence/compliance. While it would be impossible for assessors to monitor a continuous stream of a wider range of customer data, AI has the potential to increase the sample size without adversely impacting costs. As well as providing a more accurate indication of each assessed organisation’s capability, this would also help identify trends across wider industry sectors, helping to make the quality assessment process more efficient and insightful.