Development of the DGQ role bundle model of the Q occupations

Purpose Today’s generations face the effect that knowledge is no more usable for decades or even centuries. The pace of change as well as its profoundness has reached levels that cause massive changes in companies, but also whole societies. Some call this phenomenon the 4th industrial revolution or Industry 4.0. Others use the term “digital transformation”. Does this mean that quality managers are becoming obsolete soon? How do the Quality occupations adopt? Which changes need to be accomplished in the field of Quality occupations to provide sustainable competencies for future employees? What tasks and functions need to be carried out? And how can these tasks be defined on a universal basis that fits for different kind of branches as well as small and big companies? Design/methodology/approach Based on Abbotts “System of Professions”, the development of a transformation concept for Quality occupations is carried out. The purpose of this paper is to define basic professional positions in the field of Quality Engineering regarding quality assurance (QA) and quality management (QM) as well as from an operative to a strategic level. Tasks and responsibilities of todays and future businesses models are clustered and enhanced or specified. In a survey, which included 389 executive managers in Germany, the German Association of Quality elevated those jurisdictions and their competences of QA and QM professionals. The results are used to define the new role bundle model for Quality occupations in Germany. Findings The innovative and sustainable role bundle model offers defined Quality occupations for future business models needed for the 4th digital revolution. Thereby, not every role has to be taken by a separate employee in a business organisation. By offering different kind of clusters, the role bundle model helps to create agile role profiles regarding the actual business situation and its size. This way, tasks and jurisdictions within the business organisation can be adapted fast to the changes of the business organisation. Originality/value The innovative concept is based on two success criteria: the creation of Quality occupations according to the changes of digital transformation and a survey involving more than 350 German executive managers in the field of Quality. Based on the results, a role bundle model for Quality occupations is designed that helps to coordinate education programmes at universities and professional trainings in Germany.