The management consultancy A.T. Kearney surveyed more than 50 managers worldwide on the subject of quality assurance. The results are alarming: companies that have developed effective quality management with traditional quality management approaches, quality gate processes and key performance indicators are suddenly confronted with new realities. Four out of ten managers believe that standard quality methods are losing their effectiveness and almost half (48%) have observed an increase in quality problems over the past ten years. 50% expect a further increase in quality problems over the next ten years.

When asked about the impact of various trends on their company's quality management, managers cite the shortened time-to-market as the most important factor; for 68% of respondents, this represents a significant challenge. Other important factors cited were increasingly complex products (58%), increasing globalization (54%) and the increase in regulatory changes (54%). Another problem is that only 48% of respondents believe that quality has been sufficiently taken into account in product design to date. According to A.T. Kearney, future-proof quality management is not limited to the manufacturing process, but starts with the design of the product: Integrated hardware and software development, early digital validation and 'real life' test methods are successful approaches. The managers surveyed are also concerned about quality innovations: almost half of those surveyed complain about a lack of innovation in quality management in their company and 76% see a need for their company to introduce innovative quality methods.