Why do manufacturers make things? What is the common goal behind every manufactured item ever made? The answer is to improve our quality of life.

Every item ever made exists to either make our lives easy, enjoyable, predictable or productive. Within the last 100 years we’ve gone from leading incredibly challenging lives dominated by physical, repetitive tasks, to being a super-productive society augmented by technology.

Imagine how demanding it would have been to run a household just 100 years ago without a vacuum cleaner, washing machine, refrigerator or television set to keep the family entertained.

Quality is at the heart of humanity’s desire for better. From the food we eat and clothes we wear, to the jobs we work and the technology we use – quality drives innovation and shapes our experience. With quality as our aim, we push the boundaries of what is possible, challenging ourselves to reinvent what we know. We ideate, concept and iterate our way towards a better future.

Quality is a simple thing to people. It’s a feeling we experience when products really excite us. Quality is something we gauge with our senses and react to with instinct.

In manufacturing though, quality is a complicated concept associated with one distinct part of the value chain. We talk about quality so much in a technical way that we’ve become too far removed from the end results of our work.

At Hexagon, we think the incredible contribution manufacturing makes to the human ascent should be celebrated, so we’re making it our mission to remind manufacturers of the incredible impact they make to people’s lives, every day.

Look at the world around you. Manufacturing innovation shapes our lives and dictates how we interact with our environment.

Manufacturing is the truest manifestation of innovation. It gives us everything from the cars on the road to the planes in the sky, from the tools in our hands to the smart technology that’s become an extension of our very selves. The desire for quality experiences is what drives our collective progress. Quality designs, production, and management approaches bring it to life.

Manufacturing innovation – taking quality to new levels

Right now, our sector is working on some of humanity’s biggest challenges. Innovators are cleaning up industry, unlocking sustainable aviation, driving the automotive sector to zero emissions and making major leaps in all areas of manufacturing.

Quality underpins every aspect. It is quality innovation, quality design, quality business processes, quality production and quality logistics that help us to make meaningful progress.

Despite all the change and uncertainty we see impacting manufacturing, our industry has never been more exciting or more innovative. It has never promised to unlock so much potential. It has never been so close to flipping the imbalance and realigning people and planet for a healthy future.

Every day, millions of people go to work for manufacturing businesses. We want to remind them of the incredible things they are helping us achieve collectively.

Manufacturers are not just making components. They are not just making better versions of the same thing. They are helping us to achieve quality for life. We want to shine a light on how amazing this is.

Out of the factory and into life

At its core, quality is about human experiences and we must never forget that. People associate it too heavily with the inspection room and mention it too infrequently as a driver of innovation. We focus so intensely on the cycles that we overlook the real-world impact we are making.

At Hexagon we want to get people thinking about the human benefits of making products, rather than the process. We want to take the conversation out of the factory and into real life. As manufacturers, we naturally strive for more, but occasionally we need to zoom out and remind ourselves of the bigger picture to appreciate the role we play.

Our new quality for life video makes the link between manufacturing and human progress, showing how – with a broad connected view – it is possible to supercharge quality across the value chain to accelerate progress in all areas of your organisation.

More than a message – a strategy for success

When we think about quality, we don’t think of an isolated process. It’s circular and continuous that spans the value chain. We want people to understand that with a connected process that empowers data, collaboration and innovation – we can make quality gains at every stage, from concept to customer. We believe real-world insights will help us make better products in better ways, with improvements coming from every phase of the product cycle.

The link between product quality and innovation is crucial. Real-world product performance insights drive innovation by highlighting areas for improvement. Creating a feedback loop using real-world data allows manufacturers to look at old problems in new ways and innovate solutions that drive progress. We should stop thinking about quality as a room at the end of the process. It is the process.

Connected quality approaches embed humanity and life into manufacturing. Quality itself is the one thing about products that can make us brand loyal. Much more than this, on a technology level, quality is the biggest needle mover in our industry right now.

By creating a digital thread for quality that connects your entire business, you can achieve multiplier gains across the value chain. Once developed it will connect your business, breaking down silos and unleashing information to power progress and increase innovation. For advice on how to create a strategy for quality within your business, be sure to check out our quality ebook which contains tips, approaches and action steps. 

Real people benefit from quality every day. Not just at a social level, but at an individual level. It’s everybody’s job to aspire, innovate and vote with the money we spend to ensure that the goods we produce result in quality for life.

For the latest insights on quality within manufacturing, read Hexagon’s Advanced Manufacturing Report.