OPINION

DIGITALSUSTAINABILITY:
A CHANGE FOR
THE BETTER
Bob Purchase, PCQI, explains why he believes quality
professionals are ideally placed to assist in the roll-out ofenvironmental and corporate social responsibility agendas
within their organisations“Both digitalisationand sustainability
consist of
individual
elements – eachwith a specificpurpose – whichmake up thefundamental
components ofan interconnectedsystem”

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62 | QUALITY WORLD | SUMMER 2021

Digital transformation (DX) andsustainability can be notoriously ambiguous.
However, each discipline contains potential
salves for the threats faced by our planet,our societies and global business. The
multiple facets of DX, including theindustrial Internet of Things (IoT),
machine learning and digital twins, canbe understood as concepts or tools tofacilitate a system evolution; just as net zero,
circularity and regenerative ecology are forsustainable development. When attempting
to understand the complexity of these topics
and how they relate to business functions, I
would suggest that quality professionals areequipped to both demystify and desegregate
these vital environmental, social andcorporate agendas.
Success in leveraging these disciplines
requires a thorough knowledge of theorganisation, society or system in question.
Both digitalisation and sustainability
consist of individual elements – eachwith a specific purpose – which makeup the fundamental components of aninterconnected system. Unlike pockets
of a traditional business hierarchy, theseelements must reach across the entire
system in order to evolve. Unfortunately,as the pressure builds for autonomousand resilient transformation of ouroccupations, cities and industries, so too
does the creation of mysterious teams
formed to future-proof our institutions
and to ensure this is accomplished inan ethical and eco-friendly way. It is no
coincidence then that these misunderstood
philosophies often appear in the quality
team’s in-tray.
It is a common for human beings tofind change uncomfortable, which could
explain why in organisations using aquarterly cycle for budgeting, change
or innovation tends to be swift and, insome cases, brutal.
However, the Japanese phrases ‘kai’and ‘zen’, coined by Masaaki Imai andmentioned in his 1975 book Kaizen:
The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success,promoted input across all levels toincrementally change culture and inturn reap the benefits of continuousimprovement. ‘Kai’ and ‘zen’ roughly
translate to ‘change’ and ‘for the better’.
This Kaizen method and philosophy isa long-term strategy rooted in regularaction. The similarities between thismethodology and the crucial need toextend the growth horizon and stimulate
individual positive sustainability impact
is clear. Even energy poverty could
be addressed by embracing all whenrealising renewable, circular resources.
But what about DX? Surely Imai’s work
could not support our progression frominfinite to discrete signals. Just research
the consultative approach to initiating a
digital transformation and you may reveal
four extremely familiar letters: PDCA.
If we could imagine digitalisationand sustainability as a combined
discipline, fundamentally in the context ofthe business, there is a huge opportunity
for process improvement. Quality
professionals are ideally placed to leverage
their experience and expertise to help
eliminate both physical (ie, materialsand environmental) and abstract (ie,time and potential) operational waste.
While specialisms in edge computing,cybersecurity, corporate social
responsibility (CSR) and environmental,social and corporate governance (ESG)
disclosure may not be second nature
to our membership, as the essential
enablers of governance, assurance andimprovement, we are certainly in aposition to make change for the better.