This work introduces Quality 4.0 as an era of advanced quality management principles applied in the context of smart cities, blending classical and new approaches incorporating digital technologies, data analytics, artificial intelligence and participatory system of governance. The authors define Quality 4.0 in the smart city as a complex socio-technical system where high-quality public services emerges from the interplay of data, institutions and infrastructure in relation to citizens and accountability mechanisms.
The book proposes a new interpretative framework for Quality 4.0, targeting its usefulness to operationalising urban strategies, enabling decision-making and adaptive systems of public management. The focus areas include system interoperability, security and data quality, public confidence and trust in the delivery systems, digital inclusion, urban resilience, as well as institutional adaptation and continuous learning.
The main contribution is in the framing of citizens as co-creators of quality public service. In the smart city ecosystem, urban user experience, social participation, digital justice and transparency of decision-making are placed in the middle of the quality management process. From this perspective, Quality 4.0 is an instrument of correlation between operational efficiency and social responsibility, sustainable development, and democratic legitimacy.
The work represents an important contribution to the field of quality management, digital transformation in public administration and smart city development. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, it will find a wide audience amongst researchers, public decision-makers, urban practitioners and quality managers, as well as all those interested in the future of sustainable and responsible urban governance.
Autorentext
Radoslaw Wolniak is Full Professor at the Department of Economics and Informatics at the Silesian University of Technology (Poland). For over two decades he has been dealing with the issues of quality management, Industry 4.0 and Smart City. He has been listed in Stanford University's ranking of the World's Top 2% Scientists.
Joanna Rosak-Szyrocka, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Management at Czestochowa University of Technology. Her research interests focus on quality management and process improvement, increasingly linked to digital transformation in industry 4.0 and Quality 4.0 concepts, as well sustainability-oriented management topics such as ESG and responsible innovation. In her scientific output, she addresses organizational and technological determinants of efficiency and quality in manufacturing and service settings, often emphasizing how data-driven tools (e.g., digital quality systems, analytics, and AI-related solutions) can support continuous improvement and sustainable performance. She has been listed in Stanford University's ranking of the World's Top 2% Scientists.