Editor’s overview

Welcome to the 2 issue of the 30 volume of the Quality Management Journal. We are excited about this edition and further contributions to the lean and quality management literature. For readers of the Quality Management Journal, we would like to encourage you to cite these, and other articles published in the journal. This helps the journal and helps your research. We now have a beginning of an H score and want to see that improve though citations. This journal is a very rigorous journal with a 14% acceptance rate. We average about 23k annual downloads and reviews. Have a great spring and send us your best research. This issue includes 4 articles. The first article is Introducing Lean practices through Simulation: A Case Study in an Italian SME by Stefano Frecassetti (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano), Bassel Kassem (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano) and Kaustav Kundu (Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management, National University of Singapore, Singapore), and Matteo Ferrazzi (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano) and Alberto Portioli-Staudacher (Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano). This article focuses on Lean in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). According to the authors, “This article would like to take that discussion from a different point of view, that of I4.0’s impact on proving the importance of implementing Lean in manufacturing companies. How do Lean tools and their integration impact SMEs’ process performance?" Through a mixed-method approach of case study and simulation, this article shows the importance of implementing lean tools in a non-Lean company.” The second article is Industry 4.0 Readiness in West of Ireland Small and Medium & Micro Enterprises – An Exploratory Study by Dr. Olivia McDermott (University of Galway in Galway, Republic of Ireland), Stuart Nelson (University of Galway, Galway, Ireland), Jiju Antony (Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE) and Michael Sony (Wits Business School in Johannesburg, South Africa). “This study looks to understand the uptake of Industry 4.0 and digital technologies by Small and Medium Enterprises and Micro Enterprises in the West of Ireland with a focus on the challenges of Industry 4.0 as well as current integration levels of Industry 4.0. This study finds that there is a high level of awareness of Industry 4.0 and digitalization and its benefits within West of Ireland SME’s and Micro enterprises.” The third article is The Significance of Digital Waste in the Automation of Lean Practices by Jamila Alieva (Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of G€avle, G€avle, Sweden) and Daryl Powell (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway). This study shows that “automating lean practices promises several opportunities for growth and competitiveness. Do companies consider digital waste a part of production waste? It is also unclear if the automation of lean practices is a trigger for digital waste with a negative impact on value creation. This paper aims to investigate companies with automated lean practices and the digital waste generated by these practices.” The fourth article is Determinants of Customer Satisfaction In a Business to Business (B2B) IT Context – A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Approach. The author is G.S. Sureshchandar (Director – American Society for Quality (ASQ), South Asia, Chennai, India). “Software organizations are unique due to the complex nature of the supplier-customer relationships and therefore the requirements of customers at the project and engagement levels are quite different and convoluted. This research identifies the determinants of Customer Satisfaction in an IT scenario, at an engagement level, and proposes a measurement instrument for the same.”