Practical workshops focus on digital challenges and solutions in everyday life
For decades, quality made in Germany = quality tested in Germany. The QI-Digital initiative supports QI stakeholders on the path to a digital future. Conformity assessment is a cornerstone of our quality infrastructure.
We therefore wanted to find out more from the testing and calibration laboratories in particular: Their expectations, needs and experiences with regard to digital QI tools. We invited the community of calibration and testing laboratories to exchange ideas and engage in dialogue in order to further develop the work and services of the QI-Digital initiative in a practical way.
Digital QI in testing and calibration laboratories - from trend to day-to-day business
As part of the ‘Digital QI practice workshops’, we designed a targeted, professionally supported dialogue process with co-creative online workshops.
Objective:
For the QI-Digital initiative: impetus to align and further develop the work of the initiative even more closely with practical needs Activation of a wide range of stakeholders for the goal of digital QI
For participating laboratories: exchange and new impetus for their own operational practice New contacts, networks, collaborations and solutions
For the QI community: Better, practical support for the entire QI ecosystem to effectively and sustainably drive the digital transformation forward
Approach:
Multi-perspective: exchange with stakeholders from different areas of QI - laboratories, customers, authorities, associations
Co-creativity: with the help of design thinking methods
Timeline of the project
(Source: NoDrama strategy consultancy)
The dialogue process was designed to be participatory. Participants were to be permanently involved and remain in dialogue. QI stakeholders who were unable to take part in the practical workshops were also kept informed and involved through regular and transparent communication.
The first three practical workshops took place on 30 November 2023, 30 January and 18 April 2024.
We have linked the presentations of the talks here at the bottom of the page.
After two of our four practical workshops, there was an interim report with initial findings:
The participating laboratories hoped that the digitalisation of everyday laboratory work would lead to efficiency gains, fewer sources of error and new business models. However, there are still some hurdles to overcome on the way to a fully digitalised, traceable and secure laboratory process. Proprietary software solutions and formats with limited interoperability are just as much a problem as the high bureaucratic requirements for documentation and heterogeneous regulations imposed by the various federal states. Laboratories lack a common language when it comes to the use of measured variables, units, procedures and visualisations.
Round four of our dialogue process on the digitalisation of the quality infrastructure took place on 18 June 2024 as a practical workshop with calibration and testing laboratories and other stakeholders from the QI community, albeit in a new format. Under the heading ‘From the status quo to new perspectives on digital QI’, we jointly reflected on the results of the past three practical workshops, discussed initial conclusions and focussed on concrete approaches for practical answers to the greatest challenges of digital transformation. The event was once again held as an interactive, digital workshop from 10 am to 2 pm.
Together, we used interactive methods to work out how digital tools can change the day-to-day business of calibration and testing laboratories and what requirements, needs and wishes the participants have with regard to the further development of digital QI.
You can download a summary of the results in the workshop reports below.
YOUR CONTACT PERSON
For queries about the dialogue process and the online practical workshops as well as inclusion in the contact distribution list for up-to-date information:
No Drama Strategieberatung GmbH & Co. KG
Johannes Klockenbring
E-mail: klockenbring(at)nodrama.info
The project was commissioned and supported by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) on behalf of QI-Digital. Please send enquiries to Dr Claudia Koch via info[at]qi-digital.de.
DCC Summer School 2024
As announced at the online workshops, there was a DCC Summer School in June 2024 at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig for in-depth study of the DCC digital calibration certificate. Led by the DCC development team, the focus was on first-hand examples of best practices and hands-on exercises, as well as questions about DCC components such as the DCR (Digital Calibration Request) and the DCA (Digital Calibration Answer), as was the case at the premiere in 2022. The event took place from 24 to 26 June 2024 at the PTB Seminar Centre in Braunschweig. Further information can be found here. If you have any questions, please contact info[at]qi-digital.de.
