Digitalization is an opportunity for manufacturing SMEs to transform, not only for the flexibility and agility, but also for improved responsiveness in meeting customer requirements. Quality, being an integral part of customer-orientation, needs to be at the forefront of transformation under digitalization. Also, the digitalization is the need of the hour for continuous improvement to avoid disparity between paper-based quality practices and the digitalized engineering value chain. In this research article, authors intend to address the digitalization priorities of quality practices for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in perspective of adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. From the literature survey, authors observed that, there is extensive literature available regarding quality and its relevance for continuous improvement, while research insights regarding integration of quality practices in a digital environment are limited and even if considered, they have not been studied holistically. Authors have examined the available research to assimilate the effect of current market trends on quality practices. They have undertaken a survey of prevailing quality maturity in manufacturing SMEs. In current study, authors have understood the need of digitalization of quality processes and propose the priority digital approaches that can guide SMEs with a holistic view of transformation including quality. The key findings based on proposed approaches for adopting digital quality processes are: Firstly, to address the challenges of shorter time-to-market, increased complexity, flexibility and innovation, SMEs need to adopt digitalization across the PDCA quality cycle. Secondly, digitalization of quality practices needs to be considered holistically across value chain. Thirdly, five processes have been prioritized for digitalization based on their adoption maturity i.e. design for quality, compliance, incoming & outgoing goods control, statistical process control and complaint management. Based on finding of this study authors recommend that manufacturing SMEs take cognizance of these findings and adopt digital quality to successfully thrive in the emerging global market.

数字化为制造中小型企业提供了转型的机会，这不仅是为了提高灵活性和敏捷性，而且是为了提高满足客户需求的响应能力。作为客户至上的组成部分，质量必须处于数字化转型的最前沿。而且，数字化是持续改进的一个小时的需要，以避免纸质质量实践与数字化工程价值链之间的差异。在这篇研究文章中，作者打算从采用工业4.0技术的角度出发，探讨中小型企业（SME）质量实践的数字化优先级。从文献调查中，作者观察到，关于质量及其与持续改进的相关性，已有大量文献可供参考，尽管有关数字环境中质量实践整合的研究见解有限，即使考虑到这些见识，也尚未进行整体研究。作者检查了可用的研究，以吸收当前市场趋势对质量实践的影响。他们对制造业中小企业普遍的质量成熟度进行了调查。在当前的研究中，作者已经了解了质量流程数字化的必要性，并提出了优先数字方法，该方法可以指导中小企业全面了解包括质量在内的转型。基于提议的采用数字质量流程的方法的主要发现是：首先，为了应对缩短上市时间，增加复杂性，灵活性和创新的挑战，中小企业需要在整个PDCA质量周期中采用数字化。第二，需要在整个价值链中全面考虑质量实践的数字化。第三，根据采用的成熟度，确定了五个流程的数字化优先级，即质量，合规性，进出货物控制，统计流程控制和投诉管理的设计。基于这项研究的发现，作者建议制造业中的中小企业了解这些发现，并采用数字质量成功地在新兴的全球市场中蓬勃发展。