A general model for continuous quality improvement by immune system inspired data driven evolution

Today, enterprises are facing more pressure than ever for continuous improvement and adaptation. Therefore, how to capture the flashing by opportunity to improve quality with low cost and high efficiency becomes an imperative task for any enterprise. Inspired by the natural immune system principles and biological evolution mechanism, a data driven system evolution method for continuous quality improvement based on information technology is proposed. First the variation phenomenon in biological system and manufacturing system is compared. Then based on analyse of the similarity and difference between the two systems, the general model for continuous quality improvement is established by utilizing existing data analysis tools and methods. Finally the method is illustrated by a case study which uses association rule mining method as the tool to capture the opportunity to improve system quality. This immune inspired model has the potential to improve the system quality with little additional cost.