Editorial: Special issue on advances in zero defect manufacturing

This introduction to the special issue discusses contemporary advances in zero defect manufacturing. As a technology-intensive concept, zero defect manufacturing has gained greater traction in recent years, given widespread interest in and adoption of Industry 4.0. As such, zero defect manufacturing has the potential to disrupt and reshape our entire manufacturing ideology. In this editorial, we present an overview of the main findings of the papers that were selected for publication in this special issue and provide our reflections for the future of zero defect manufacturing research.