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Manufacturing excellence means to be the best in the field at each competitive priority and to demonstrate industry best practices. Over the years there have been many pioneering efforts in the direction of the assessment and implementation of manufacturing excellence through various frameworks, but none of the existing frameworks was found to be suitable for the Indian scenario, and the completeness of existing Indian manufacturing excellence frameworks was also found to be lacking. Hence this paper aims to focus on the development of a new framework for providing direction and guidance to an organization in achieving manufacturing excellence in Indian industry.

A literature review was carried out to provide a brief overview about the 23 frameworks of manufacturing excellence/world‐class manufacturing as proposed by various researchers, consultants, international agencies and individuals. An attempt is made to propose a new framework for manufacturing excellence using the comparative analysis of the existing frameworks along with the domain knowledge of the concept of manufacturing excellence and through discussion with experts.

The outcome of this research is a framework of manufacturing excellence.

The proposed framework for manufacturing excellence needs to be validated through an empirical approach or by a clinical approach utilizing a case study.

Through comparative analysis, some unique elements/attributes were identified which represent the pillars of manufacturing excellence and through domain knowledge some more elements/attributes have been added. Sub‐attributes/sub‐elements for various pillars have also been identified.

The role of maufacturing within the organisation, world class manufacturing (WCM) and manufacturing strategy are outlined. The need for a practical method to establish the steps required for the implementation of excellence within manufacturing is identified. Focus is on pilot studies conducted at “best practice” companies to establish the existence of a generic process that maufacturing companies can follow in order to become excellent. The knowledge obtained is used to develop a framework for pursuing manufacturing excellence. The framework shows how initiatives and their enablers combine to directly link the strategic level of the organisation down to those activities at the operating level of the business which contribute most to manufacturing excellence.

Several authors in extant literature have shown concern towards lacuna in availability of standard constructs in supply chain management (SCM). These standard constructs can represent pillars of SCM excellence. However, frameworks on SCM excellence unlike its contemporary fields are very few. Thus the purpose of this paper is to develop a path analysis for proposed framework of SCM excellence in Indian manufacturing industry proposed by Soni and Kodali (2014) using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and structural equation modelling (SEM).

The ISM is performed on two exemplary cases of supply chain in Indian manufacturing industry. These cases were selected on the consideration of supply chain excellence index (SCEI), based on the results of an empirical study conducted by Soni and Kodali (2014) in Indian manufacturing industry. The focal manufacturing company which exhibited lowest and highest SCEI were selected as contenders for developing ISM. The relationships among pillars and constructs of SCM excellence framework are obtained from ISM, and later are subjected to statistical testing of model fit by using SEM. The input to SEM was the respondent’s data used in previous study.

The major findings revealed that ISM based on focal company having highest SCEI, is statistically fit for SCM excellence framework, and finally the structural models of the constructs for each pillar of SCM excellence are also formed by using path analysis.

The study offers a unique managerial approach for analysing the underlying relationships between pillars of SCM excellence. Researchers can use this study for developing frameworks in various realms of SCM excellence.

Fieldwork in several “best practice” companies showed that the important performance objectives sought to fulfil each company’s manufacturing strategy were achieved through the use of initiatives and supporting enablers. A manufacturing excellence framework shows how these initiatives and enablers combine to support manufacturing excellence. This work explores the validity and usefulness of this framework by means of a postal survey conducted across a wide base of manufacturing companies in the UK. The nature of the questionnaire is outlined together with the results from the analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaire. The results show the framework will contribute significantly to manufacturing excellence. Also when the framework is used to identify those initiatives that are crucial to the fulfilment of the manufacturing strategy then the company’s overall business strategy is more effectively executed.

The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of the complete process of framing and implementing operational excellence in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure higher regulatory compliance.

A literature search was conducted using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. Strategies were set with different keywords and certain assessment criteria for the inclusion and exclusion of articles. A total of 46 articles were considered for a full review.

This study describes the impact of implementing operational excellence in day-to-day operations and the driving forces to achieve the same. Seven commonly used enablers are described can be used in combination to develop and validate an assessment model. Case studies are summarized to schematize operational excellence programs for the scope of their industry.

This study is limited to Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers. It is implied toward small-scale manufacturers. It can be further extended to manufacturers from other regions.

This study guides quality assurance managers, regulatory agencies and other top management to implement operational excellence to ensure higher regulatory compliance. It guides to develop a roadmap to operational excellence in their scope. This study is applicable to any manufacturing industry bound to comply with pharmaceutical regulatory standards.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, at the time of publication, there are regulatory guidelines and some articles on various key enablers to achieve operational excellence. There is no published systematic review on achieving regulatory compliance by using operational excellence.

The purpose of this paper is to identify a classification scheme which represents the variation in business and supply chain performance of supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry. Classification is done by presenting an empirical taxonomy of clusters representing supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry based on variation in supply chain excellence index (SCEI) and business performance index (BPI).

The clustering of supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry is done by considering BPI and SCEI as clustering variables, which were found by using survey responses and results of a prior empirical study which was carried out in Indian manufacturing industry. The cluster analysis is performed by using Ward’s agglomerative hierarchical clustering followed by using K-means clustering algorithm to establish final set of clusters.

It was found that supply chains in Indian manufacturing industries can be clustered in four major clusters which are named as strategic, celebrity, capable and undeveloped cluster. The characteristics of these clusters reveal some major characteristics of supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry.

The research work presented in this paper takes a novel way to introduce the clusters of supply chains in Indian manufacturing industry. The researchers who are seeking patterns in large data sets of manufacturing companies of Indian industry will be benefitted by using the proposed clusters. While practitioners who are seeking to move their supply chain one step ahead will also reap the benefits of the paper by seeking the characteristics of particular cluster.

The manufacturing industry sector is one of the dynamic and important productive sectors of the economy. Hence, efforts have been made in the literature to assess the performance of this sector in many countries. In this paper, the business excellence of 19 industrial groups in the manufacturing industrial sector of the Sultanate of Oman is evaluated using data envelopment analysis. Using data for the year 2001, three of the 19 industrial groups, namely refined petro‐products (ISIC code 23), office, accounting/computer machinery (ISIC code 30) and medical precision/optical instruments (ISIC code 33), have been assessed to be operating at the highest level of business excellence. Patterns of efficiency changes in these industrial groups over the time period 1997‐2001 are studied using the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) approach. The average MPI over this period has declined for the entire manufacturing industry, and technology change contributed significantly to this decline in spite of a slight improvement in the technical efficiency change. The industrial group chemicals/chemical products (ISIC code 24) have shown poor performance in terms of technical efficiency and technology change during this period. Hence, it is important to study the technology management practices of this industrial group further, and if necessary to provide further investment to improve technologies.

Maintains that manufacturing excellence needs to be extended to cover design, procurement, packaging and customer service, and highlights the characteristics of those organizations that in 15 years time will be considered to belong to the so‐called Island of Excellence. Asserts that excellence will be a function of customer fulfilment, and sees this as being achieved through boundary‐less jobs, people development, and compensation and rewards. Identifies training, non‐monetary reward systems and creation of knowledge workers as they key factors for excellence in 2010, and sees manufacturing organization split in two: Islands of Excellence and the rest.

Looks at strategic logistics management and technology strategies for manufacturing and groups the contents under four main headings: logistical future; information challenge; 21st century manufacturing; 21st century service industries. Aims to look at the many challenges facing logistics practitioners and researchers.