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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.

This paper aims to explore the potential of blockchain technology (BT) to support the operational excellence in perishable food supply chain (PFSC) during outbreaks, by doing use-case analysis.

A systematic literature review is performed to determine the dimensions of operational excellence in the food supply chain (FSC), then a single use-case analysis is conducted to explore the potential of blockchain in order to achieve operational excellence for PFSC during the pandemics by applying context, interventions, mechanism and outcomes (CIMO) logic.

The findings of this study reveal that blockchain capabilities such as immutability and transparency, visibility, traceability, integration and interoperability, disintermediation and decentralisation, smart contracts and consensus mechanism provide better sustainable operational excellence outcomes for PFSCs to be more responsive, flexible, efficient and collaborative to cope with the impacts of COVID-19.

This research employs only one real case with multiple PFSC participants. Statistical generalisation is not possible at this stage of the research. However, the findings are not restricted to this single use-case.

This study provides a research direction to explore the potential of BT to achieve operational excellence in the PFSC during outbreaks and generates prescriptive knowledge for better managerial decision-making across the PFSC during outbreaks.

This research conducts semi-structured interviews with different participants in one blockchain ecosystem to understand multiple participants' perspectives of operational excellence within PFSC.

Considering the relevance of operational excellence as a business strategy, organizations are striving to improve themselves by adopting best practices and universally accepted principles through the process of continuous improvement, and these principles should be embedded in the culture of an organization. Organizations pursue to align themselves by continuously improving their processes by adopting scientifically proven techniques and cultural transformation throughout the organization. However, there is a lack of scientific instruments for the assessment of operational excellence. The objective of this study is to develop a scale for the assessment of practices of operational excellence principles in the organizations. Further reliability and validity of the developed scale are measured by testing the relationship between Human Resource Practices (HRP) and Operational Excellence (OE).

This study comprises quantitative design through exploratory and confirmatory studies and also includes qualitative analysis to develop a scale for the assessment of Operational Excellence (OE). Interviews from industry experts have been conducted to identify the major components for which organizations are striving for OE. Previous literature and excellence models, especially principles of the Shingo Operational Excellence Model (SOEM), have been reviewed and considered to finalize the scale items. Data were collected in two stages from both Telecommunication subsectors (Cellular Mobile Operators and Fixed Local Loop Operators) of Pakistan through the cross-sectional survey. In the first stage, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the sample of 611 respondents from both Cellular Mobile and Fixed Local Loop operators of Pakistan. In the second stage, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed on the sample of 423 respondents from the Fixed local loop operators. EFA was conducted by using SPSS version 23 to finalize the OE scale, and for confirmatory factor analysis, PLS-SEM using Smart PLS was used to confirm the reliability and validity of the OE Scale.

The results of EFA reveal that OE is a multidimensional construct with three dimensions and 23 items. The dimensions of the developed OE Scale explored in this study are cultural enablers (CE), continuous process improvement (CPI) and enterprise alignment (EA). The confirmatory factor analysis of OE confirmed the scale dimensionality, reliability and validity along with the hypothesis testing to measure the impact of antecedent variable HRP on OE.

Organizations pursue to improve and align their operational processes but usually unable to confirm the implementation of their desired objectives. Based on the developed OE scale, managers may assess the implementation of OE principles in their organizations. This research has been conducted in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan only, and the developed instrument needs to be further tested in other organizations.

The instrument developed in this study will help both researchers and practitioners to assess the principles of operational excellence in their organizations and enable them to design the strategies for improving organizational performance.

The results of this study will create awareness about the principles of operational excellence. The developed OE instrument will assist in identifying the gaps in organizational norms and values from the perspective of paying respect to every individual inside and outside the organization. OE instrument will be further helpful in the identification and assurance of health, safety, protection of the environment and community issues.

This study provides a reliable and validated scale for the scientific area of operation management and helps managers with the assessment of operational excellence in their organizations. This newly developed scale is also valid to test and use in different studies and industries by researchers and practitioners.

This article offers a novel approach that brings together management, engineering and organizational behavior. It focuses on the understanding of organizational dynamics in an era of technological change, upholding the importance of organizational agility and of the cultural paradigm in the management of organizations.

In this work, the authors present the conclusions from a set of studies carried out in organizations operating in technical and technological industries. The authors assessed the capabilities of these organizations in terms of operational excellence maturity and its impact on the organizational culture and organizational agility.

Results show the importance of operational excellence either in developing or expanding organizational agility capabilities while reinforcing the cruciality of an excellence-oriented culture to sustain these efforts over time.

Increasingly unstable business environments have led to a growing interest in how to develop and maintain operational excellence in the face of continued and disruptive change. However, this interest has, so far, been advanced with little empirical evidence to support the corresponding predictions. This work offers the first practical evidence that continued focus and optimization of operations, with the right cultural alignment, helps organizations survive and thrive in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments.

This study aims to examine current research on the relationship between Operational Excellence and Healthcare 4.0 (H4.0) for healthcare organizations.

The authors have performed a systematic literature review of 102 documents published between 2011 and 2022 from the Scopus database to identify the research trends on Operational Excellence and H4.0. Through a descriptive bibliometric analysis, this study has highlighted the year-wise trend in publication, top authors, prominent sources of publications, the country-wise spread of research activities and subject area analysis. Furthermore, through content analysis, this study has identified four clusters and proposed directions for future research of each identified cluster.

Results reflect overall growth in this area, with a few parts of the world being underrepresented in research related to Operational Excellence and H4.0. The content analysis focused on describing challenges pertaining to healthcare industries and the role of Operational Excellence tools and H4.0 technologies in dealing with various healthcare delivery aspects. The authors concluded their analysis by proposing a theoretical framework and providing theoretical and managerial implications of the study.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is one of the first to analyze the existing literature on the healthcare sector at the interface of Operational Excellence and H4.0 technologies. The conceptual framework and cluster-wise future research prepositions are some of the unique offerings of the study.

The paper aims to discuss the transformation of a multinational organization, Global Co, through the deployment of an operational excellence system at a time of turbulence and complexity. It illuminates the opportunities and challenges of implementing the system from the perspective of learning and change.

A case study method was utilized in the research based on a four-year longitudinal study. Formal and informal interviews, unobtrusive observations and archival records formed the core of the data collection that led to key insights reported in this paper.

A structured approach to managing work processes is essential for ensuring efficiency and reliability in work output. Performance improvement is sustained by operational discipline that strives for consistency in daily work practices. Organizations develop self-healing mechanisms to help address work-related gaps and issues, turning constraints into enablers for improvement.

The paper provides a wider dimension of organizational performance from the learning and change perspective. It considers organizations as organisms with self-healing properties supported by operational discipline. It redefines the impact of operational excellence through organizational significance.

This paper aims to present the results of a study carried out by the authors in the form of research interviews on the topic: “Exploring the use of operational excellence methodologies in the era of COVID-19.”

A qualitative interview approach was utilized by interviewing a panel of leading academics and practitioners who are familiar with operation excellence methodologies.

Operational excellence methodologies are proven and can be utilized in pandemic situations to improve efficiency in the healthcare system and preparedness for pandemics.

One limitation of this research was that most of the interviewees who participated in this study came from Europe, North America, South America and Asia, representing four continents. It would have been better to have different views from other continents such as Australia and Africa. Also, the interviews were short and at a high level. There is an opportunity for further study and analysis.

Operational excellence methodologies are proven and can be utilized in pandemic situations to improve efficiency in the healthcare system and preparedness for pandemics.

The paper provides an excellent resource for those people to get an insight into the value of the application of operations excellence methodologies in pandemic situations to aid healthcare process improvement and aid public and patient safety.

The manufacturing sector is highly competitive and operationally complex. Therefore, the strategic alignment between operational excellence methodologies and Industry 4.0 technologies is one of the issues that need to be addressed. The main aim of the study is to determine the critical factors of strategic alignment between operational excellence methodologies and Industry 4.0 technologies for manufacturing industries and make comparative analyses between automotive, food and textile industries in terms of strategic alignment between operational excellence methodologies and Industry 4.0 technologies.

First, determining the critical factors based on literature review and expert opinions, these criteria are weighted, and analytical hierarchy process is run to calculate the weights of these criteria. Afterward, the best sector is determined by the grey relational analysis method according to the criteria for the three manufacturing industries selected for the study.

As a result of AHP, “Infrastructure for Right Methodology, Techniques and Tools, is in the first place,” Organizational Strategy, is in the second place, while the third highest critical factor is “Capital Investment”. Moreover, based on grey relational analysis (GRA) results, the automotive industry is determined as the best alternative in terms of strategic alignment between operational excellence (OPEX) methodologies and I4.0 technologies.

This study is unique in that it is primarily possible to obtain the order of importance within the criteria and to make comparisons between three important manufacturing industries that are important for the economies of the world.

This study examines the operational and relational governances as antecedents of cooperation commitment in buyer–supplier exchanges. It also assesses the impact of cooperation commitment on operational performance.

Path analysis was performed on the data collected from manufacturers.

The results of this study show that both operational and relational governances exert impact on cooperation commitment, which, in turn, is associated with operational performance improvement.

First, this is the first study employing the reciprocity theory to theorize the conceptual framework of the governance antecedents of cooperation commitment and operations excellence effect. Second, the study highlights how the research framework can enrich the reciprocity theory in exploring the mechanisms of the operational and relational governances of buyer–supplier exchanges and their impact on the commitment to the cooperation. Third, this study extends the reciprocity theory to examine in detail how cooperation commitment exerts impact on the operational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and address the underlying causes of costly quality/ethical problems that have prevented companies to achieve and sustain excellence. More broadly, the study has leveraged data from multiple sources to determine root-cause issues and propose a new management model that enables leadership to prevent and effectively address quality/ethical problems by operationalizing excellence. For the purpose of this research, operationalization is defined in terms of developing a sustained culture of excellence and enabling a firm to systematically prevent, detect, and address costly problems in their daily operations.

The study has defined the concept of excellence in terms of measurable results based on ten critical success factors: products, financials, stakeholders, employees, leadership, societal, operational, innovation, alignment, and ethical excellence. To identify and address the underlying causes, this study has used a spiral research model to develop and improve an assessment process for the consistent examination of three types of firms: national quality award recipients, successful and responsible Fortune-500 companies, and landmark ethical violators. Findings from case studies were then substantiated using results from current research studies and conclusions from over 20 years of international field work/experience.

To operationalize excellence, this study found that organizations need to develop a foundation for two tightly coupled and inseparable variables: ethics, excellence. Case studies show when these two variables are inadequately planned, integrated, checked, and enforced across business operations, they cause serious and costly problems. This foundation enables a firm to maximize performance, the return on investment, and to sustain performance in each of these critical success factors (CSFs) using the following interconnected building blocks of excellence: grander purpose, measurable results, effective collaboration, leadership development, individual development, continuous alignment, continuous innovation, ethics management, and ethics foundation.

The application of the assessment instrument proved to be complex due to the difficulties of transforming conjecture into certainty using existing online corporate records (e.g. understanding true leadership intention). Findings of this study are applicable to any industry and type and size company. The building blocks of this new management model should not be developed and implemented in an isolated, standalone, or piecemeal manner; nor should they be forced onto an organization as a new program. For best results, each building block needs to be implemented as an interconnected component of a complete and total system of management and infused into the fabric of the culture as a normal part of the daily operations.

Total business excellence is a proposed new management model for operationalizing excellence. This new model serves three major purposes. First, it enables an enterprise to responsibly deliver a continuous flow of innovative and competitive products as defined and measured by ten CSFs. Second, it enables management to prevent costly quality/ethical problems by developing a unified and responsible strategy for planning, execution, and quality. Most importantly, it provides a missing platform of opportunity where individuals can incrementally grow and develop as they add meaningful personal, professional, and societal value.