How Do YOU Define Operational Excellence? [SHORT SURVEY]

Although Operational Excellence is a widely used term, there's a considerable amount of subjectivity involved. You'll generally see disparities in what it means to different leaders and organizations. And for good reason—every company (even ones in the same industry) is dealing with a unique set of objectives, challenges, resources, and so on.

Follow @mp_roberts

That said, our recent Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) survey revealed that only 23% of companies have implemented or plan to implement an Operational Excellence program. This low number may partially be attributed to the fact that many leaders are trying to figure out just what Operational Excellence means to their organization.

To help clear things up, we just launched a new qualitative research study to better understand the differences as well as commonalities between what Operational Excellence means to different executives. I’ll discuss the study and how you can participate below.

What Operational Excellence Means to LNS Research

To provide some context, it may be beneficial to share an overview of the way we look at Operational Excellence. We view it as a continuous improvement journey that essentially never concludes, but positions an organization to endlessly progress forward in the areas most critical for achieving and sustaining market leadership.

As we’ve discussed in the past, an effective Operational Excellence strategy aligns and then optimizes strategic objectives with available people, processes, and technology resources. The optimization phase is facilitated by a strong metrics program that aligns to strategic objectives, tracks performance and provides the opportunity to set increasingly higher goals over time.

It’s also important to note that different organizations will be on different Operational Excellence journeys. My colleague Mark Davidson discussed this in the eBook Accelerating Operational Excellence for Global and Regional Manufacturers. But here’s a graphic showing the different paths organizations may take:

Now It's Your Turn to Define Operational Excellence

It’s time for you to put your thought leadership hat on and share your own perspective. Again, this project isn’t necessarily about creating a concrete definition for Operational Excellence—it’s about understanding how the concept is viewed across industries, company sizes, geographies, and more.

Follow the button below or click here to share (in 100 words or less) what Operational Excellence means to you. Select respondents will be highlighted in an upcoming LNS Research publication.