Operational excellence

Concept

A management discipline that aims to make a company's operations reliably efficient and customer-focused through shared principles, standard routines, performance measures and continuous improvement at every level.

Description

Operational excellence means running operations so that they deliver the promised quality, cost and delivery reliably, and keep getting better. It is a management discipline rather than a single method. It usually combines a shared set of principles, standard routines, clear performance measures and continuous improvement at every level.

Many companies build it on lean management and often add Six Sigma tools for reducing variation. Common building blocks are leadership that is visible on the shop floor, daily management with boards and short meetings, structured problem solving, and a regular review of results against targets. Maturity models help to see where a site stands and what to strengthen next.

Episodes about Operational excellence

Related topics in brief

• iFAKT GmbH · Related to · Organization
  Stuttgart-based consulting company and software specialist for Industry 4.0, founded in 2001, that helps manufacturers plan and optimize production and logistics processes; developer of the Polaris software.
• Polaris Analyzer · Related to · Product
  Module of iFAKT Polaris with KPI dashboards across all modules that compare planned and actual values in production.
• Lean management · Related to · Concept
  A management approach derived from the Toyota Production System that creates more value for customers with fewer resources by removing waste, improving flow and involving the people who do the work in continuous improvement.
• Continuous improvement · Related to · Concept
  An ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes incrementally over time; applied here to cloud operations where monitoring signals trigger funded, owned actions.
• Manufacturing · Related to · Industry
  The industry that turns raw materials and components into physical goods, from single parts to series production, in factories and workshops.
• Lean Six Sigma · Related to · Concept
  A process improvement approach that combines lean, which removes waste and speeds up flow, with Six Sigma, which reduces variation and defects using data and the DMAIC steps.
• Plant manager · Related to · Job / role
  Leads a manufacturing site and is responsible for its safety, quality, delivery, cost and people. Corresponds to the German Werksleiter.
• Operational excellence manager · Related to · Job / role
  Builds and runs the operational excellence programme of a company or site, with standards, routines, performance measures and improvement projects.
• Hoshin kanri · Related to · Concept
  A Japanese method for turning a company's few most important goals into aligned goals and actions at every level, with regular reviews. Also called policy deployment.

Glossary

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Experts on related topics

• Mirko Peters · via iFAKT GmbH

Maintained by Mirko Peters (Microsoft MVP) · Last updated: 2026-11-11