Proceedings of The 6th International Conference on Research in Business, Management and Economics
Year: 2022
DOI:
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Implementation of Operational Excellence – From a Sustainable Initiative Perspective and the Deployment of a Comprehensive OE-Model
Horst Lechner, Maxim Ruff
ABSTRACT:
This paper’s authors analyse the way the literature on sustainable account for the sustainable initiatives on Operational Excellence (OE). Many companies in the massproduction industry are beginning initiatives to improve OE in order to compete in the market. The early outcomes seemed inspiring, but then for many companies it became challenging to sustain the early achievement. The authors have written this paper to examine how a sustainable OE-initiative can be implemented organizational wise.
Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review examines the relationship between environmental, economic and social sustainability and OE. The authors develop in this paper a framework for OE-sustainability that reflects the social, and economic, as well as the environmental OE-aspects. Additionally, the authors found that agility as well as organizational culture contribute an important part in OE-sustainability. Thus, an integrative (RULE)-model for the implementation of OE-sustainability in mass-production-organisations is developed by the authors.
Research restrictions/impacts: Sustainable OE-organizations create solutions for stakeholders by adapting existing resources, processes and strategies, considering the social, economic and environmental dimensions, and thereby achieving long-term, sustainable financial success. However, there is always a risk of overemphasizing the economic impact and forgetting about the social and environmental dimensions. For the sustainable impact of OEinitiatives, however, it is essential to consider all three dimensions.
Novelty/Knowledge contribution: This work is a methodological-theoretical attempt to review the literature on all three sustainable perspectives in the context of OE-initiatives with special consideration of agility and culture and thoroughly parses the knowledge gaps and potential pitfalls of misunderstanding.
keywords: Operational excellence, sustainability, change management, culture, agility.