Author(s)

Bruno G. Rüttimann¹, Martin T. Stöckli²

¹ETH Zürich D-MAVT, Zurich, Switzerland.
²inspire AG, Zurich, Switzerland.

Globalization of business accompanied with increased margin squeeze has been leading many companies in western Europe during the last decade to deploy substantial Operational Excellence (OPEX) programs to remain competitive. Mainly proven Six Sigma and Lean techniques for quality and process improvement have been adopted however with variable lasting success. What are the reasons for success or failure? Which are the applied approaches? What are the circumstances leading to the outcome? This paper shows that management competence as well as the selected approach is decisive for success or failure. In addition, an optimized deployment approach to achieve a sustainable implementation of the OPEX program is presented.

Operational Excellence, Lean, Six Sigma, OPEX Deployment

Rüttimann, B. and Stöckli, M. (2015) Reasons for Operational Excellence Deployment Failures and How to Avoid Them. Journal of Service Science and Management, 8, 612-618. doi: 10.4236/jssm.2015.84061.