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A Management Model for the effective, sustainable implementation of Operational Excellence initiative at plant-level

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Lechner, Horst (2022) A Management Model for the effective, sustainable implementation of Operational Excellence initiative at plant-level. Masters thesis, University of Gloucestershire. doi:10.46289/7C9N7Y2T

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Official URL: https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/14072/

Abstract

The aim of this master thesis was to develop a valuable management model with which Operational Excellence- (OE) initiatives can be designed, guided and further developed. To be competitive on the packaging market many organisations are implementing OEinitiatives. Whereas most models consider only the social, economic and environmental aspect of OE. On the basis of the literature research carried out, it became clear that the focus of the traditional concepts described was purely on Content-aspects and that Process-aspects and Internal Context-aspects were completely ignored. A referencemodel was developed to record, evaluate and analyse plants with regard to their OEsupport in the internal Context and Process. A comparative case study-analysis was carried out at eight European plants of a beverage can packaging company. This research enabled new insights to be gained into the influence of internal Context- and Process-aspects. Based on 70 interviews with the employees of eight plants in eight different European countries, two key-factors in implementation-processes and six factors in the internal Context were identified. In the study it could be shown that despite the company-wide introduction of standardised OE-contents, the eight identified Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) had a massive influence on the actual design of the initiatives at the plant. A literature search, however, showed that existing CI-concepts usually focus on Content, while internal Context- and Process- aspects were neglected as key factors in their considerations. Based on these findings, a reference model was derived for the recording, analysis and evaluation of plants with regard to their OE-support in the internal Context and Process. It could be shown that an organisation and culture of continuous improvement usually have a considerable influence and that changes do not necessarily have to be guided by the specification of content. In addition, the case study-analysis showed that the Operations Management’s (OM) dominant understanding of the relationships between social structures, such as management approaches, practices and methods, and the individual behaviour of acting actors on the basis of a structure-behaviour-determinism is insufficient in its explanatory power.

Item Type:

Thesis (Masters)

Thesis Advisors: