Adding an OPEX Perspective to Network Optimization

A manufacturing network, carefully configured by choosing the right locations for its sites and their respective roles (see Chap. 2), aims to fulfill its network strategy (see Chap. 6). At the same time, each site on its own strives toward operational excellence, eventually turning into a continuously improving organization. While the interplay between these sites should be regularly refined and revised to guarantee the fulfillment of the network strategy, every single site should be frequently assessed regarding its Operational Excellence (OPEX) maturity (see Chap. 3). Metaphorically speaking, not only is it essential for a soccer coach to decide on the right formation and tactics, but it is also crucial to assess the players' current performance and to develop their capabilities through training. In order to foster the improvement of their plants, companies set up and formalize company-wide improvement initiatives. Here, companies often follow the success of the Lean pioneer Toyota and design as well as deploy their company-specific Lean production system (XPS) (Netland, 2013). However, managing the deployment of their XPS within a network bears two challenges. First, sites from different countries or regions and sites of different types might vary in their speed to adopt the overall XPS, its elements, or its tools (Netland & Aspelund, 2014). Therefore, one site would find itself in a less or more mature state of XPS deployment than another site would. Secondly, since each site's purpose and context differ within a network (Ferdows, 1997), a sole one-to-one performance comparison of internal sites would lead to wrong conclusions (Cua et al., 2001). Both challenges contribute to the same overarching questions: whether the XPS implementation yields performance improvements and how this XPS effectiveness can be measured in a network considering its different kinds of sites. Are the players developing their abilities, and does this, in turn, lead to better performance? The following case study will expound on how a globally operating and leading pharmaceutical company approached this question and how the monitoring of performance improvements and the XPS deployment was operationalized.