Search

Sustainable operational excellence (OPEX) initiatives result in a competitive advantage by optimising the use of resources, contributing to profitability, and leading to expanded growth of organisations. OPEX being a practice-led initiative has no standard framework leading to sustainable OPEX efforts in organisations. In this study, we employ the Design Science Research (DSR) approach to develop a framework to assess the sustainability of OPEX initiatives in an organisation. The proposed framework evaluates OPEX initiatives based on operational, economic, environmental, and social sustainability criteria. Besides, the enablers for the sustainability of OPEX initiatives are identified. The enablers, as well as multidimensional assessment criteria of OPEX initiatives, help the organisation develop a methodological approach for implementing sustainable OPEX solutions. The current success rate for OPEX initiatives in organisations has been dismally poor, and the proposed framework will help improve the success of OPEX efforts. Practitioners can use the proposed framework first to assess their organisational readiness in terms of enablers before implementing OPEX initiatives and evaluate qualitatively and quantitatively to obtain a multidimensional perspective for sustainable solutions. The frameworks proposed in prior studies are predominantly conceptual. This study used the DSR methodology to demonstrate the validity of the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal utilization of available resources is critical for industrial experimentation. In addition, a structured approach with reliable and reproducible results and robust predictability is paramount to achieving profitability, waste reduction, and improvements in the food industry. The Taguchi design of experiments (DOE) is a practical approach that optimizes the critical characteristics using minimum time and resources – reviewing its application in the food sector assists in determining research gaps that could provide sustainable solutions to academia, industry, and policymakers. This research provides a systematic review of the literature on the Taguchi DOE application for the past two decades in the food industry. The systematic review considered articles published in peer-reviewed journals indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. The research categorized the relevant articles into three core themes and 31 sub-themes. This study identified only 31 relevant articles despite the significant advantages of applying the Taguchi DOE in the food industry. Most applications did not explore the true potential of the Taguchi DOE approach to obtain robust and scalable solutions. Also, the analysis determined that a structured approach is missing in most studies, with a lack of utilization of essential tools during the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]