The Operational Excellence Society is a “think tank” that creates and aggregates content for individuals who wish to be high-performance members of high-performance teams at high-performance organizations.
What is Operational Excellence?
We define Operational Excellence as; “a state of readiness that is attained as the efforts throughout the organization reach a state of alignment for achieving its strategies; and where the corporate culture is committed to the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance AND the circumstances of those who work there – and is precursor to becoming a high-performance organization.“
STOP TEACHING TO THE TEST
Why AI Should Finally Finish the Argument the Calculator Started Somewhere in the mid-1970s, a math teacher stood in front of a classroom and banned the calculator. “You will not always have one of these with you,” she said, tapping the little plastic box like it was contraband. She was wrong. Not eventually wrong — immediately, structurally, permanently wrong. Forty years later, everyone in that classroom carries a calculator, a spreadsheet, a search engine, and a research assistant in their pocket at all times. It is called a phone. We didn’t just get the calculator back. We got Wolfram Alpha,…
Founders Desk Archive
featured articles
Best Practices For Becoming a High-Performance Organization
I started XONITEK in August of 1985 in Endicott, New York. I still own its latest incarnation, now located in Sheridan, Wyoming. Having owned my own businesses for the last…
The Importance of a Project Review Board
A key to success in any Operational Excellence or Continuous Improvement program will be found in the way opportunities for improvement are harvested and prioritized; and how well the projects…
The Fault Lies Not in the Stars, but Within Ourselves
I hear all too often from professionals in Continuous Improvement how “Senior Leadership does not give me the support I need”. Some go further by making the claim that “Senior…
Build Organizational Capacity and Capability – For Free
I was coaching one of the national oil companies in the Middle East, offering mentorship to the director of their operational excellence program. He was frustrated because he had invested…
The Evolution of Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence: From Tools to People
I was recently the Chairperson at the 10th Annual Global Process Improvement and Operational Excellence Summit in Amsterdam this past March. In my opinion, it is one of the best…
Choose Your Hard
Life is a never-ending stream of decisions. From the moment we wake up in the morning to the time we go to sleep, we are making decisions. Even the very…
Expert Contributors
Biannual Supply Chain Report: Five Trends Shaping the Economic Landscape
From disruption to continual risk. After several years of disruptions, US supply chains are entering a new phase in which they are no longer fixed but expected to be in constant motion. Firms are operating in an environment where trade policy,…
Action items for AI decision makers in 2026
Expect a level-set year and a sharper focus on enterprise value. Artificial intelligence has dominated economic and business attention for the past several years. But the hype cycle is slowing…
The Best Manufacturers Build AI with Workers, Not for Them
Summary. Manufacturers are pushing ahead with AI, but workers often feel unprepared, uncertain, and distrustful. Research shows a clear gap between executive optimism and frontline experience, driven by unclear roles, weak…
Why We Love to Hate HR… and What HR Can Do About It
Five smart moves that will help, by Peter Cappelli Summary. Complaints against Human Resources (HR), which are nothing new, have a cyclical quality. They’re driven largely by the business context. When…
Applying Lean Six Sigma Methods to Litigation Practice
A growing number of law departments and law firms are exploring Lean Six Sigma and similar methodologies to continuously improve the way they deliver legal services. By tailoring these techniques…
Whatever happened to Six Sigma?
GE adopted Six Sigma from Motorola in 1995, and under Jack Welch it became corporate religion. But as GE began a long, slow decline, so did the popularity of Six…
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THOUGHT FOOD
the opex vault
Hunting credit, firms look beyond wary EU banks
Reuters reports that European Union banks have shrunk their loan books by over $5.5 trillion since the global crisis of 2007-08. This, in an attempt to cut risk on their balance sheets,…
The great divergence
The Economist reports that a group of elite firms has established a sustained lead – and it’s not a good thing. This article is centered around the “Schumpeterian mechanism”, which states…
Future of Supply Chains 2025
This primer provides a new way of thinking about the future of supply chains—bringing together the top procurement priorities of leading global businesses and the key forces of change reshaping…
Plastic Roads
As a fact, all of the plastic produced since the 1950s, less than 10% has been recycled. The vast majority ends up being dumped, most of it in landfill. Some…
