Operational Excellence in Manufacturing, Service and the Oil & Gas: the Sectorial Definitional Constructs and Risk Management Implication

Abstract

The current global business climate has not been favorable to most firms irrespective of industry affiliation. That condition necessitated companies to adopt operational excellence as a strategy for optimising output with little resources, reducing lead time with the efficient use of assets and employees and avoiding safety and health issues to people and the environment. As a result of the need for operational excellence, many kinds of literature defined the concept based on the context of industry or sector. Industries such as manufacturing, services, oil and gas, mining and so many industries to mention a few, have their unique construct in the definition and therefore causing dilemma on which dimension to hold on to. It is against this backdrop that this paper synthesizes and integrate all the varying dimensions and fuses out similarities, differences and the antecedence of research directions taken on the few mentioned sectors. The paper thus concludes that the unique construct among all the definitions is continuous improvement, cost reduction, quality, time utilization, operational efficiency, staff involvement and output optimisation. However, they varied on risk management, staff health, safety and the concern for the environment, which is unique to oil and gas industry and that can affect the choice of research variables.