Operational Excellence in Africa

Closes:
Journal
International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
Guest editor(s)
Dr. Olivia McDermott, Michael Sony, Raja Jayaraman,

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Introduction

This special issue highlights the current state of Quality Management and Operational Excellence in Africa as well as analysing the different tools and practises utilised across all types of processes, organisations and sectors demonstrating  examples and learnings from practical applications across the continent.  This special issue will showcase the excellent research and application of OpEx methods on the African continent thus enabling benchmarking and sharing of OpEx methods. 
There has been a lack of research articles on operational excellence in various sectors, which have focussed exclusively on Africa especially in the southern and middle parts of Africa as they face unique challenges due to their diverse landscapes, demographics, and socio-economic factors.

List of Topic Areas

  • What Operational Excellence means in Africa - differences and similarities to other countries
  • The tradition of Quality Management and Operational Excellence in Africa
  • Current state of OPEX work in African businesses - practices and results
  • How to work with OPEX in Africa (focusing on one or more of: customer/society satisfaction, process management, base decisions on facts, continual improvement, management commitment and systems thinking)
  • Lessons learned from success and failure of OPEX
  • Cultural aspects - quality culture, national culture, multi-national culture
  • Innovation and digitalisation; what have been done and ideas for the future
  • OpEx and digitalisation in Africa
  • What's next in Africa in terms of OpEx?
  • OPEX in bottom of pyramid markets in Africa
  • Use of OPEX for poverty elevation and food security in Africa
  • Use of OPEX for humanitarian aid in Africa
  • Use of OPEX for natural resource extraction in Africa.

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here.
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here.
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Submissions close: 31st July 2024