Developing a Multi-Item Scale for Measuring Operational Excellence

The study sought to develop a comprehensive scale to measure operational excellence (OE) in the manufacturing and service sectors. It employed an exploratory sequential mixed-method design. Items were generated through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and literature surveys and refined through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using a sample of 500 manufacturing and 500 service companies. The scale's reliability and validity were assessed by utilising Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with PLS-SEM on data from 1,000 companies. The qualitative phase identified four dimensions for measuring OE: continuous improvement of sustainable operational performance, sustainable competitive advantages, organisational alignment, and continuous improvement culture, supported by 33 items. Both EFA and CFA validated these dimensions, confirming that OE is a multidimensional construct. The current literature lacks a standard scale for assessing OE. Hence, this study contributed to the existing OE literature by developing a validated scale that followed a well-accepted scale development procedure to measure the OE construct across the manufacturing and service sectors worldwide