Operational Excellence Methodologies in Portuguese and Brazilian Organizations

Introduction 

The growing competitiveness between companies in an increasingly global market requires the adoption of progressively rigorous methodologies in order to optimize the production and 
provision of services around each product. However, this optimization of resources cannot be carried out at any price, as most consumers are aware of company practices in terms of social responsibility and respect for the environment. The combination of all these factors leads to the Operational Excellence that all companies want to achieve, based on sustainable principles. However, the way to get there is long, and the maintenance of this status is always precarious, as 
the investment in innovation and new methodologies has to be constant. This is the only way to preserve Operational Excellence. This Special Issue intends to disseminate works of the highest quality that (a) develop methodologies that allow faster achievement of Operational Excellence; (b) develop methodologies that assist companies in preserving Operational Excellence; (c) report case studies that allow extracting lessons learned that can be applied in other companies, helping them 
to achieve Operational Excellence. Literature about direct development of new methodologies or real gains obtained towards Operational Excellence are very scarce and distributed by some journals, implying difficult search procedures. This SI intends to call for important research made or on going in this field, disseminating it and showing what is doing in Portugal and Brazil in this field and how companies are showing excellent performance, attracting other international companies, mainly in 
metalworking and automotive industries. However, many other sectors, including services, are improving a lot their operational performance, standardizing methodologies, and allowing their 
use in other sectors of activity.

List of topic areas

• Operational Excellence,
• Continuous Improvement,
• Lean Philosophy,
• Social Responsibility,
• Sustainability,
• Six-Sigma Philosophy,
• Lean Six-Sigma,
• Industry,
• Services,
• Shingo Model,
• Lean Startup,
• Kaizen,
• Agile Manufacturing,
• Industry 4.0,
• Lean 4.0.

Guest Editors: 

José Carlos Sá, Porto School of Engineering
Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal; INEGI – Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Porto, Portugal, [email protected] 

Francisco J. G. Silva, Polytechnic Institute of Porto,
Portugal; INEGI – Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Porto, Portugal, [email protected]

José Dinis-Carvalho, Production and Systems Department  University of Minho, Portugal, [email protected]

Gilberto Santos, Design School, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal, [email protected]

Luis Fonseca, School of Engineering (ISEP), Polytechnic of Porto; INEGI – Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Porto, Portugal [email protected]

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: journal’s author guidelines 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

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31st December 2023