1. Introduction to Leading Operational Excellence: Making OPEX a Competitive Weapon

In our second book on Operational Excellence in the Pharmaceutical Industry titled “The Pathway to Operational Excellence”, published in 2010, we had undertaken an imaginary journey to develop the framework and structure of the book. It gave us the opportunity to describe our experiences from working with dozens of different pharmaceutical manufacturers in the US and Europe. We suggested a sequence starting with preparing for the journey and finishing with the re-definition of the destination leading to the selection of the next destination so that the journey will be an on-going one. Two years later, we have decided to write another book. The main reason for doing this is the positive feedback we have received on the first two books. The other reason is our conviction that despite the renewed enthusiasm for outsourcing in the industry, manufacturing will remain a critical activity for every major pharmaceutical company, and the continuous improvement of manufacturing will not just be an option, but a necessity.