Development of a framework for manufacturing excellence

Purpose – Manufacturing excellence means to be the best in the field at each competitive priority and to demonstrate industry best practices. Over the years there have been many pioneering efforts in the direction of the assessment and implementation of manufacturing excellence through various frameworks, but none of the existing frameworks was found to be suitable for the Indian scenario, and the completeness of existing Indian manufacturing excellence frameworks was also found to be lacking. Hence this paper aims to focus on the development of a new framework for providing direction and guidance to an organization in achieving manufacturing excellence in Indian industry. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review was carried out to provide a brief overview about the 23 frameworks of manufacturing excellence/world‐class manufacturing as proposed by various researchers, consultants, international agencies and individuals. An attempt is made to propose a new framework for manufacturing excellence using the comparative analysis of the existing frameworks along with the domain knowledge of the concept of manufacturing excellence and through discussion with experts. Findings – The outcome of this research is a framework of manufacturing excellence. Research limitations/implications – The proposed framework for manufacturing excellence needs to be validated through an empirical approach or by a clinical approach utilizing a case study. Originality/value – Through comparative analysis, some unique elements/attributes were identified which represent the pillars of manufacturing excellence and through domain knowledge some more elements/attributes have been added. Sub‐attributes/sub‐elements for various pillars have also been identified.