This research improves understanding of how to quantify and deliberately plan the impact of digital initiatives.
Abstract
Purpose – Organizations like the US Department of Defense (DoD) embraced digital technology trends with policies such as their Digital Engineering Strategy and Digital Modernization Strategy. However, there is no clear evidence of a quantifiable benefit, leaving open to question if these digital initiatives are an efficient choice, management fashion, or fad. Yet for the last century, businesses employed operational excellence improvement methods such as Scientific Management, Quality, Lean, and Six Sigma to achieve benefits. The purpose of the research is to determine if digital strategies have a measurable benefit to cost and schedule for organizations.
Design – A systematic review questioned, does the evidence suggest that the application of operational excellence ensures a return on investment (ROI) from digital initiatives? Scientific Management was the theoretical lens. The findings and conclusions of 43 peer-reviewed scholarly articles provided the data on operational excellence, digitalization, their synergy and benefits.
Findings – The combination of digitalization and operational excellence has quantifiable positive effect. It is predictable with conventional tools. It is testable with incremental deployment; its effects are measurable. It is compatible with any task design.
Practical implications – Mangers should select the intended human outcome (customer value or staff effectiveness), then set five key management priorities, pick an operational excellence toolset to optimize them, and lastly choose the appropriate Industry 4.0 technology.
Originality/value – This research improves understanding of how to quantify and deliberately plan the impact of digital initiatives.
Limitations – This study has limited experimental evidence, and future research should be a quantitative constrained case study in an applicable context.
Paper type – Systematic literature review
Keywords – Industry 4.0, technology, digital strategy, optimization, operational excellence
Waugh, Stephen, Digital Outcome Optimization: Ensuring a Return on Investment of Digital Strategy (January 11, 2023). Proceedings of The Twelfth International Conference on Engaged Management Scholarship. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4322745