The Rise of Smart Operations: Reaching New Levels of Operational Excellence
White Paper by UPS

"Lean and Six Sigma (Lean Sigma) continuous improvement discipline has been at the center of operational excellence strategies in the manufacturing industry for decades. The new complexities of manufacturing — serving demanding customers with a rapidly increasing number of products and services — have tested the limits of Lean Sigma. In response, manufacturing firms are looking to technologies that instrument processes (e.g., the Internet of Things) and analyze information (big data/cognitive) in real time to supercharge value chains and create a new approach to operational excellence. This new approach is called smart operations."