Operational Excellence for Small Business: Simple Systems to Streamline Your Operations, Reduce Waste, and Scale with Confidence

Operational Excellence isn't just for giants like Toyota.
If you run a small business, you know how exhausting it can be to keep things running. Daily firefighting, unclear roles, repeated mistakes, and chaos are not signs of growth-they're signs of a broken system.
This book brings the powerful principles of Operational Excellence down to earth. Designed specifically for small businesses, it offers simple, actionable strategies to help you:- Build systems without suffocating flexibility- Standardize without the bureaucracy- Visualize your work and remove bottlenecks- Empower your team to solve problems at the source- Improve continuously-without consultants or massive tools
Whether you're a solo entrepreneur or a small team trying to grow, this guide will show you how to run a smoother, leaner, and more scalable business-with less stress and more control.

Dr. Mohammed Hamed Ahmed Soliman is an internationally recognized Lean expert, author, and university lecturer. He has published over 100 books and articles on Lean thinking, quality systems, and industrial excellence. He currently teaches Industrial Engineering and Management Systems at the American University in Cairo and consults for global organizations across manufacturing, public services, and education.
With nearly two decades of academic and professional experience, Dr. Soliman has trained professionals across the Middle East, including engagements with Princess Nourah University in Saudi Arabia and Vale Oman Pelletizing Company. He has designed and delivered over 60 leadership and technical development programs, helping organizations build a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
Earlier in his career, he worked in various industrial sectors including crystal-glass manufacturing, fertilizers, and chemicals, while educating teams on the Toyota Production System. He has led numerous lean transformation projects, delivering measurable results and uncovering substantial cost savings by targeting waste across production and service environments.
His lectures and training materials have reached over 200,000 learners via SlideShare, and his research is ranked among the most downloaded papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) by Elsevier.
Dr. Soliman holds a BSc in Engineering, a master's in Quality Management, and postgraduate degrees in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management. He also holds certifications in quality, cost, and operations management. He is a member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and the Society for Engineering and Management Systems (SEMS).
His insights have been featured in SAGE Publications, Industrial Management, Lean Thinking, and other peer-reviewed platforms.