Given the current economical crisis, surviving seems to be first thing for many manufacturers. Too often their policies are limited to drastic cost cutting activities, without a clear vision how to thrive to operations excellence. Nevertheless, aligning the business and manufacturing processes, the organization and the supporting tools is the core of the strategy and activities of the surviving manufacturers, successfully thriving for operations excellence. This paper has been presented at the SPIN09 conference in Belgrade on November 5, 2009
