Lean has been the dominant production paradigm for the past few decades. With its focus on reducing complexity, lean suggests to limit the use of digital technologies on the shop floor. Recent advancements in digital technologies, however, promise significant improvements through its ability to manage complexity. This apparent conflict raises the question as to whether these two paradigmslean and digitalizationcontradict or complement each other. Furthermore, there is ambiguity about whether or not firms should excel in lean before investing in digitalization. This paper contributes to this discussion through an empirical investigation of this relationship. It draws on survey data from Swiss manufacturers as well as consecutive interviews with selected firms. The analyses indicate a positive correlation between the digital maturity and the lean maturity of firms. This relationship is discussed from two perspectives: first, how digitalization can support lean and, second, how lean can support digitalization. Furthermore, the different characteristics of companies of different maturities in lean and digitalization are examined. It is concluded that a favorable organizational culture and some specific continuous improvement practices help the mature implementers of lean and digitalization to achieve superior operational performance.

Quality culture as an enabler of high-quality performance and subsequently as a source of competitive advantage is increasingly discussed among operational excellence (OPEX) and quality executives. Research studies indicate an impact of quality culture on performance, especially on the success of quality improvement programs, such as Total Quality Management initiatives. A continual challenge in quality culture research, however, remains the lack of practical and accepted metrics to assess culture. In 2014, the Parental Drug Association (PDA) conducted a quality culture survey within the pharmaceutical industry. The results indicate a positive and significant correlation between quality (culture) behavior of a production site's employees and quality (system) maturity, which represents the maturity of the quality system in place. As the maturity of the quality system is more comfortable to assess by objective criteria, the positive correlation between quality (culture) behavior and quality (system) maturity may be exploited by using the latter as an indicator for quality culture. This paper confirms this positive relationship by exploring the comprehensive St. Gallen OPEX database for pharmaceutical production plants. Furthermore, data analysis shows that high-performing production sites, regarding timely provision of high-quality drugs, reveal a higher level of both quality (system) maturity and quality (culture) behavior than low-performing sites.

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