الفهرس 
Chapter One: Study FrameworkOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Pharmaceutical industry in Egypt confronts ongoing changes in the external environment brought on by increased competition, more demanding customers and a generally uncertain economic situation in many countries. The profitability equation can be significantly impacted by a number of factors, including fluctuating international currency rates, rising raw material prices, market pressure to cut product pricing, and rising logistical expenses.
Pharmaceuticals are under continual pressure to reduce expenses without sacrificing quality in order to satisfy customers. Manufacturing firms are becoming more concerned with improving operational performance, lowering production costs with greater reliability and speed. Firms should have a superior ability to respond to changes in order to survive in this competitive environment.
This study attempts to test the relationship between lean and agile manufacturing and improving operational performance and further examine if lean and agile manufacturing paradigms could be implemented in parallel or they are mutually exclusive paradigms. Four hypotheses were developed and analyzed; data was collected using questionnaire. Responses from 337 usable questionnaire were analyzed in order to examine the relationship between lean and agile manufacturing and operational performance of state-owned manufacturing pharmaceuticals in Egypt.
Reaffirming predominant literature, findings show the positive significant relationship between lean and agile manufacturing and improving operational performance when tested separately. Results further demonstrate that there is a negative statistically significant effect of Agile manufacturing on the relationship between Lean manufacturing and Operational Performance.
In conclusion, findings of this study confirm that lean and agile manufacturing are competing paradigms, manufacturing firms should decide which operational performance metrics need to be improved and which strategy will be employed, and accordingly decide which manufacturing paradigm will be adopted to improve operational performance.