The informal nature of operations can be an issue especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Understanding the key problem and gaps will establish suitable framework in effectively integrating strategy for operations improvements. This can be done by exploring actions taken by ‘competitive SMEs’ to discover decisions, practices and tools which contribute towards improved operations.

By doing this, there are three contributions that can be made. First, it provides tools and actions required to improve operations. Second, it can show when the tools and action should be carried out. Finally, it can discover ‘good practice’ which may only obtained by speaking directly to ‘competitive SMEs’ managers and owners.

In general, this paper addresses the need to establish systems that would provide support to organisations by not only giving directions on where it should be and how to improve but also providing guidance when actions should be initiated. In the end it will benefit a new start-up and also organisations which is still unclear about the strategic operations direction that should be pursued.