Operational Excellence (OPEX) is the philosophy summarizing numerous technical and social practices aiming at improving operations. However, the complexity of the practices and multiplicity of the initiatives hinders to always identify and set the most promising priorities. Being able to take decisions based on data and measured situations can improve the efficacy of the strategic initiatives. The St.Gallen manufacturing and quality control (QC) benchmarking programs support pharmaceutical companies with a rich base of information needed to inform their decision making processes.