Several articles have been written in the past examining performance improvement paths and various forms of efficiency frontiers in operations strategy for Industries in US and Europe. There have been weaknesses in these studies owing to their cross sectional nature. In this paper, we bring out those weaknesses; discuss the strength of longitudinal studies and develop a framework to empirically verify the sequence of cumulative capability building measures in industries. The verification or refutation of the ‘sandcone model’ (Ferdows and De Meyer, 1990) through this study will bring forth new directions of future research for Industries operating in India.