The adoption of lean business principles could well be described as an Olympic sport for companies. It helps them do things quicker, better, and cheaper. One common definition of a lean business model is one that focuses on improving processes across the value stream in order to eliminate waste and deliver optimised value to the customer.
It is little wonder, then, that Enterprise Ireland is helping client companies to adopt lean business principles to increase performance and competitiveness.
“It’s about how to create most value for customers by driving continuous improvement and efficiencies that take less time, effort and resources, thereby giving greater returns to the business,” explains Robert Hernan, senior lean adviser with Enterprise Ireland’s operational excellence and digital department.
“It helps companies to make the best possible products and deliver the best services as quickly as possible at the lowest cost,” he adds. “It makes them much more productive and profitable. It also helps them to become better businesses. Lot of different tools and techniques are involved. Workflow organisation, streamlining teams, reducing variation, standardising processes – they are all part of it. It’s also about supporting people to be problem solvers and giving them the opportunity to improve, to develop a continuous improvement mentality, to be better today than yesterday. It’s relevant for any business, regardless of whether they are in the manufacturing or services sectors.”
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Enterprise Ireland supports companies on their lean journey. “LeanStart is for companies just starting out on the path,” says Hernan. “It provides an introduction to lean thinking and allows businesses to gain an understanding of what the lean approach, tools and techniques can do for it in a short, focused engagement involving seven days’ support from an external consultant.”
Enterprise Ireland provides grant funding for 80 per cent, subject to a maximum grant of €5,000.
LeanPlus is for businesses further along the path to adopting lean principles. It offers funding of up to 50 per cent of the cost of the project, subject to a maximum grant of €50,000. Typical projects are aimed at improving productivity within the company through a focus on what brings value to the customer, including increased quality, reduced costs and waste and improved speed of delivery.
LeanTransform is a large scale, extensive and holistic training programme which focuses on developing the capability and capacity of employees. The objective is to support an organisational innovation programme focused on improving the ongoing flow of value to customers; implementation of team-based problem solving and continuous improvement and innovation activities, the identification and removal of wasteful activities in the business and supply chain, and leadership and management development to enable the alignment of operations to company strategy.
“The result should be a companywide transformation in culture and productivity performance, including digitalisation,” says Hernan. “There are lots of tools and techniques but it’s really about people problem solving and delivering better value for customers,” he adds. “It’s not a one-off project. It’s about continuously improving across everything you do.”
Impressive results
The results of the application of lean principles are impressive. Hernan points to Arderin Distillery in Tullamore as one example. “They tripled production without any in investment in people, space, or equipment,” he says. “They went to a single-piece flow process rather than batch production. That improved output quite dramatically. They had received a big order and couldn’t meet it. They thought they needed to invest in additional capacity but they didn’t after they had adopted lean principles.”
Skylark Electric Attic Stairs more than doubled productivity as a result of lean adoption. “It has allowed them to start exporting to the US,” says Hernan. “Savvy Kitchens in Thurles doubled production. They went from producing three to six kitchens a week at no additional cost. Topflight, the ski holiday specialists, love lean. They used LeanStart to help them transform and they became 45 per cent more efficient, with 36 per cent better service as a result.”
People come in to do a good day’s work. It’s up to management to get rid of the roadblocks and allow people to be the best they can be
— Robert Hernan
Growth media producer Klasmann Dielmann in Westmeath identified more than 300 improvement projects in a year, Hernan adds. “Phonovation also loves lean,” he adds. “The team at the telecommunications service provider came up with over 2,000 improvement ideas last year. Dairygold got a 10 per cent increase in productivity from LeanTransform. They got it from people engagement and ideas. The X-factor in business is an engaged workforce.”
That engagement comes from having a positive workplace culture. “It takes a long time to embed the culture,” says Hernan. “It needs to be a no fear, no blame culture. You need to have good leadership in place. Once you get it you get people coming up with ideas and identifying opportunities for improvement. People come in to do a good day’s work. They don’t come in to make mistakes. It’s up to management to get rid of the roadblocks and allow people to be the best they can be. It’s all about mutual trust and mutual responsibility.”
Lean can be applied to every business, regardless of size, Hernan concludes. “The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) have the Lean for Micro programme for very small businesses. They have completed over 2,000 lean projects, with average savings of €35,000 each for the companies involved at a cost of only €250 invested on the part of the individual businesses. Anyone interested in applying lean to their business should get in touch with their local Enterprise Ireland office or development adviser or their LEO.”