Shannon Chamber’s Mid-West Lean Network had its genesis in Zimmer Biomet, when the chamber hosted its first Lean seminar at the Shannon plant in 2016.
The attendance and interest in Lean at that first event not only led to the formation of the network but to a very proactive annual calendar of events over the past eight years.
It was fitting therefore, at a time when AI and digitalisation are being implemented in Lean, that a seminar on the topic would return to the network’s ‘alma mater’, Zimmer Biomet Shannon, where a large and attentive audience absorbed information from three presenting companies on how digitalisation has enhanced their continuous improvement journeys.
Zimmer Biomet’s assistant director of operational excellence, Cian Kelly, said that Lean has delivered savings in the order of 19.2% in Shannon and 30% in Galway in the past five years. Programme manager Rob Geary emphasised the essentiality of data collection to any digitalisation journey.
“It gives you a visualisation of how a product is performing. Operators can look at the digital board and know where to deploy people. Managers can see how a business is performing across all metrics on a site. The key is understanding what is needed and then building the solution,” he said.
Martin Egan, managing director of Ennis-based Bijur Delimon Ireland, who worked with Tim Crowe, managing director of Wrxflo and his team in embracing digitalisation, said that moving from paper to digital has reduced the company’s paper spend by €7,000 per annum.
“He shared his inspiring two-year journey in manufacturing digitalisation and continuous improvement. He discussed the lessons he has learned, the improvements made across his manufacturing plant, the reduction in overdue customer orders, and how his team successfully adapted to change.
Cautioning that digitalisation can be challenging, caused by cultural resistance, lack of strategy or acceptance of change, he urged attendees to see beyond the challenges to capitalise on the benefit, which he said was the ability to review performance in real time by department, by employee, by section and by job.
“The productivity gain from digitalisation can be phenomenal; it gives critical information to all employees.” he said.
Clifford Naughton, head of finance, supply chain management, procurement and digitisation with B. Braun Medical Ltd endorsed the payback from embracing digitalisation but cautioned that outcomes are linked to input.
“The better the data, the better the visualisation, the better the output,” he said.
Stating that supply chain management is generally connected through people and paper, leading to double handling and a significant waste of time, he urged companies to convert from excel spreadsheets to an integrated real-time management system to make tracking and processing easier.
Wrxflo’s managing director, Tim Crowe, who has helped companies in diverse sectors to put structure around problems they are trying to solve said that the key to success in digitalisation lies in identifying key performance indicators for a business, reaching into all data sources from a customer order to delivery and bringing this data together to present it in real-time on a digital platform.
“This gives a company a single source of truth on its performance, and the ability to predict problems before they happen. However, it is important to understand that technology on its own won’t solve problems. It’s important to align people and projects,” he added.
Commenting on the event, Shannon Chamber CEO Helen Downes said: “The Mid-West Lean Network has developed considerably since its formation in November 2016. There are now more than 115 member companies in the Network, deriving benefits from the 45 Lean-focused workshops, four conferences, two visits to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, in the UK, and one visit to Seating Matters in Craigavon, held to date. These events help companies to stay abreast of trends in Lean. The attendance at the event in Zimmer Biomet is testimony to the value members are deriving from being part of the Network.
“We now look forward to hosting our annual Lean conference, which will be held in Dromoland Castle Hotel on Wednesday, 20 November. The conference will focus on the importance of people to Lean,” stated Ms Downes.
Full details on the Mid-West Lean Conference 2024 can be found at www.shannonchamber.ie/eventstraining