Production
The soft stuff is the hard stuff
Whoever coined the phrase “the soft stuff is the hard stuff” sure knew what he was talking about. Over the past 20 years Lean Ireland consultants have had the pleasure and privilege of consulting with…
70 years of IDA Support – A Reflection on Ireland’s Global Trade Success
My mother, Mary Rushe, was born in 1927, the year in which the state-owned Electricity Supply Board (ESB) was established. A farmer’s daughter, she witnessed technical and economic upheaval such as rural electrification and the…
The Continuous Improvement Funding Menu
Time and again when visiting prospective clients, we hear the refrain “We’re too busy at the moment to start a lean programme” or, just as likely “It’s not in this year’s training budget”. These responses…
Measure up or pay up!
History is littered with examples of bad decisions, made on bad measurement data, and their very expensive consequences. In 1999, NASA lost the Mars Orbiter, which was designed to study the Martian climate & atmosphere. It…
Innovation Nation – How Ireland is rocking the Innovation vibe
The Star Trek transporter is my favourite invention of the future. What’s yours? Long renowned for our novelists and poets, Ireland ranks high in the nations of the world in terms of literary innovation. When…
Lean Restaurant Management
The Gallery Cafe in Gort takes us a long way from high volume manufacturing! Sarah Harty, owner of this Co. Galway restaurant, exemplifies lean practice in many ways e.g. sourcing from local suppliers, good teamwork,…