“I have worked with both Bernie Rushe and Pat Cullinane of Cordatus (now trading as Lean Ireland) in the development and delivery of yellow belt, green belt and black belt courses for Allergan Clonshaugh. Lean Ireland have also carried out lean six sigma sponsor training with the site management team which is proving invaluable in ensuring project success. As the Operational Excellence lead for the site, and a candidate on the Lean Ireland black belt course, I’ve had the opportunity to experience their service offerings from a number of perspectives. They are professional and innovative in the facilitation of lean six sigma courses, and responsive to Allergan’s particular needs. The response from attendees at their courses is very favourable, which results in increasing interest from our employees to “get involved” in the programme. As facilitators they are results focused, and the plant is enjoying excellent results from the projects being completed.
In our OpEx journey Lean Ireland are playing a key role in ensuring we continue to mature our programme and meet our organisational goals.
It is a pleasure to work with them and I have no hesitation in recommending them for process improvement training and project mentoring.”
Jason Flanagan, Site Operational Excellence Lead & Manufacturing Manager, Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Clonshaugh, Dublin
“Bernie has delivered a module on the University of Limerick Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Supply Chain Management. Her in depth knowledge in logistics and supply chain management grounded the concepts being studied in a real world context. The participants enjoyed the professional approach, excellent feedback and practical application Bernie brought to the material.”
Top qualities: Knowledge Expert, Excellent Rapport, Professional Attitude
Mr Michael Hennessy, Education Programmes Manager, Enterprise Research Centre, University of Limerick
“Bernie is working closely with us in Cara Partners to assist us though our Culture Change Programme and helping us develop and redirect the business. Within a short period we are seeing the results – change in physical appearance of the plant, removal of monuments and improved personnel involvement .
The Shorter, Simple & Safer approach is certainly working for us.”
Top qualities: Reliable, Great Results and Empathetic
John Donlon, Operations Manager, Cara Partners, Cork
“Merit Medical chose Bernie (Cordatus (now trading as Lean Ireland)) to guide our Business Excellence (BE) programme to success. Based on Lean principles, our operational methodology and focus have changed completely. Lean Ireland have enabled our transformation, resulting in lots of sweet numbers and great business success to date. Lean Ireland’got it right’ for Merit by tailoring a targeted, challenging and realistic road map which encompassed:
Programme planning, Structure, Key people and Training to a high standard, enabling Merit personnel to deliver targeted transformation projects (early successes were key to build confidence and take on the next level projects).
Bernie and Cordatus (now trading as Lean Ireland) delivered ‘what they said on the label’ … and more, for Merit. We continue to work together and have extended our BE R-map to inc. Supplier Dev. and collaborative product re-design. The learning and drive to improve never ends.
We made the right choice with Bernie and her company, Lean Ireland.”
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Good Value
Mark Butler, VP of European Operations, Merit Medical, Galway
I attended the Introduction to Lean Thinking workshop delivered by Bernie Rushe of Cordatus (now trading as Lean Ireland) on Thursday April 18th 2013 at the Clayton Hotel in Galway. I found the course to be delivered in a very practical manner, without the use of a single PowerPoint slide! Interactive learning was a key feature. None of the learning material was over complicated with the introduction of attendees to the principles of Lean achieved through the use of a simple every-day scenario portrayed on a DVD. Further learning learning objectives of the day such as the demonstration of “push” versus “pull” manufacturing systems were then achieved through the use of Serious Games and role play with attendees encouraged to work in teams throughout. Overall, I found the Workshop to be highly beneficial for those employees attempting to embrace the Lean ethos for the first time, with the training delivery methods allowing attendees to grasp the principles of Lean and associate them with their own workplace.
Conor Carroll, Masters of Applied Science (Enterprise Systems) Student at NUI Galway
“It has been a pleasure to work closely with Bernie Rushe, Pat Cullinane and T.P. Fanning of Cordatus (now trading as Lean Ireland) in the development of our Lean Strategic steps and rollout of Yellow Belt and Green Belt Training programmes at Penn Engineering, Galway.
Their experience, expertise and consultations in the matters that are relevant to the development of our transformation into a more effective and efficient Engineering-Manufacturing facility have been truly invaluable. All three consultants have wonderful facilitation, technical, interpersonal skills and have been a conduit to instilment of Lean structure and methods amongst various departments.
In addition, they are excellent at: listening to and understanding our problems; also steering us towards the right direction. Cordatus (now trading as Lean Ireland) provide our course attendees with invaluable coaching and mentoring, which helps develop out internal Lean Six Sigma competencies while also ensuring we add value by identifying effective solutions to solve our problems.”
Goda Zvikaite-Byrne, Lean Coordinator, Penn Engineering, Galway
“Working with Pat Cullinane was absolutely fantastic. Pat not only brings a wealth of expertise and experience in Lean but also a wonderful understanding of people. In any Lean journey people are key, and engagement is the most important part of the project; Pat’s insights, advice and recommendations in achieving that were invaluable. The energy Pat brought to every visit was genuinely inspiring – his passion and enthusiasm gave our team the regular boosts that were needed. Combined with his energy was the feeling that Pat does what he does because he loves it, and cares. He shared our vision, goals and hopes for APL’s future and helped us achieve them.”
Andrea Cawley, Director of Sales and Marketing, Automatic Plastics Ltd, Tinahely, Co Wicklow
Bernie worked closely with the global continuous improvement group in Bausch health throughout 2018. We worked on ambitious programmes such as global obsolescence reduction and global risk assessment to protect key revenue products. Also Bernie delivered six sigma refresher training and helped build green belt modules. I find Bernie’s attention to detail and level of professionalism absolutely reliable. I trust her to deliver at the highest level, to work or research on her own initiative and to travel and host workshops representing me within the corporation. I look forward to working again soon with Bernie and her colleagues and am always reassured by the level of aspiration that she brings to our projects.
Barry Murphy, Global Senior Director - Continuous Improvement Program Office, Bausch Health, Dublin