LEAN Best Practices Workshop

Date: 12th June 2024

Time: 9:30am - 1pm

In the last 2 years, 93 Businesses from Cork & Kerry completed the Local Enterprise Building a Better Business with Lean Thinking Program reporting savings of €3,181,890.  That’s an average of €46,114.35 per company and reported capacity increase of between 10% & 100% in their processes.

What is the Building a Better Business program?

The program is about taking what you do in your business and finding ways to do it Faster, Better, and Together as a team. It’s about more than cash savings to small business owners though. For many it is about building a stable, secure, and sustainable business that is agile enough to face economic challenges. For many it is about liberating themselves from Non-Value adding activities through questioning and re-designing their processes, allowing them to focus on business growth and Value-Adding activities. For many, the program has given them the ability to get home on time, work less at the weekends, while still getting the work done. All these businesses achieved these outcomes by focusing on the elimination of waste from their processes, creating standards, implementing visual management, and by accepting that what has taken us this far in the business, may not take us where we want to go. Through the Building a Better Business Program, Jigsaw helps great businesses like yours BE BETTER!

Owners and managers of small businesses are invited to take part in Phase 1 of the Build a Better Business Programme.  This highly successful programme will be of interest to any small business looking for ways to improve profits, efficiency, customer service and employee engagement by employing principles of LEAN Thinking and with a strong focus on teamwork to eliminate wasteful processes and ineffective procedures.

The hands on, facilitated workshop will be delivered by Stuart Nelson & Eamon McKenna of Jigsaw Better Business, introducing a new way of thinking, with discussion, breakouts and group activities.  During the workshop you will also hear how the one to one guidance you will receive in Phase 2 can transform how you run your business for the better!

Is this program for you? 

Of the 2000 business that have taken part in the program nationally these were the primary reasons:

1. Increase competitiveness
2. Improve delivery times
3. Work faster
4. Improve productivity
5. Understand and reduce waste
6. Improve data & admin processes
7. Layout improvement
8. Process and efficiency improvement
9. Reduce congestion
10. Streamline process
11. Brexit

What happens after Phase 1?

Companies that take part in Phase 1 are invited to compete for a place in Phase 2*. Here, they will be assigned a Lean Coach that will work with them on a 1 -to -1 basis for 5 x ½ days.  During this phase, companies will be supported to apply the learnings from Phase 1 and deliver a cost saving project or improvement like other participants before them.

*Phase 2 is a competitive process and a place in not guaranteed. It is significantly subsidized but a nominal charge will apply.  In some cases it is possible to be approved for phase 2 in advance of this workshop.

Feedback from Past Participants in the Lean Program

• “We are being challenged in every visit, and growing each time”
• “It’s hard work on our part but we are making great headway.  Our Lean Coach is excellent at drawing out what way I need to look at how I work, and I’ve already started implementing everything and seeing progress.”
• “Very positive experience, The changes are being realised immediately.”
• “Each of the session have been of major benefit for myself and the company. We have worked on a process flow map for a major process within the business. This will allow the company to benefit for years to come as we can adopt this way of thinking into other functions and departments.”