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Gerry Cahill, global operations director for OLED and dyes with PPG; Marlo Kearney, operations director, PPG (left); and Jennifer Stratton, continuous improvement engineer, Cook Medical and Mid-West Lean Network chair, at PPG’s facility in Shannon Free Zone. Photograph by Eamon Ward

Agility and adaptation have been at the heart of Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG’s) operations since the company arrived in Shannon as a contract development manufacturing organisation for Universal Display Corporation and hired its first employee in March 2021.

Manufacturing paints and coatings that are used to protect and enhance some of the world’s best-known products, such as screens and devices, windows and exteriors of aircraft, passports and licences, drink cans, household white goods, and cars, the team in Shannon that has developed specialist knowledge and skills in organic light emitting diode (OLED) has grown to 130 in the past four years.

In a recent presentation to Shannon Chamber’s Mid-West Lean Network, hosted in the company’s facility in Shannon Free Zone, Gerry Cahill, global operations director for OLED and dyes with PPG, said that the company’s success to date is due to hiring the right people, standardisation, and careful management.

Stressing the importance of embedding a culture of respect in an organisation, he said that success in PPG is driven by collaboration and innovation, agility, the ability to address issues as they arise, and providing a safe environment for everyone on-site.

A well-practiced lean practitioner, Cahill and his team, including operations director, Marlo Kearney’s strategy from the outset was to achieve excellence in a short a timeframe as possible, build trust and establish a sustainable site that the customer could not do without. All have been achieved, despite that fact that this involved getting a seventeen-acre site, with two-hundred miles of pipework up and running following the cessation of pharmaceutical manufacturing by the previous owner two years previously.

This is where lean came to the fore according to Cahill. In the first year of operation, the small start-up team identified the key milestones that needed to be achieved, reviewed the plans regularly, were agile to changing circumstances, and deployed project management skills to reach their key milestones.

This was followed in year two by building a high-performing effective team, using visual management to see and solve issues, and instilling an ethos of regular top-down communication.

“Leadership in any organisation sets the standards; fish rots from the head,” states Cahill.

Now firmly established as a leader in its field, Cahill advised attendees at the workshop that the two key areas to focus on when running a business are metrics and portfolio management.

“Be clear on the high-level milestones,” he stated.

“In a start-up, people want to do their own thing, but you need to set guidelines for what people do. You must be able to deal with ambiguity and accept that issues will happen but know that success is built on not letting them happen again,” he stated.

Clearly holding the attention of his audience, he summarised the drivers of business success as asking people if they are alright, expecting them to use processes, breaking everything down into small steps, building resilience, knowing the big milestones, and the rocks in the way, having robust conversations, knowing people’s capacity, and instilling discipline but making time for fun.

Thanking PPG for hosting the Mid-West Lean Network workshop, network chair, Jennifer Stratton, continuous improvement engineer with Cook Medical, said that it was most enlightening to hear how, in a very short timeframe, the PPG team in Shannon have effectively used lean processes, such as A3, gamba and visual management, to frame behaviour and embed a culture of continuous improvement.

Shannon Chamber’s Mid-West Lean Network is a collaborative partner with Lean Business Ireland in the hosting of the Lean Business Ireland Annual Enterprise Excellence Conference 2025 – Europe’s leading Lean and continuous event – which will be held at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), Limerick, on Wednesday, 21st of May 2025.