Now in its fifth year, Shannon Chamber’s annual LEAN event in Zimmer attracted an audience from within and outside the region and from a mix of sectors. The key attraction at this annual event is the opportunity to hear and see first-hand the benefits of adopting a LEAN strategy and embedding it within an organisation.

This year’s event, sponsored by Lean Business Systems, was attended by over seventy delegates and addressed by keynote speaker Gerry Meegan, operational excellence manager with Coca Cola who described operational excellence as a mind-set of teamwork and problem solving which generates continuous improvement throughout an organisation.

“It enables companies to focus on the needs of the customer, empowers employees, eliminates waste and optimises existing activities in the process.

“Focusing on operational excellence empowers a productivity culture, increase revenues and profitability and reduces costs,” he added.

Speaking at the event, Lean Business System’s managing director Gene Leonard spoke about the three Ps of LEAN thinking – purpose, people and process.

“It centres on aligning strategy with purpose, educating and empowering people and a consultative process. The modern leader makes him/herself available to help others to succeed. This is the hardest skill of all to master. You must have time, you must have alignment of purpose, you must understand your customers and above all else you must understand people.”

Thanking Zimmer for once again hosting the event, Shannon Chamber’s Helen Downes said it was an exemplary company for demonstrating LEAN best practice and for showing what can be attained through adopting a bottom-up approach. While LEAN is an ongoing journey for many companies in the area, it’s a new journey for others. That’s why we keep this topic to the fore every year.”

Photo shows:

Helen Downes, chief executive, Shannon Chamber pictured a the Zimmer LEAN event with (from left): Gerry Meegan, operational excellence manager, Coca Cola; Gene Leonard, managing director, Lean Business Systems; and Adrian Furey, general manager, Zimmer. Photo: Eamon Ward.