Bringing in a new culture through “lean”

Companies looking to undertake a Lean project over a medium-term period can apply to Enterprise Ireland for a Business Process Improvement Grant to support the costs of the LeanPlus Assignment. A LeanPlus assignment is a medium-term business process improvement project which will result in sustained use of Lean techniques and related methodologies by the company, and will achieve significant measurable gains in capabilities and competitiveness. 

Case Study – McGraths (Cong) Ltd

McGraths (Cong) Ltd is a 100% family owned & operated company with over 50 years’ experience in the Limestone and related businesses.

McGraths provide a wide range of Limestone based products to the following sectors in Ireland and the UK…

• Agricultural Sector
• Glass Manufacturing
• Construction Industry

Road Construction & Civil Engineering

Project Objectives 

• Build an awareness of Lean with Staff at McGraths, train staff in appropriate Lean tools and methodologies and ensure effective implementation of Lean.
• Develop KPI system to effectively monitor the business on a day to day, week to week and month basis.
• Build culture of data-based decision making is a structured framework of routine meetings.

Key Challenges 

• Changing the culture of McGraths from a reactive mode to a proactive mode and to one where everyone speaks with facts and figures rather than estimates.

Key Changes 

• McGraths have installed a range of KPI’s right across the business and use those KPI’s to ensure meetings are tightly focused on the current real business issues and what actions are needed to address those issues. An area of particular focus for this project was the breaking out of the P&L into five distinctive business units and setting specific objectives and goals for each business unit going forward. To this end McGraths have decided to proceed and appoint a Financial Operations Controller to ensure the performance of each business is optimized going forward.

Results / Outcomes 

In addition to a significant cultural shift to a more objectives and data driven organization, the project delivered some real operating improvements such as…

• OEE up 11% in Filler Plant which equates to an annualized savings of € 600,000.00.
• Problem Solving and Project Management System delivering significant improvements across all business units
• 15% boost to profit margins 2018 v’s 2017

"The “Lean Plus” programme helped us to clearly see the waste and opportunities that existed within our business. It gave us the tools and methodologies to reduce waste and exploit opportunities right across our business. Lean Plus has brought us to a new level in terms of ambition for profitable growth for our business. It has brought about a change in the way we conduct our business, promoted a better spirit of co-operation and has strengthened the business for whatever challenges we face in the years ahead." - McGraths Limestone (Cong) Ltd