Agriculture & Dairy

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How can we help?

Leading Edge Group’s experience in the agriculture sector spans education, training and consulting services helping them to achieve operational excellence; increased capacity; enhanced productivity and levels of service; cost savings/avoidance; among other improvements.

We provide training programs and improvement consultancy support, specifically designed for the sector, empowering staff at all levels to achieve positive change.

Training and consulting in the agriculture sector can help farmers and agribusinesses improve their operations and become more competitive in the market.

Lean principles can be applied in agriculture and dairy operations to improve efficiency, quality, and profitability.

In agriculture, a lean approach can involve optimizing production processes to reduce waste, increase yields, and improve the overall quality of crops and livestock. For example, a lean farmer might use precision agriculture techniques such as GPS and sensor networks to optimize planting, fertilization, and irrigation practices, or use “just-in-time” inventory management to minimize the need for storage.

Similarly, in dairy operations, a lean approach can involve streamlining production processes to reduce waste, improve efficiency, and increase the quality of the final product. For example, a lean dairy farm might use automated milking systems to improve the speed and efficiency of the milking process or implement a “pull” production system to ensure that milk production is matched to customer demand.

By using the key principles of lean in agriculture and dairy operations, you can become more efficient, productive, and profitable. Lean principles have been successfully implemented in many manufacturing and service industries, but as every farm and dairy is unique, it requires specific adaptations to be useful.

We help the agriculture sector to develop and enhance a culture of continuous improvement through Lean and Agile certification programs and tailor-made Lean training courses.

For the past 27 years our consulting team has successfully worked with a range of Agri clients and farmers and our approach is always based on a collaborative, partnership-driven working style; effective stakeholder engagement, knowledge transfer and consensus building to develop an optimal future state that will best meet their needs.

Our Agri clients and their farms are achieving real, sustainable results and far-reaching benefits including:

Certainty and control over labour costs for farm owners, with significant cost savings
Increase in cash available to plough back into the business
Job and earnings certainty for farm labour
Less hours worked and milking times reduced on dairy farms
Calving made more manageable
Financial gains (better animal health identification, less working hours, increased production)
Safer work environment
Better organization across farms
Development of a process for continuous improvement

Further Information

Please complete the form below to request further information on our training programs.

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Request a Proposal

Leading Edge Group can assess the unique needs of your agriculture and dairy organization and provide you with a tailored proposal. Please get in touch with us to find out more.

Joe Aherne | Ireland

+353 87 253 3038

contactus@leadingedgegroup.com

Practical Training Programs

Leading Edge Group can assess the unique needs of your organization and provide you with a tailored proposal. Please call or email our Program Director John Whelton to request a proposal tailored specifically to your municipality.

Lean Belt Certification

Training options are suitable for staff at all levels.

Agile Belt Certification

Agile is a proven way to transform your organization, encourage innovation and accelerate a culture where everyone is working better, smarter and more efficiently. We have developed a portfolio of Agile support programs and services to enable organizations to build standard capabilities and maximize the execution of improvements depending on your requirements.

View All Our Courses

Consultancy Support

Leading Edge Group delivers both strategic and operational consulting for the agriculture sector

Establishing a Lean Deployment and Management System

Inclusive of vision and strategy; governance; capability building model; measurement framework; stakeholder engagement plan and deployment roadmap.

Lean Transform

Farming in Ireland can build resilience to fluctuations in earnings through adopting a Lean operations approach. Our transformation framework is designed to support the individual needs of each farm. This journey takes your farm from daily firefighting and silo managed processes to work area self-reliance and sustained growth.

Lean Performance Improvement

Leading Edge Group provides both structured Lean consulting programs and tailored support for the farming sector. Our Lean Start and Plus programs introduce Lean through facilitating short and medium sized process improvements built around a framework for further progression. We can also provide expertise to support continuous improvement initiatives and specific Lean improvement projects.

Research and Evaluation

We provide qualitative and quantitative research services that help farms make data-informed decisions and improve programs and services. Our services include digital and continuous improvement assessments; feasibility studies and specific health check diagnostics to measure baseline performance of relevant processes and services.

Lean Digital Transformation

Lean Digital transformation is the process of using Lean practices and digital technologies to improve operational performance. To operate efficiently and remain modern and productive, farmers need easy access to the latest information on agricultural issues, farming methods and new technologies to assist with the constant drive to maximise productivity and minimise effort. By integrating smart farming technologies, farms can become more efficient and profitable. Our 5D approach to digital transformation integrates seamlessly with our Lean Transformation framework to deliver an integrated model for your farm.

Continuous Improvement Maturity Model (CIMM)

Drawing on 20 years’ experience, Leading Edge Group’s continuous improvement maturity model (CIMM) provides structured tools to objectively assess and develop an organization’s continuous improvement capabilities. Municipalities can assess and benchmark their current baseline level of continuous improvement, innovation and culture change against a reference standard.

Case Studies

Lean Transformation at a Dairy Processing Organization

The Challenge Our client is a large farmer-owned dairy businesses and one of Ireland’s largest…

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State Agency for Agriculture: Research and evaluation engagement for feasibility study

Research and development of a study to explore the feasibility of a new spin-out company…

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Farm: Introducing Lean to Farm Management

A benchmark report and an on-farm review were performed and the implementation of a tiered…

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Dairy Farm: Development of a labour demand/capacity plan

The busy nature of dairy farming and the desire to get the job done means…

Read More case study

View All Case studies

Led by Experts

Our experts have significant experience in delivering process and quality improvement consulting, facilitation and training across diverse stakeholder groups from all levels across the Agriculture and Dairy sector.

Leading Edge Group has been working with Bord Bia since 2018 on their Lean Pilot Principle Programme delivering Lean solutions to over 7 pig farmers across Ireland.

In addition to the dairy and pigmeat and beef industries, we delivered Lean training for farmers in association with the Macra na Feirme (a community of rural youth and young farmers in Ireland), developing specific Lean Farm Belt programs at White, Yellow and Green Belt level which can be customized to reflect the different farming sectors. Our lead consultant for the agriculture sector manages his own farm and therefore has an acute awareness and keen interest in the food production supply chain.

All Experts

Barry is a senior consultant with the Leading Edge Group with over 20 years’ experience in both SMEs and large multinationals. Barry joined the Leading Edge Group team in 2017 and has led projects across a range of sectors leading to improvements in various companies business practices. Barry has industry…

To view the full profile, please click here

What Our Clients Say

“Post our merger, we partnered with Leading Edge Group to launch the Lean Upskill Program, targeting over 200 managers across the organisation in Phase 1. Leveraging their strong global network of Lean experts, the program was delivered seamlessly, on time, and with a very high satisfaction rate among our Green Belt participants. The structured training, combined with intensive post‑training coaching, enabled rapid translation of capability building into measurable results. Within a few months, the program unlocked thousands of productive hours and delivered substantial financial and operational impact, amounting to hundreds of millions. This partnership has played a pivotal role in accelerating our Lean journey and embedding a results‑driven continuous improvement culture across the business.”

Abdallah Raouf Mohammad Al Qatanany, Manager – Business Process Excellence. TAQA Distribution.

“Irmgard was a truly refreshing green business consultant who took the time to deeply understand our business before co-creating a highly achievable and business-minded action plan. Her excellent communication and guidance on circularity make her an invaluable resource for anyone seeking grounded, relevant, and technically sound green business strategies. A joy to work with.”

Ellen, Founder. Hurst Botanicals.

“We recently engaged Leading Edge Group to support the rollout of Microsoft Copilot across our teams. With existing in-house AI expertise through our CEADAR collaboration, we needed a partner who could design and deliver an implementation project that complemented our internal capabilities and Leading Edge were able to. The training provided has been of a very high standard, delivered on tight timelines by an excellent trainer. We’re now working through a series of case studies focused on real business challenges, helping to embed learning in a practical, results-oriented way. As a growing SME, time is always at a premium. We value Leading Edge’s pragmatic, outcome-focused approach and their ability to keep the project moving without the need for constant oversight. To date, I’ve found Leading Edge to be open, responsive, agile, and highly knowledgeable.”

Melissa Sheridans, Operations & Marketing Director. Strata.

“Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals engaged Leading Edge Group to support “flow design” for laboratories in their new facility in Tuas, Singapore. The work was excellent and has been used by the team to design equipment set-up and workflows to aid an efficient facility start-up. The Leading Edge Group team was very knowledgeable in operations and Lean Methodologies, as well as being partnership focused. Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals continues to engage with Leading Edge Group on other projects.”

Pat Field, Senior Director, Pfizer

Our Clients

We work with staff at all levels and functions of the organization, from the Supply Chain to front-line staff. We’ve helped both large and small enterprises across Canada, Ireland and Australia with their Continuous Improvement efforts.