Leading Edge Group

This is my archive

Lean is the way to go in Pigs, and not just on the Plate

When you hear “Lean” and “Pigs” in the same sentence, it is natural to automatically think of the best cuts of pork. But in this case, it’s not about taking the fat out of streaky bacon, it’s applying the toolset and principles of Lean Manufacturing in an area where it hasn’t previously had much exposure in Ireland; the Pig Farming Industry. That’s what Leading Edge Group, amongst other companies, has been doing for the past couple of months. As part of a Bord Bia/ Teagasc/ Enterprise Ireland initiative, 30 of Irelands top pig farmers have been participating in a large scale feasibility study looking at the improvement’s that can be made to a farms operations and profitability by applying the well-established Lean Manufacturing tools and principles on Piggeries. As part of the project, consultant Barry O’Brien has worked closely with several clients, one of whom is Pat O’Keeffe of O’Keeffe Piggeries based in Ballylough, Mitchelstown, Cork, Ireland. Read More

Healthcare Systems in Ireland and Canada have a Lot in Common

Healthcare systems in Ireland and Canada have a lot in common. They both have mainly publicly funded access to healthcare with some private insurance being required for services such as prescription medication. Both countries have issues with long wait times for some elective surgical procedures and for admission to hospital through the emergency department. Read More

Leading Edge Group and HealthCareCAN Partnership

Leading Edge Group and HealthCareCAN Announce Expanded Partnership Toronto, Ontario – April 26th, 2017. Leading Edge Group and HealthCareCAN are delighted to announce an expanded strategic partnership that provides a wide range of education and training offerings to support the learning needs of healthcare professionals in a variety of the areas – most notably, quality improvement, change, leadership and management. Read More

Standard Work – A Key Lean Tool

Our Director of Healthcare Services, Jane Bishop, introducted an exciting game which Leading Edge Group plays to demonstrate standard work, a key Lean tool. This was completed by a group of Public Health teams from a Yellow Belt course. By documenting the current best practice, standard work forms the baseline for continuous improvement. As the standard is improved, the new standard becomes the baseline for further improvements, and so on. Improving standard work is a never-ending process. Standard work is used to reduce variation in how people undertake work and therefore improves safety and quality of the work. We have outlined this below in three photos. Read More