SHANNON Chamber has moved all its Skillnet training to a virtual setting, successfully delivering 45 training programmes through webinars since the introduction of Covid-19 restrictions last March.
And the transition was taken a stage further when the Chamber hosted its first its first online graduation ceremony last week.
Participants on the Lean Green Belt programme started their lectures in a classroom setting last November but had to complete the course online, linking up with their course tutor, Eddie O’Neill of LBS Partners, for virtual tuition and one-to-one coaching.
Lean Green Belt is the first step for many employees on their road to becoming proficient in lean principles and understanding how lean works. The nine participants, six from Teleflex Medical OEM and three from Cook Medical, are all employed in companies that are well on the road to embedding lean in their organisations.
LBS Partners’ director Vincent Leonard said that Lean Green Belt training involves selecting a process from within the trainee’s working environment and, through what is called an A3 project board, examining how it could be done smarter and more efficiently to deliver savings to the company.
“The savings gained in this instance were many multiples of the investment in the programme,” he added.
Cook Medical’s continuous improvement manager Teresa Prendergast added: “Three of our employees participated in this programme and have gained a huge amount of knowledge. As we progress on our continuous improvement journey the use of the A3 methodology is important to help us improve our processes and meet our strategic objectives.
“The A3s that were completed demonstrated the power of the tool and how it can be applied to all elements of the business and types of problems. By completing this programme, three real problems were solved for Cook Medical but more importantly, the learnings and standard approach to problem solving will help us solve many more,” she explained.
With companies still hesitant to return to offline training and the associated risks of exposing staff to the virus, the online platform will be embraced by Shannon Chamber Skillnet to deliver training for the foreseeable future.
Chamber chief executive Helen Downes said that they had not witnessed any negatives from using technology to deliver knowledge.
“We recently started an online Lean Yellow Belt programme with LBS Partners, which was fully booked, and we are now inviting companies who may be considering Lean or who want to upskill a greater cohort of employees in lean, to send us their expressions of interest for the next Lean Green Belt programme, which will be delivered in conjunction with LBS partners”.
Further details at www.shannonchamber.ie/events-training
