Mid-West Lean Network: Workshop 5 Structured Problem Solving

The Mid-West Lean Network is now well established. It was set up to enable companies within the Mid-West region to learn about Lean, share best practice, improve their Lean undertakings and to facilitate member-to-member networking.

The Mid-West Lean Network: the second largest regional lean network in Ireland, after Waterford Institute of Technology’s Lean Enterprise Excellence Group, was set up in November 2016 to strengthen and increase the existing culture of lean within the Shannon and the wider Mid-West region. Its aim is to enable each industry to broaden and strengthen its competitiveness through knowledge sharing and bench-marking against each other and different industries.

Practical Problem Solving is a core part of any Lean Journey. It empowers staff to identify and define problems, find the true root cause and implement countermeasures. As a result of utilising this approach to the Practical Problem Solving tools, companies report seeing reoccurring problems eliminated reduced costs, and a highly effective and engaged workforce. Additionally, this specific approach becomes the driving force behind sustaining your improvements and standardizing countermeasures.

Practical Problem Solving is a key technique employed daily within Element Six. In this workshop presenters from Element Six will:

1. Describe the evolution of Practical Problem Solving within the plant
2. Outline the benefits of the approach, what has worked well and what hasn’t
3. Experience practical problem solving in action on the shop floor.