Keltech were honoured to present at the Annual Lean Forum, held recently in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). The Annual WIT Lean Forum is a hugely popular event and has grown to become the leading Lean Enterprise & Operational Excellence event in Ireland.

This industry-academia event is a free all-day conference focused on cutting-edge developments in lean management thinking and practice, continuous improvement, and organisational and service excellence. It provides a key knowledge-exchange and networking opportunity for Irish organisations of all sizes that are adopting, or seeking to adopt, lean thinking and practice in order to remain competitive in the global marketplace.

The presentation, titled ‘Lean transformation in an SME: The Keltech Way’ was given by our own Declan Walsh, General Manager, and was a sell-out.

The presentation was based on the Keltech experience of lean transformation, over the past number of years, and focused on the situational nature of any Operational Excellence transformation. Declan summed this up by explaining ‘The transformation process is situational and everyone’s story is going to be different – you have to understand your company’s DNA’. This understanding is critical if common principles and learnings from others are to be analysed, adapted, and deployed – eventually making them your own.

Declan suggests that adopting a strategic perspective is necessary if the value creating purpose of your organisation is to be understood. Delivering value to customers and stakeholders has become a clichéd statement, but it requires continual thought and analysis to understand what real, as opposed to perceived, value really is, and making sure this value is created and delivered.

Creating a believable and credible vision is important if people are to be inspired and motivated. This, combined with personal development, creates an atmosphere of empowerment and a constancy of purpose that allows people to thrive and igniting pride in what they do.

The presentation was based on Keltech’s experiences, good and bad, over the last few years and was aimed at sharing experiences with other companies rather than a ‘look at us’ style presentation. The audience appreciated this ‘warts and all’ approach and led to a very engaging Q&A session afterwards, which was only limited by time.

The key takeaways from the presentation are that you need to understand your own company and how it creates value. Do not be afraid to challenge conventional wisdom and don’t blindly copy from someone else. Always be prepared to try things, develop a bias for action, and when you fail – fail early. Declan admits that there will be tough times, or as he calls them ‘moments of truth’, however his advice is ‘Take a deep breath and remember that people are learning – it takes time’.