Millmount LEANing towards operational perfection

Millmount Healthcare have completed the initial phase of their Lean Manufacturing strategy, with the completion of LeanStart. The company enlisted the services of Black Swan in Dublin to facilitate the review of the production support areas, paying particular reference to the flow of information from the customer request through production to customer invoice and all areas in between.

The LeanStart program focused on the non-production activities at Millmount Healthcare. Focus was placed on the support areas; from planning and production control, to customer support and finance.

"The rationale for this was simple", according to Managing Director, Pascal Keogh. "The company's  business demands have and are constantly evolving - order sizes are downsizing, whilst the number of customers and products are increasing, leading to an increased flow of information through the business. In the absence of strong support systems and accurate, timely information, the production area would be incapable of achieving lasting operational efficiencies."

As a state-of-the-art packaging facility, Millmount was eager to find better ways to implement cost reduction strategies while improving operational performance and quality. Process automation, reduced human errors, improved yield, faster batch reviews, less paper volume, secured archiving, visibility on tasks to be performed and executed were among the key objectives.

LeanStart took 4 weeks in total to complete, and resulted in tangible outcomes for the Meath-based organisation. The financial risks associated with the old system relating to internal part numbers has been mitigated, whilst the flow of information from customer through sales, planning, stores, production, quality, distribution and finance have been streamlined with all duplication and intra-department inconsistencies removed.

"A large percentage of a company's opportunities for eliminating waste can be found in areas other than manufacturing", said Mr. Keogh.

"With the help of Black Swan, we have completed the first phase of our overall Lean Manufacturing strategy by turning our office and support areas into efficient, effective and predictable operations."