Operational excellence solutions
Transform your business through continuous improvement
The Operational Excellence Team helps Northern Ireland businesses improve their competitive advantage by improving their productivity and profitability.
Through our various programmes, we offer our customers the tools, advice and support to help deliver quantifiable and sustainable improvement.
Our support includes:
- Identifying performance and process improvement opportunities
- Facilitating productivity and supply chain Improvements
- Supporting businesses to embed a culture of continuous improvement
- Training through generic or bespoke workshops, specialist advice, mentoring and coaching
- Access to Operational Excellence tutorials & webinars
- Access to Operational Excellence case studies
How does Invest NI support my business?
The Operational Excellence team provide support across the entire enterprise from boardroom to shop floor. We focus on developing capability within the businesses to facilitate sustainable improvements.
We offer workshops on:
- Lean Fundamentals, Lean for Services & Lean CI Project Management
- Supply Chain Fundamentals
- Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED)
- Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
- Practical Problem Solving using A3 approach
- Daily Kaizen & Leaders Kaizen
- Kata Coaching
For more information on the support we offer, download our Operational Excellence Solutions brochure
How will my business benefit from Operational Excellence support?
Your business will benefit by giving you the tools, advice and support, to deliver on-going sustainable improvement internally.
We achieve this through:
- A combination of training, coaching, mentoring and exposure to best practice
- Providing your people with the tools and techniques to drive improvement and implement appropriate systems and structures
- On-going commitment from you to develop and grow the ‘right’ culture
- Having leaders involved and engaged within the critical activities to ‘make it happen’
Our Opex coaches who are experienced Lean and Six Sigma practitioners, have a wealth of commercial experience and expertise in a diverse range of manufacturing and service businesses.
Regardless of your business size or sector, our coaches will work with you to understand your needs, challenges and develop an appropriate roadmap to help improve the efficiency of many areas within the company.
Your business can typically see a result in productivity improvement of at least 25-30%, by addressing non value-adding activity within business processes.
Support is available to all Invest NI customers regardless of size or sector. General advice and attendance at some information sharing workshops are available to the wider business community.
If you want to find out more, complete our enquiry form or contact us on 0800 181 4422 to discuss the next steps.
Our support may be subject to some eligibility criteria.
Advice, tools and support available
The Operational Excellence team can assist by introducing new concepts, tools and techniques that can improve many areas of your business.
The information below will give your business the advice, tools and support needed to help increase efficiency and profit.
Supply Chains
Maximising the capability and improving your Supply Chain is essential to business profitability and sustainability. Our Supply Chain experts can support you by, helping to identify cost savings and drive productivity improvements.
Supply Chain Management Improvement
Supply Chain Management Improvement provides a focus on reducing waste in the supply chain and making the most of resources that is commercially essential in today’s highly competitive market place.
Support is provided by Supply Chain experts from our Operational Excellence team, who have a wealth of business and commercial experience. You will receive coaching/mentoring support to address specific supply chain issues within your business.
How can Supply Chain Management Improvement benefit our business?
Our Operational Excellence team can support you by:
- Providing advice and expertise in relation to supply chain management, disciplines and principles
- Identifying opportunities within businesses and promoting the benefits of a structured approach to managing suppliers
- Facilitating, mentoring and coordinating supply chain improvement projects
Where required this can be supplemented by other external delivery organisations.
For companies with a large local supply base, such as those operating within our advanced manufacturing sectors, we are working with such companies and their network of suppliers to help them collectively identify cost savings and drive productivity improvements.
Who can apply for this support?
This support is suitable for anyone with responsibilities relating to procurement and the management of suppliers. Support is available to all Invest NI customers regardless of size or sector.
If you want to find out more, complete our enquiry form or contact us on 0800 181 4422 to discuss the next steps.
Our support may be subject to some eligibility criteria.
Supply Chains for the 21st Century (SC21)
The Supply Chains for the 21st Century (SC21) is an improvement Programme designed to accelerate the competitiveness of the Aerospace and Defence industry by raising the performance of its supply chains.
Business will have the opportunity to work with SC21 participants, prime contractors, regions and regional associations, strategic partners, accredited practitioners, training partners, providers, assessors and ambassadors.
How can Supply Chains for the 21st Century (SC21) benefit our business?
This Programme provides a simple standard improvement framework, which defines performance goals and standardises the approach and tools for continuous sustainable improvement.
Participants will have the opportunity to receive a national recognition in the form of a Bronze, Silver or Gold Performance Standard Award. This award is based on achieving and maintaining agreed criteria.
Criteria for SC21 are:
- Delivery
- Quality
- Sustainable improvement
- The associated improvement frameworks (business, manufacturing and relationship excellence)
Within the UK Aerospace & Defence sector, Northern Ireland is seen as the leading region for Supply Chain Excellence. The Operational Excellence team work in tandem with Invest NI Aerospace and Defence sector team in offering advice and support.
Who can apply for this support?
Support is available to all Invest NI customers regardless of size or sector.
If you want to find out more, complete our enquiry form or contact us on 0800 181 4422 to discuss the next steps.
Our support may be subject to some eligibility criteria.
Further information
COVID-19 Operational excellence checklists
As the Government and NI Executive review and update COVID-19 related workplace restrictions, employers must consider how best to cope with an array of issues including how to restart operations.
Use the checklists below to identify possible opportunities to improve your workplace and supply chains as a result of COVID-19.
COVID-19 Supply Chain Checklist
Businesses need to ask some critical questions of their supply chains and while some may seem obvious, getting clear answers can often prove challenging.
Download the COVID-19 Supply Chain Checklist (PDF) to identify possible opportunities to improve your supply chain due to COVID-19.
Video | Watch the Supply Chain Checklist animation
COVID-19 Safe Workplace Checklist
This checklist is focused on helping employers identify practical measures to consider in order to make their workplace safe.
Download the COVID-19 Safe Workplace Checklist (PDF)
Video | Watch the Safe Workplace Checklist animation
Tutorials & Webinars
These online tutorials and webinars cover a range of topics providing you with the tools to help improve your processes and grow your business.
Webinars
- 6 Week Planning webinar
- Daily Management Routines webinar
- KATA Overview webinar
- Practical Problem Solving webinar
- Learn to lead on the shop floor and adapt to change with TWI webinar
- Workplace organisation using 6S webinar
- How to use the 7 quality tools webinar
- How to carry out a Waste Walk
- Creating a visual workplace
- Mistake proofing webinar
- Standard work webinar
- Process mapping webinar
Case Studies
Hear how Northern Ireland companies have transformed their businesses using lean thinking and created a culture for continuous improvement.
Watch our Operational Excellence Case Studies
If you want to find out more, complete our enquiry form or contact us on 0800 181 4422 to discuss the next steps.
Our support may be subject to some eligibility criteria.
Coronavirus business support
Good progress towards 2017-21 Business Strategy Targets
