Read our article which appeared in the Irish Examiner on February 3 and learn more about Leading Edge Group's 21 years of continuous improvement training and education and Lean transformations.

1. US BUSINESS IN IRELAND
THE Leading Edge Group
was established in 1995
in Cobh, County Cork,
and has been helping
companies ever since in the area
of continuous improvement and
Lean transformations. “When
establishing the company over
21 years ago I never believed that
we would be supporting such
an array of clients not just in
Ireland but also in international
markets,” says founder and
CEO Joe Aherne. “This is great
testimony to the collaborative
business environment in Ireland
and especially support from the
multinational sector and state
bodies such as Enterprise Ireland
and the IDA who have been
offering funding to Irish industry
to improve their processes and
efficiencies for many years”
Leading Edge Group have been
at the forefront of supporting
Industry in Ireland both during
the boom and recessionary
periods and have had the
privilege of working on one of
the largest Lean Transformation
programmes ever in Ireland
with Dairygold Food Ingredients.
“The experience of working
in the multinational and SME
sectors gave us the confidence
and practical experience and
expertise to accelerate our
business across many verticals
and geographies such as Canada,
Australia and Dubai,” he
explained. “We have logged over
€800m of client savings generated
from our Lean engagements and
this is reflective of the calibre
of our consultants and staff,
some of whom have been with us
for over 17 years. In the last 12
months alone, we have worked
with companies such as Atlas,
Sonoco, Mondelez, Superlum,
TRS Global and Gilead as
part of the IDA business offer
as well as managing a major
transformation programme in
the semi-state sector.”
Organisational Transformation
is becoming one of the company’s
main service solutions, and
which is implemented across all
aspects of a particular business.
“It revolutionises how you
operate from the inside out. Our
clients benefit financially thanks
to additional capacity delivering
higher revenues. Improvements
in how you operate will bring
higher productivity, eliminate
waste and result in reduced
overall costs. To date, we have led
over 20 major transformations
in Ireland, Canada and the
USA. We have been lucky to
work with companies such
as AbbVie, Ornua and UDG
Healthcare in Ireland, Europe
and North America leveraging
the experience gained initially in
Ireland.”
“The company started with
myself and one administrator
back in 1995 and we initially
concentrated on Supply Chain
Management consultancy, a
functional term that was not
known universally back in those
days,” Joe recalled of the early
days. “However, organisations
like Dell, Amdahl and 3Com
brought this expertise and
knowledge to Ireland and we
adopted very quickly. The
American Supply Chain Society,
APICS, became hugely popular
here and Irish professionals
sought APICS certification in
their droves. We had more people
trained in APICS than anywhere
else in the world bar the USA.”
Leading Edge became one of the
largest supply chain consulting
and educational firms in Europe
working with a large section of
the Multinational sector and
subsequently leveraging this
experience with other affiliates in
North America. The company’s
strategic relationship with UCC
over the last 10 years has led
to the qualification of over 500
professionals across Ireland in
Lean Best practice at Diploma
and Post Grad levels.
The company has never
stopped learning or innovating
and has been working on the
development of a web based
business improvement portal
(CItric Cube) for the last 12 months
specifically targeted at Continuous
improvement managers in
multinationals, large SME’s and
the public sector. “CItric Cube is
an easy to use method of storing,
tracking and reporting on all
quality improvement activities and
has the capability to consolidate
the results at a corporate level
with comprehensive reporting
capability.” It also interfaces with
continuous improvement training
modules and provides access to
detailed tools and templates that
can be used by companies in their
everyday activities – in effect,
a one stop shop for continuous
improvement. The company is
currently appointing a Product
Manager and Marketing Manager
for CItric Cube and have decided
that Ireland will be the global site
for future software developments
in this space with their partner,
Granite Digital.
“As part of our aggressive
growth plans, we have appointed
David Skelton as chairperson of
our Board. David was previously
General Manager of Millipore
and has over 35 years’ experience
of working in the multinational
sector”. Pat Byrne, who spent
over 11 years with the IDA in
Boston and Chicago and identified
and won key foreign investment
projects for Ireland including
Boston Scientific, Stryker and
Merck Millipore, has also been
appointed to the extended Board.
“In recognising ever
changing trends in training and
development, our Canadian
Operation launched the Leading
Edge Group Academy in 2016 - a
centre of learning for Leading
Edge Group clients across all
industries and jurisdictions. It
is designed for those individuals
and organisations seeking
to implement and enhance
continuous improvement using
Lean.” Academy members will
be able to access a wealth of
innovative learning resources
and opportunities for upskilling,
knowledge transfer and peer
and practitioner networking.
“We have partnered with
LearnUpon, an Irish Learning
Management System provider to
deliver a unique and innovative
platform that will meet the needs
and requirements of learners
worldwide.” Leading Edge Group
have an aggressive International
Growth Plan to achieve €5m
turnover by 2019 and are putting
the appropriate structures and
organisational resources in place
to make this happen all from its
base in County Cork.
Leading Edge celebrate 21
years of Lean transformations
CEO Joe Aherne (l) and Board Member Pat Byrne (r).
Leading Edge Group, Charter House, Cobh, Chairman, Dave Skelton and CEO Joe Aherne.
“When establishing the company
over 21 years ago I never believed
that we would be supporting such
an array of clients not just in
Ireland but also in international
markets,”