Driving Lean Principles at Mannok’s Packaging Facilities with 20 Employees Completing Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Qualification

Twenty staff members from Mannok’s packaging production facilities have successfully completed their NVQ level 7 Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certificate course with the Institute of Technology, Sligo (IT Sligo). The 14-week online course is reputed as Ireland’s premier accredited online Lean & Operational Excellence course, utilised by several of the country’s leading employers to upskill their workforce in the areas of Lean and Six Sigma.

Mannok have formed a partnership with IT Sligo to deliver a structured training programme which will enable staff to gain knowledge and skills in the areas of Lean and Operational Excellence as part of the company’s “Leading Excellence” development programme. The four-tier training programme gives Mannok employees the opportunity to gain QQI accreditation in Lean Six Sigma through IT Sligo, up to level eight accreditation.

The twenty staff members who recently achieved their Yellow Belt certification are now accredited to level 7 and will have the opportunity to continue progressing to achieve their Level 8 qualification.

Mannok’s General Manager, Mark McKenna commented on the importance of employee involvement in the Lean Manufacturing journey, saying,

Part of developing a truly Lean thinking business is ensuring it is part of the very fabric of the organisation, and that requires the involvement of everyone in the company. The provision of a structured, certified upskilling framework open to all employees is an important route to achieving that. Our partnership with Sligo IT and our wider Leading Excellence Programme also aligns with the responsibility we have to our staff.

One of the most important things we do for the people in our business is offer them opportunities to continuously progress and upskill throughout their career with us, and we’ve proven that the calibre of our employee development structure is among the very best in the country, having recently won a HR Leadership and Management Award for our Skills Development Programme.

Well done to the team members who have worked hard in very challenging times to successfully earn their Yellow Belt certification and to all those who are currently working towards their next achievement level.

Lean Six Sigma

Lean Manufacturing is a globally recognised methodology that focuses on minimizing waste within manufacturing systems while simultaneously maximizing productivity. Mannok have been implementing Lean Manufacturing principles throughout their operations for a number of years now, continuously looking at how the company can improve its processes and physical working environment to become a more efficient and less wasteful business. Eliminating waste leads to reduced environmental impact, improved quality, increased productivity, and reduced costs, benefitting both the business and its customers.

The Lean Six Sigma training Programme adopted by Mannok combines the proven Lean principles with another business methodology, Six Sigma. Six Sigma is a data driven, problem solving methodology that utilises tools to improve the capability of an organisation’s business processes.

It views all work as processes that can be defined, measured, analyzed, improved, and controlled, and applies strategies to achieve increase in performance and decrease in process variation, leading to defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale, and quality of products or services.

With continuous improvement and innovative thinking embedded in the culture at Mannok, the very nature of the Lean and Six Sigma principles to enhance and refine every area of the business on an ongoing basis, have become part of the everyday way of working in the company.