Glanbia Ireland Partners With IT Sligo Online Learning to Train 2000 Employees
IT Sligo’s online learning platform is being utilised by some of the country’s largest companies with great success. One of the latest companies to come on board is agri-food and nutrition business, Glanbia Ireland, who are working with IT Sligo to roll out their organisation-wide Operational Excellence (OpEx) programme. So far over 500 Glanbia Ireland employees have completed the IT Sligo online course in Lean Six Sigma quality.
IT Sligo deliver Ireland’s first and only free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Lean Sigma Quality. This seven-week online course has now been delivered to over 7,500 participants from Irish organisations. The course consists of weekly online lectures, discussion boards, videos and quizzes which provides an introduction to the Lean and Six Sigma quality tools. At the end of each week, a quiz is completed and those successfully passing the course earn a Certificate of Completion from IT Sligo.
Michael Phelan, Glanbia Ireland’s Head of Operations and Supply Chain Excellence, said: “We selected IT Sligo as they are the leading provider of accredited online learning programmes in Ireland. Their online learning systems allow our employees to access the course material anytime, anywhere. It provides us with the unique ability to train over 2,000 of our employees in a cost effective way across 10 sites working on multiple shifts. This online course is a key part of the progression path for Glanbia employees who wish to continue to upskill and earn additional qualifications such as Lean Six Sigma Yellow and Green Belt certification.”
Lean Six Sigma and Operational Excellence (OpEx) have been embraced by leading global companies in the manufacturing and service industries. They have become the foremost process improvement approach for organisations that wish to attain world class performance in quality and customer satisfaction.
The tools and techniques are now expanding to the healthcare and government sectors where benefits have been achieved in productivity, efficiency and elimination of ‘waste’ – a term used in Lean Sigma quality which refers to anything that does not add value to the product or service.
Dr. Xavier Velay, IT Sligo’s Head of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, said: “We are delighted to work closely with Glanbia Ireland on this blended learning initiative. They have adopted a very innovative approach to training their employees in Operational Excellence by combining IT Sligo online learning along with their own in-house coaching and customised workshops which are directly relevant to their employees day to day work.
“This allows Glanbia Ireland to provide their workforce with a unique learning experience combining experiential, social and formal learning with the academic rigour of a third level course.”
The weekly IT Sligo online lectures are supplemented by in-house tutorials and workshops by the Glanbia OpEx team to assist their employees with that week’s lecture topic. Participants also undertake a work-based OpEx project which typically results in a minimum saving of €10,000 per project to the organisation.
CAPTION:
Pictured at the launch of the Operational Excellence (OpEx) programme are (from left to right): Xavier Velay, Head of Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering – IT Sligo; Michael Phelan, Head of Operations & Supply Chain Excellence at Glanbia Ireland; Brian Coll, Lecturer in Quality & Lean Six Sigma – IT Sligo; and Liam Connors, Glanbia GPS Specialist.
