https://www.rikon.ie

Lean Enterprise & Operational Excellence Programme Portfolio

The SETU Business School offers a portfolio of executive/practitioner education programmes that have been developed by the members of The Academy of Lean Enterprise Excellence in collaboration with industry.

These programmes are designed to meet identified industry needs for discrete knowledge, know-how, and skills in continuous improvement and lean enterprise/operational/process excellence in public and private organisations, and across all services and manufacturing sectors.

The programmes also cater for employees at different levels within organisations, and at different stages in the employee lifecycle. Thus we have developed a Masters (Level 9), a Higher Diploma (Level 8), and a Diploma (Level 7). Separately, we also have PhD (Level 10) candidates researching in the area.

Given the applied nature of Lean, and given the breadth and depth of experience within our programme participants, we place a particularly strong emphasis on peer and experiential learning. This is highly-valued by our students, and it is enabled via our class-contact approach and extensive student interactions, engagement, and collaboration throughout the duration of the programmes.

In addition to examining the “Hard” elements (Lean tools and techniques, operational and business analytics, process excellence methodologies, and project management), a distinctive aspect of our programmes from those elsewhere is that our participants attain an appreciation for wider organisational contexts and cross-sectoral applications, services and manufacturing orientations, plus the critical “Soft” elements of Lean.

Our ethos and approach is aligned to the Shingo Model and Approach, as well as to the Toyota Production System and the Toyota Way. We examine and synthesise the principles, systems, culture, and behaviours integral to Lean enterprise excellence. Our students examine Lean philosophy and thinking; Lean leadership; Lean strategy and hoshin kanri; systems thinking and the learning organisation; employee engagement; change management and cultural transformation; and lean coaching and communications.

All of our programmes use an integrated learning approach that encompasses traditional lectures; case studies; in-class discussions; ICT practicals; site visits; guest speakers; live-laboratory projects; and all supported by Moodle, WIT’s virtual learning environment.

Our programmes are: