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The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., today announced funding of €500,000 for the roll out of a Lean Principles Programme for pig farmers.

Minister Creed said: “In a sector which has shown itself to be remarkably resilient over recent years, the adoption of Lean business principles will assist pig farmers to further increase performance and competitiveness without compromising the animal welfare and food quality principles that are critical to the success of the sector. I would strongly encourage pig farmers to avail of this unique opportunity to work directly with Lean experts on their farms.”

The mainstreaming of this programme delivers on one of the key recommendations of the report of Pig Industry Stakeholder Group, chaired by Dr Seán Brady. Following on a successful pilot programme, involving a collaboration between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Bord Bia, Teagasc and Enterprise Ireland, additional funding has been made available by the Department for a wider roll out the programme. The objective of the programme is to support the adoption of the principles of Lean manufacturing to achieve operational and efficiency improvements at pig producer farm level.

The programme will be available to pig producers in Ireland who are members of the Bord Bia Pigmeat Quality Assurance Scheme.  Participants in the programme will work with a panel of Lean consultants established by Bord Bia and Teagasc to deliver a mix of on-farm Lean Start and Lean Plus projects.

Speaking about the initiative Bord Bia CEO Tara McCarthy commented: “I welcome the roll-out of the Lean Principles Programme for Primary Pig Producers following the successful delivery of the pilot project among 29 pig producers. This Lean initiative complements Bord Bia’s Pigmeat Quality Assurance Scheme (PQAS) by helping farmers to become more cost and process focused while continuing to meet market requirements and consumer demands.”

Teagasc Director, Professor Gerry Boyle also welcomed the roll out saying: “Teagasc are delighted to be involved in this project after a very successful pilot programme, involving Knowledge Transfer staff in the Teagasc pigs development department.  The pig sector in Ireland is resilient and one in which efficiency and costs of production are critical to survival. Lean principles have a role in improving this for the pig sector.”

Note for editors:

‘Lean Business’ is a management philosophy that pursues the continuous elimination of waste in all business processes through small and incremental improvement. It was first developed in the 1950’s in Japan and since then the original concept has been further developed by various countries and organisations.

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