Madam, – We just received notice that Iarnród Éireann – Irish Rail, has issued a contract to a US organisation called Lean Learning Center, based in Michigan in the US.
The contract required the tendering company to provide Lean training and coaching (Lean is a continuous improvement philosophy originally developed by Toyota) to develop internal Iarnród Éireann leaders to reinforce and further develop Lean principles and practices. This despite the fact that Ireland has world-class training suppliers in this area. Enterprise Ireland is currently running a Lean initiative and it has more than 40 Irish suppliers approved to deliver training and coaching in this area. We would like to congratulate Iarnród Éireann for supporting American industries paid for by the Irish taxpayer. – Yours, etc,