On Monday 04 and Tuesday 05 December, the EU-Japan Centre organised its 16th Lean in Europe visit. For the first time, the activity consisted of a double-visit and focused on lean in services. The first company to be visited was Phonovation. The second visit was Topflight Travel Group. Both visits took place on 5 December, with a preparatory meeting and dinner on the evening in Dublin on 4 December.

The visit to Phonovation

Phonovation is Ireland's largest interactive SMS and voice services company and aims to become the leading provider of interactive SMS and voice services in each of our chosen markets. This first visit focused on Phonovation's journey with lean - driving business value in using kanban, business prioritisation and capacity based planning; using a monthly lean operations review for the whole business to share performance data, understanding and areas of focus and improvement; and developing incremental continuous improvement and "lean thinking" by using experimentation & micro learning events.

The visit to Topflight Travel Group

Topflight Travel Group is a market leader in quality holidays both to summer destinations, as well as an award-winning ski programme. The visit to Topflight Travel Group took place in the afternoon of 5 December and addressed its lean journey - from its very first 'step' to how it has embedded Lean thinking into its office design including use of Visual Management and 5S. It also looked at how the company uses Hoshin Kanri and X-Matrix to empower its software development team solve business problems and also at finance processes – how applied simple lean tools including 5S, Value Stream Mapping and Standard Work to reduce Accounts Payable workload by over 70% and reduce supplier payment issues to zero (so far). Click here for the provisional agenda for the visit to Topflight Travel Group.