Discreetly embedding the Shingo principles of enterprise excellence at Abbott Diagnostics manufacturing facility in Longford Ireland

From 2005 to 2011 Abbott Diagnostics Longford’s reagent manufacturing facility was primarily focused on transferring products from its sister site in Chicago and ramping up production. Thereafter, the organisation set about establishing a Lean Framework which would connect its many systems and tools and empower every employee in the organisation to improve their processes to achieve sustainable results and ensure that strategic objectives were achieved. The Shingo Model and its Guiding Principles were seen as fit-for-purpose with respect to guiding Abbott Diagnostics Longford’s structural and cultural transformation. Abbott Corporation and its Diagnostics Division already had many excellent systems, tools, and behavioural expectations which aligned well with the Shingo Principles. This instrumental case has been used by the authors to explore how the Shingo approach can be implemented in an effective way, as well as to address how improvement activity can subsequently be transferred between different group sites. A series of framework and models are discussed regarding how both of these activities can be managed effectively.