A structured approach to business transformation

Established in 1999 the Engineers Ireland Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accredited employer Standard is now recognised as the national benchmark for organisations across all sectors of engineering. It offers a structured framework for utilising CPD activities to improve performance and bring about measurable business benefits and gains in competitiveness.

To date, some 150 companies throughout Ireland have been accredited to the standard and each year Engineers Ireland recognises excellence in the area through the CPD Employer of the Year Award. This year, for only the second time in the 10-year history of the awards, the judges have elected joint winners, Dromone Engineering and Abbott Ireland.

Established in 1978, Dromone Engineering employs 100 people in the manufacture of hitching technology excavator attachments for both the agricultural and construction markets and exports to 39 countries worldwide.

"We are an export led company and we have to be more creative and agile than the best of our competitors in international markets," says Dromone managing director William Egenton. "The Engineers Ireland CPD accreditation framework gives us an excellent structure to ensure we continue to transform in order to deliver new innovations and to win new markets."

He points out that the demands of the company’s customer base mean that it has to continue improving in order to compete. “We’ve been implementing a lot of change in the company in recent years but we have done so in a way that retains the entrepreneurial background of the business,” he says. “Our customer base is made up of blue chip original equipment manufacturing companies and we have to be very process driven to supply them. This includes how we design, validate and manufacture our products.”

According to Egenton, the change is enormous. “Years ago when we were making a product we’d get the drawing, cut the metal and get it out there as quickly as we could. Now we start out by listening to our customers as early as we can. The prototyping of the product is electronic and so is the testing. That means that we can be sure of getting it right first time when we are delivering the product to the customer.”

The CPD framework has proved very useful in achieving the required change. “It fits perfectly into the engineering part of our process and this is where the change has been most painful. We have had to implement the new process while preserving innovation within the company and the CPD framework has helped us do that. It has also allowed us become more and more focused which in turn has allowed us to grow more.”

Abbott Ireland shared the top honour for its achievement in developing a CPD framework which accelerated the sharing of ideas and lessons learned across sites in Cavan and Sligo. In addition, Abbott has successfully used CPD to help the company maintain growth and create value in an evolving marketplace.

“We foster a strong ethos of continuing professional development for all staff”, says Adrian O’Connor, sites services manager at Abbott’s diagnostics manufacturing site in Sligo.

“All Abbott sites have a very strong continuous professional development ethos in their engineering departments. Establishing robust continuing professional development processes has allowed us to up skill engineers on a continuous basis in order to have the competencies required to meet the evolving needs of each site. Continuing professional development of our engineering staff has empowered them to innovate and drive projects that support core manufacturing and introduce new strategic initiatives to reduce demand and cost in relation to energy, water and other utilities.”

These strategic initiatives have been particularly important to the company. “The CPD framework has allowed us create a platform for innovation in the company and this has allowed us to do things like using the upskilling of our engineers to focus on energy reduction projects. This has been a big area for us in the Sligo site where we had a long-range energy plan covering three years which looks at how we can become a cleaner, greener operation. We have set quite aggressive goals for ourselves including a 30 percent reduction in energy use. One of the big successes as a result of the energy reduction initiative has been a 46 per cent in energy cost over the three years and a 40 per cent cut in CO2 emissions. This required our engineers to have a different skill set to what they had previously and the CPD framework helped us with that.”

Energy has also been an area of focus for the Cootehill site which established a utilities excellence process improvement team in January of this year. “The team’s remit is to implement design for manufacture technology that reduces utility consumption and increases cost efficiencies,” O’Connor explains. “The utilities excellence programme has been a key driver in providing financial and environmental benefits to the site. Previously over 75 per cent of the plant’s energy spend was on fuel oil but the recent transition to natural gas will significantly reduce energy costs. It is anticipated that this will reduce C02 emissions by more than 25 per cent. Also, heat recovery projects on manufacturing dryers have saved the equivalent of 3,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.”

“The CPD accredited employer standard recognises companies and organisations which implement continuing professional development policies that enable tangible business transformation,” says Engineers Ireland director general John Power. “Both winners have excelled in this area. In the current marketplace, engineering organisations are required to be adaptable and dynamic to gain competitive advantage, create jobs and continue to promote Ireland as a centre of excellence in engineering. Both companies show how incorporating continuing professional development in the company’s strategic vision helps achieve outstanding results both locally and on an international level.”