How to use the Lean model to make savings and increase efficiencies on your farm

The Lean business model of reducing waste and increasing efficiencies has become increasingly popular on dairy farms and on this week’s Dairy Edge, labour researcher Marion Beecher and Head of Continuous Improvement at Dairygold Co-Op, John Murphy, join Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the role of Lean practices on dairy farms. Lean is not rocket science, but it can be the small changes to work organisation that add up to big savings and differences over time. Firstly, John documents the process of integrating Lean across all sectors of Dairygold Co-Op and the roll out to their suppliers with the resulting benefits including improved communication, work processes and safety whilst also reducing waste and increasing efficiency. Marion gives practical examples of Lean on farms including a case study that measured the efficiency of the milking process where savings of 20 minutes per milking were made, which accounts for in excess of 180 hours annually. Because milking accounts for the largest proportion of annual farm tasks, Marion suggests this is an area every farmer can measure and target to improve efficiency. For more information: https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/animals/dairy/labour/Top-10-Dairy-Farm-SOPs.pdf https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/sops/ https://www.dairygoldagri.ie/leanfarm/ For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/