Barclay Chemicals
Lean Business Case Studies – Barclay Chemicals
Barclay Chemicals is a family-owned Irish company. It has been dedicated to the supply of crop protection products for over 30 years.
Based in Dublin, their fully integrated site delivers registration, manufacturing and distribution throughout Europe and beyond. Although their main focus is glyphosate, they also specialise in a growing range of herbicides and fungicides for the broad-acre market.
Their mission is to:
- Provide agronomic performance for the grower and a low risk margin opportunity for customers.
- Obtain independent product registrations.
- Source the best raw materials globally.
- Ensure complete traceability along their supply chain.
Our strategy is to focus on understanding and fulfilling the needs of our customers on a local and European level using the highest quality standards and dedicated service.
Lean Project Objectives
Barclay Chemicals first engaged Lean Teams in 2016. Since then, we have been assisting them to improve their services and manufacturing capabilities. The company employs over 85 people.
While working with them, their employees identified process improvements that could be made within their own work areas. A brief outline of 3 of these Lean projects is described below. You can also read the full case studies below. You may also be interested in our other case studies.
Case Study 1
Preventive Maintenance
An employee at Barclay Chemicals identified that there was no visibility on the current status of Preventive Maintenance. Their objective was to ensure that all machines were being maintained by improving the reporting system. In short, the outcome of this project was a labour saving in terms of redeployment and all machines are maintained as required. Read the full case study here.
Case Study 2
Continuous Improvement
Another team member saw an opportunity to reduce waste. This case study involved time being wasted compiling and searching for specifications on their shared database. The company implemented clear communication regarding specifications. In addition, they standardised and documented the process in their work instructions. The new specifications library has reduced the work by 50% with no duplication of data. Read the full case study here.
Case Study 3
Waste Elimination
The Label Status Table (LST) is a crucial part of the labels process in the Commercial, Registration and Supply Chain Departments at Barclay Chemicals. However, an employee reported that it has become too big and cumbersome to manage. This team member identified an opportunity to move the LST to an alternative database on SharePoint, making the process easier, quicker and more user friendly. Read the full case study here.
“The programme provides participants with a good understanding of the Lean principles. The assignments and project work using the Lean tools and techniques helped provide a better understanding of Lean and made the program more relevant to my work. I would recommend this course to anyone who wishes to gain a better understanding of Lean and how they could use the tools to improve their workplace.”
