Portlaoise firm hosts over 150 business leaders
Midland Steel chief commercial officer Jonathan Jennings (right) with Oliver Conger, owner and managing director of British Rototherm Group during the Portlaoise event
THE Portlaoise headquarters of Midland Steel has hosted over 150 business leaders and industry representatives at a landmark event.
The steel reinforcement innovation firm, whose new €16m cutting edge factory officially opened last March, welcomed global experts at an event titled 'Driving Productivity and Efficiency – The Toyota Way'.
The event held at the company’s headquarters, in the J17 National Enterprise Park in Togher, brought global experts Paul Blahyj of Toyota Lean Management Centre and Oliver Conger of British Rototherm Group to Portlaoise to share ‘practical lessons in operational excellence’. The Midland Steel facility was one of a number they visited.
The long-running local firm, whose family-run parent company opened in Mountmellick in 1990, plans to create 62 jobs within the next three years at the new Togher plant.
The Portlaoise event was held in partnership with the Advanced Technologies in Manufacturing (ATIM) Cluster. Visitors took part in Toyota-style ‘Gemba’ walks, an immersive experience where the cluster experts observed operations directly on the shop floor, engaged with teams and identified best practice. The sessions help to tackle rising costs, global pressures and productivity challenges.
Midland Steel chief commercial officer Jonathan Jennings explained: “The Gemba walks and hands-on discussions are the type of practical, collaborative learning that manufacturing businesses need to stay competitive in today’s climate.
"By bringing global expertise to local production, with the collaborative sharing of knowledge, we can accelerate our continuous improvement journey together.”
The event was designed to guide organisations across a range of sectors in the adoption of proven lean strategies, as pioneered by Toyota. Central themes included ‘empowering people, improving efficiency and embedding continuous improvement practices’.
From small beginnings, Midland Steel has grown into a leading international provider of steel reinforcement solutions, with operations across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe.
The company recently announced the launch of its newest breakthrough product, FasterFix Ready Mesh, a pre-engineered, site ready, reinforcement system designed specifically to speed up housing completions in line with the government’s MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) initiative. FasterFix Ready Mesh is expected to play a vital role in delivering faster and more efficient builds.
