Address by Minister for Labour Affairs Mr Tony Killeen TD, at “ Achieving Performance Excellence – The Route to Competitiveness” Conference

Dublin Castle, Tuesday 9^th May 2006

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to be here this morning to open this two day Conference on “Achieving Performance Excellence – The Route to Competitiveness” which has been organised by Enterprise Ireland and the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation, under the aegis of the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment, and with the support of Intertrade Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland.

I understand that this Conference has been organised to build on the success of a similar event held two years ago which comprised a Workshop on World-Class Manufacturing in Europe and which looked at sharing experiences between European managers and adapting Japanese principles along European production lines. That workshop and seminar brought together previous participants on the EU-Japan sponsored World Class Manufacturing missions to Japan, to share their practical experiences of translating World Class Manufacturing practices - seen and studied in Japan - for European conditions and implementing them back home, in their European businesses.

On this occasion I am delighted to see that the American experience has been added to the mix and that the Conference features a number of American speakers and examines several U.S cases of Best Practice. Clearly, it benefits all of us in the long run if we can pool our knowledge and exchange information on how Performance Excellence is achieved around the world.

This Conference will, I believe, provides an invaluable forum for bringing together European, Japanese, North American and Irish managers who are interested - and committed to - the principles of World Class practice and their dissemination and adoption.

I would like, at the outset, to welcome all our guests from overseas and hope that you will have a worthwhile and enjoyable time with us here in Ireland.

We are continuing to build relationships closer to home also. I am delighted at the level of attendance of our neighbors and colleagues from Northern Ireland. The focus of the event on sharing and learning together is one that facilitates the on-going development of positive relationships on the island, North and South.

From a national perspective as well, it is heartening to see the level of participation of companies large and small, indigenous and multi-national, from all parts of the country. This commitment to taking positive steps to build competitiveness at company level will surely lead to future success.

The theme of this Conference is one which should be of great interest to us all here today. The Irish Government has clearly stated that building competitiveness is a key priority for Irish industry. Similarly, at a European level, the Lisbon Agenda set a target that Europe would be the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy in the world by 2010. We all need to build competitiveness at all levels if we are to achieve sustainable businesses and, indeed, economies into the future.

In Ireland we are rightly proud of our economic achievements in recent years and our unparalleled growth rates in the past decade or so. As a result of this, we have attained higher living standards in this country than anyone would have thought possible ten years ago.

However to retain and further enhance those advances, we face a number of major challenges. These were identified in the recent report of the Enterprise Strategy Group as including:

The exponential change in the scale of globalisation

Increase in the Irish cost base

Our low rate of corporation tax being emulated by competitors

That report also found that the nature of global trade is changing and that future economic development will be strongly influenced by the shift towards services as a major driver of GDP growth and by the increasing role of knowledge as a driver of economic development and an influencer of new products.

Opportunities in internationally traded products and services across a range of sectors and activities will play a more significant role in Ireland’s economy over the next decade, driven by increased international trade and enabled by advances in technology. High value-added manufacturing however will also remain a fundamental component of Ireland’s enterprise environment for the future.

Ireland is, essentially, at a turning point in its economic development. The reality is that the low cost model is no longer an option for us. If we are to continue to build on our success to date, Irish companies will have to increasingly compete internationally through more automation, imaginative innovation, a relentless focus on driving productivity and, above all, adopting best international practice in all aspects of their operations.

Governments and policy makers can create the environment for businesses to be competitive, but it is individual companies who will provide the boost to economic growth which will be needed in the years ahead.

To do this, businesses will have to engage in constant innovation, both in terms of product and in terms of process. What is the point of having the best designed product in the world if it is badly made and of poor quality at a high cost? What use is having a world class product if it is poorly delivered?

Manufacturing firms, in particular, will need to be ever more efficient if they are to support the sales of high value products and the creation and maintenance of high income jobs. One proven way to develop more efficient manufacturing is to learn about the ‘world class’ best practices in manufacturing techniques which are being used elsewhere, and this event provides a unique opportunity to share what has been learned by those leading the way in best practice around the world. The sharing of experience helps businesses to short circuit the learning process and leads quickly to accelerated capability building.

I might also add that experience to date shows that companies who use best practice are also the most likely to be environmentally efficient and effective, which is a very important consideration for society as a whole and, increasingly, a concern for Governments world wide.

I would also like to avail of this opportunity to acknowledge the valuable work which is already being done on this island by the Irish Best Practice Forum. The Forum, which is a voluntary group comprising representatives of the main enterprise development agencies North and South, was also involved in the previous 2004 Conference to which I have already referred.

Apart from being a very good example of what can be achieved by cross border cooperation between agencies, the Forum also brings tangible benefits to Irish companies on both sides of the Border by encouraging them to participate, on a local and international basis, in the various areas of activity sponsored by the Forum and its individual members.

The speakers at this Conference today and tomorrow will tell of their own experience in improving their own operations. They come from a range of companies, large and small and from several different sectors. Many of them are considered by their peers to be world leaders in their individual fields. They are all taking their future into their own hands by constantly developing their systems and operations to achieve true competitiveness. They are reducing the time and effort to produce their products, in some case by over half.

For Europe to be competitive, for Ireland to be competitive, managers in business need to rise to the challenges of today’s global marketplace. They need to learn from and with each other, and to share their experience and understanding. They need to tackle inefficiencies in their own operations and they need to learn and implement what is best practice on an on-going basis.

This event provides a powerful means of sharing and learning together. I wish you all every success over the next two days in achieving this vitally important goal.

ENDS

LA184