Enterprise Ireland LeanPlus has been discontinued and replaced by the Build Capability grant. Enterprise Ireland currently describes Build Capability as support for management and staff training across four productivity drivers, with a grant of up to €70,000. Companies should review the current programme conditions directly with Enterprise Ireland before planning an application.
That change makes the strategic question even more important: what should your organisation be able to do better when the funded project is over?
A stronger process, better productivity and less waste are valuable outcomes. However, the bigger opportunity is to build an organisation that can keep improving after external support ends.
What replaced Enterprise Ireland LeanPlus?
Enterprise Ireland Build Capability replaced LeanPlus and Digital Marketing Capability. The current Enterprise Ireland page lists a grant of up to €70,000 for training management and staff, support across four productivity drivers and a broad scope of eligible training costs.
| Programme information | Former LeanPlus page | Current Build Capability page |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Discontinued | Current replacement support |
| Headline funding | Up to €50,000 | Up to €70,000 |
| Primary emphasis | External Lean coach and Lean process innovation | Management and staff training across productivity drivers |
| Who should verify eligibility | Every company should confirm current eligibility, eligible costs and application conditions directly with Enterprise Ireland. | |
See the official Enterprise Ireland Build Capability page for current information. The former Enterprise Ireland LeanPlus page remains useful historical context, but companies should not assume its funding or application conditions are still available.
Programme information checked in August 2026. Funding schemes can change; Enterprise Ireland is the authoritative source for current eligibility and conditions.
Key Takeaways: from LeanPlus to Build Capability
A capability project should solve a meaningful business problem while improving how people learn, manage and sustain change. Funding can create momentum, but the operating capability left behind determines the long-term value.
- Start with business value: choose a problem that affects customers, productivity, quality, growth, cost or employee experience.
- Use evidence: measure the current state before selecting tools or prescribing solutions.
- Engage the people doing the work: combine their process knowledge with external challenge and structured methods.
- Build internal capability: external expertise should make managers and employees more able to improve independently.
- Make improvement sustainable: define ownership, measures, standards, review routines and feedback loops.
- Sequence technology carefully: simplify and improve the work before using automation or AI to scale it.
Enterprise Ireland LeanPlus: start with the business problem
A strong improvement project begins with a business constraint, not a predetermined method. Lean tools such as 5S, value-stream mapping, Kaizen, DMAIC, visual management, standard work and root-cause analysis are useful only when they help solve the right problem.
The problem might be slow customer response, inconsistent quality, excessive administration, repeated rework, fragmented reporting or work that waits between departments. Growth may also be creating complexity faster than the organisation can absorb it.
What is preventing this organisation from delivering more value to customers, employees or the business?
That question creates a clearer foundation than asking, “Where can we apply Lean?” It also connects the project to outcomes that leaders and employees can understand.
Enterprise Ireland LeanPlus and evidence-led improvement
Evidence separates the visible symptom from the underlying constraint. A backlog can look like a staffing problem even when poor intake, unnecessary handoffs, unclear priorities or avoidable rework are trapping existing capacity.
A useful current-state assessment may examine:
- Demand: volume, mix, arrival patterns and customer expectations.
- Flow: lead time, waiting, handoffs, work-in-progress and backlog ageing.
- Quality: errors, rework, variation and failure demand.
- Effort: administration, duplicate entry, searching and manual reconciliation.
- Experience: customer feedback, employee feedback and recurring workarounds.
- Systems: workflow data, conflicting sources of truth and technology constraints.
The goal is not to create dashboards for their own sake. The goal is to understand how work actually flows. For a deeper explanation, read Workflow Improvement: Create Capacity Through Better Flow.
The people doing the work should shape the improvement
Sustainable improvement combines external expertise with the practical knowledge of employees closest to the process. Those employees know which workaround is essential, which approval creates a queue and which spreadsheet contains the information everybody actually trusts.
An external coach can bring perspective, facilitation, challenge and structure. However, co-creation produces stronger understanding and ownership than a solution prescribed from outside.
At Dadakai, we favour co-creation over prescription. The coach helps the organisation ask better questions, test assumptions, interpret evidence, design practical changes and gain confidence in the new operating model.
What should an external improvement coach do?
An effective coach should improve both the process and the organisation’s ability to improve it. The engagement should reduce dependency over time by transferring methods, judgement and ownership to internal teams.
- Define the business problem and desired outcomes.
- Measure and visualise the current state.
- Identify waste, constraints and root causes.
- Facilitate cross-functional conversations.
- Design and test practical improvements.
- Establish meaningful measures and process ownership.
- Coach managers and employees in improvement thinking.
- Create routines that sustain and extend the gains.
External expertise should increase internal capability.
From one improvement project to an improvement system
A project creates lasting value when the organisation can detect change, review performance and adapt the process deliberately. Without that control system, even a successful improvement can fade as demand, technology and employee behaviour evolve.
A lightweight improvement system can include:
- clear process ownership and decision rights;
- meaningful operational and capability measures;
- visual management and documented standards;
- regular process reviews and feedback sessions;
- an improvement backlog and experiment cadence;
- internal champions, training and reusable knowledge.
The objective is not bureaucracy. It is a simple mechanism that makes performance visible and helps people respond when reality changes.
Playbooks should be living systems
A useful playbook helps people operate, review and improve a process; it is more than a document stored after the project. The playbook should evolve as the process learns.
| Playbook element | Question it should answer |
|---|---|
| Purpose | What value does this process create? |
| Roles | Who owns, performs, supports and improves the work? |
| Flow | How should work move through the system? |
| Standards | What does good performance look like? |
| Measures | How do performance and problems become visible? |
| Decision rights | Who can change what? |
| Review cadence | When and how is the process inspected? |
| Improvement method | How do ideas become tests and successful tests become standards? |
Enterprise Ireland LeanPlus, Build Capability, digital transformation and AI
Technology should enable an improved operating model instead of making existing complexity faster and more permanent. Lean thinking and digital transformation are strongest when treated as one improvement conversation.
Before automating five approvals, ask why all five exist. Before using AI to interpret every unstructured request, improve how critical information is captured. Before building another dashboard, examine why the organisation has conflicting sources of truth.
Understand → Simplify → Improve → Enable → Automate → Learn
AI can assist classification, summarisation, knowledge retrieval, forecasting, drafting and routing. Nevertheless, unclear ownership, poor data and contradictory knowledge remain organisational problems. The right starting question is not “Where can we use AI?” but “What work are we trying to improve, and where can technology safely help?”
How to choose a Build Capability project
A good project matters to the business, can be understood with evidence and can be sustained by internal owners. Do not select a project simply because it is easy to describe in an application.
1. It matters
The problem affects customers, productivity, quality, growth, cost, employee experience or organisational resilience.
2. It can be understood
The organisation can access the people, process information and evidence needed to establish a reliable current state.
3. It can be sustained
Named people can own the improved process, review its performance and continue developing it after the formal engagement.
How should success be measured?
Measure both business outcomes and organisational capability. Operational results show whether the process improved; capability measures show whether the organisation can sustain and extend that improvement.
| Operational outcomes | Capability outcomes |
|---|---|
| Lead or response time | Employee participation |
| Productivity and released capacity | Internal champions developed |
| Quality, errors and rework | Adoption of the improved process |
| Cost and administrative effort | Use of evidence in decisions |
| Work-in-progress and process variation | Management review cadence |
| Customer experience | Ability to continue improving independently |
What should remain after the project?
The organisation should retain measurable process gains, trained people, clear ownership and a repeatable improvement system. A report, process map or new platform is not enough on its own.
- Greater visibility of how work flows.
- Less avoidable friction and rework.
- Employees who helped shape the new process.
- Managers who use better evidence.
- Standards that support people and learning.
- Technology that reinforces a sound process.
- The capability to keep improving without permanent consultant dependency.
Do not just improve the process. Improve the organisation’s ability to improve.
At Dadakai, that is part of The Art of Changing.
Ready to turn improvement into lasting capability?
Dadakai helps organisations combine Lean thinking, workflow improvement, coaching, digital technology and human-centred change. We help teams solve meaningful problems while building the confidence and routines required to keep improving.
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Frequently asked questions
Has Enterprise Ireland LeanPlus been discontinued?
Yes. Enterprise Ireland’s current Build Capability page states that LeanPlus and Digital Marketing Capability have been discontinued and that Build Capability should be used instead.
What replaced Enterprise Ireland LeanPlus?
Enterprise Ireland Build Capability replaced LeanPlus. The current programme supports management and staff training across four productivity drivers and lists a grant of up to €70,000.
How much funding is available through Build Capability?
Enterprise Ireland currently lists a grant of up to €70,000. Funding, eligible costs and programme conditions can change, so applicants should verify the current offer directly with Enterprise Ireland.
Is Build Capability only for manufacturing companies?
The official page lists SMEs and large companies and describes support across four productivity drivers. Companies should confirm their eligibility and proposed project scope directly with Enterprise Ireland.
What makes a strong capability-development project?
A strong project addresses a meaningful business problem, uses evidence to understand the current state, involves the people closest to the work and creates ownership and routines that sustain improvement.
Can a capability project include digital transformation or AI?
Technology, automation and AI can support capability development when they reinforce the business problem and operating model being improved. Applicants should not assume that a specific activity or cost qualifies; they should confirm eligibility directly with Enterprise Ireland.
What should remain after the project finishes?
The organisation should retain measurable improvement, trained people, clear ownership, useful standards, meaningful measures, management routines and the ability to continue improving independently.
For current funding, eligibility and application requirements, consult Enterprise Ireland directly. Dadakai is an independent consultancy firm and this article does not intend to imply Enterprise Ireland endorsement or preference over other consultants.