Infrastructure ConstructionPublic Sector

Client: National Highways

Assignment: Elevating National Highways’ Supply Chain

Elevating National Highways’ Supply Chain

The Problem

Bourton Group has played a pivotal role in advising and supporting National Highways in enhancing its supply chain over the past 18 months. As a trusted advisory services provider, we have demonstrated expertise, collaboration, and commitment in refining key assessment frameworks that drive efficiency, quality, and maturity in the construction and civil engineering sectors. Our contributions span three critical areas:

  1. Highways England Lean Maturity Assessment (HELMA) framework review and refresh
  2. Development of a Quality Maturity Model for National Highways
  3. Enhancement of the National Highways Supplier Development System (SDS)

These initiatives have significantly improved how National Highways and its supply chain partners measure and enhance their operational effectiveness, benefiting both individual suppliers and the sector’s long-term resilience.

The Solution

HELMA Review and Refresh

Since its launch in 2009, HELMA has been crucial in embedding Lean principles throughout National Highways’ supply chain. Over time, concerns about subjectivity in scoring and alignment with best practices necessitated a comprehensive review. Bourton Group advised throughout the refresh, ensuring:

  • Alignment with evolving National Highways strategies, including the National Highways Production System and Project 13 principles.
  • A shift from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation for supply chain partners to adopt Lean methodologies.
  • Reduced subjectivity in assessments, creating a more outcome-focused, transparent evaluation process.
  • A more efficient, less time-intensive self-assessment process for suppliers.

By working closely with stakeholders across National Highways, academia, and the supply chain, we reinforced HELMA’s role as a cornerstone of Lean excellence in the highways sector.

Quality Maturity Assessment

Recognising the critical role of quality in cost, efficiency, and performance, National Highways appointed its first-ever Director of Quality, marking a significant shift toward quality improvement. Bourton Group partnered with the newly established National Highways Quality Group to develop a Quality Maturity Model, enabling strategic suppliers to assess and elevate their quality practices.

The Benefits

Key achievements include:

  • Development of assessment themes and maturity levels with clear criteria and evidence requirements.
  • Creation of a structured self-assessment and moderation process.
  • Successful piloting with contractors and consultants, refining the model with real-world insights.
  • Design of guidance materials and templates to support widespread adoption.

Launched in late 2024, the Quality Maturity Model is set to enhance quality standards across National Highways projects.

Supplier Development System (SDS) Enhancement

Bourton Group has been instrumental in reviewing and refreshing the National Highways Supplier Development System (SDS), a maturity model assessing supplier performance across key criteria. Our contributions include:

  • Aligning SDS criteria with Road Investment Strategy 3 (RIS3) requirements to drive strategic supply chain improvements.
  • Engaging with stakeholders to identify strengths, weaknesses, and improvement opportunities.
  • Expanding the assessment scope to 27 refined criteria with clear progression benchmarks.
  • Conducting pilot assessments and feedback sessions to validate and optimise the revised SDS framework.

Our work on SDS aligns supplier development initiatives with National Highways’ long-term infrastructure goals, reinforcing a culture of continuous improvement.

 Going Above and Beyond

Bourton Group stands out for its deep commitment to fostering real, sustainable change in the construction and civil engineering sector.

Our approach is rooted in collaboration, expertise, and a commitment to excellence, building on sector initiatives such as the National Highways Lean Construction programme, while continuously challenging existing models to keep them relevant and effective, in short:

  • Collaboration: Engaging with contractors, consultants, and industry experts to ensure practical, impactful solutions.
  • Expertise: Leveraging decades of experience to refine frameworks that drive measurable performance improvements.
  • Commitment to Excellence: Continuously challenging existing models to keep them relevant and effective.
  • Sector-Wide Benefits: Influencing industry-wide best practices and raising standards across the board

Through our strategic advisory services, Bourton Group has significantly enhanced the effectiveness, efficiency, and maturity of National Highways’ supply chain, demonstrating outstanding service within the construction and civil engineering industry. Our unwavering dedication to delivering innovative, high-impact solutions benefits both individual organisations and the sector.

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What National Highways said about us

Our unwavering dedication to delivering innovative, high-impact solutions benefits both individual organisations and the sector.

Bourton Group’s advice, collaboration, excellence, and commitment have been pivotal in the successful development of our Quality Maturity model. Their expertise and supportive guidance are making a lasting impact on our quality journey, helping us to work toward achieving new and improved standards for excellence across our industry.

Bourton Group’s role was to provide support to a National Highways team in developing, piloting and launching a new Quality Maturity Model for deployment across our whole supply chain. This involved translating a basic, conceptual model into a more detailed and defined tool that can be used to benchmark existing levels of quality maturity. The model can then be used to help develop each supplier’s own Quality Improvement plan and therefore embed improved ways of working and ethos; this in turn will improve the quality and longevity of the Strategic Road Network for the benefit of our customers. Their collaborative approach and subject matter expertise were crucial in developing a robust model that addresses our quality challenges and those of our supply chain head-on, with a focus on making an impact across all of our projects.

I’ve worked with Bourton Group for a number of years and consistently found their advice and support to be insightful, value adding and highly impactful. Bourton Group continue to be highly influential across our whole sector, helping to drive best practice and continuous improvement.

Bourton Group’s work will not only advance our quality practices but will also ensure that quality remains a central focus in our supply chain strategies. Their efforts have created a balanced approach that aligns quality outcomes with effective operational enablers. I am confident that this will lead to significant efficiencies, carbon reduction and safety improvements in the delivery of National Highways projects and road network management activities.

 

Divisional Director: Quality, Standards & Lean, National Highways