Case Studies

Lean implementation and training program results in significant benefits, including improved efficiency, financial gains of over $16 million, empowered teams, and a transformative cultural shift towards continuous improvement

Helping our client’s investors grow their business from £20m to £40m over a three year period.   We supported their journey focussing on improving processes and supply chain for the maintenance business.  We helped our client to remove some of the blockers to progress by coaching and support staff through changes such as outsourcing some of their operations.  Outcomes included better service levels to clients; reductions in customer complaints and supply chain improvement.

Partnering with ARUP to help Network Rail create Transformational Change within the Drainage and Lineside community.  Working collaboratively with Arup and Network Rail, with an emphasis on communicating and embedding a Competence Management Standard for Drainage and Lineside; we focussed on new professional competencies, to support individuals within Drainage and Lineside with clear career pathways to enhance learning and career development.

Our Client is a global leader in the manufacture of high-performance specialty materials used in high-temperature industrial, automotive, and fire protection applications. They have over 30 manufacturing facilities worldwide in 12 different countries. Bourton Group worked with their Global Improvement team, supporting several manufacturing plants within the UK and Europe, improving efficiency and reducing costs through a plant ‘diagnostics’ program.

Bourton Group partnered with ARUP to help Network Rail create transformational change within the Drainage and Lineside community.

Past events and the increasing effects of climate change highlighted the value and importance of Drainage and Lineside, not only on the operations of Network Rail but for the safety of passengers and the workforce.

Working with the Director of Corporate Services and the Head of Learning and Development, Bourton Group engaged in developing a greater understanding of the organisation; its intended direction, and the leadership challenges it faced in delivering its vision.

To achieve project delivery performance improvement targets of a 20% increase in efficiency and a reduction of 50% in project durations our construction and engineering client committed to rolling out Lean Collaborative Planning and Production Control techniques to all its Water treatment plant upgrade programmes.

Our work began with a detailed analysis of current and future demands using ABC/XYZ SKU analysis techniques to understand the product mix and estimated volumes for components and systems. The outcome indicated several critical components were single-sourced from overseas.

A critical assessment focussed on retaining the business and restructuring it into a going concern to ultimately dispose of the business in a managed and orderly fashion while minimising financial, commercial, and reputational impact.

Does the Anglia Route have enough access, in the right place at the right time, does all the work fit within the available hours, and are Possessions being utilised in the most efficient and effective way?

Designing and delivering a focused three-day event for  50 senior leaders to initiate the development of Lean Sigma – using relevant case study materials and practical exercises we combined building knowledge alongside the analysis of corporate performance challenges and the designing of future state operations for an Oilfield Services business.

Our client is a specialist savings and lending bank, offering loans, residential and commercial mortgages, business finance, and savings products. A relative newcomer to the banking world, our client had grown dramatically over time offering savings products and loans to retail and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Supporting our client’s performance improvement programme by taking a systematic approach to problem-solving increased customer satisfaction and significantly reduced costs.

With a new Human Resources Director and a shift in the strategic thinking of the department, change was required in many of the core processes operated by HR in their support of an ever-changing and dynamic client base within a highly successful institution

A specialist insurer with over 100 years’ experience underwriting personal and business risks. With over 3,400 staff across 14 countries and 35 offices, we worked with the UK operation when they approached Bourton Group looking for support with their existing business portfolio.

Bourton Group visited the production facility and through a combination of work study methods, Process Mapping, data collection and detailed analysis we quickly identified opportunities to increase outputs and increase quality.

Key improvements were made by looking at the Gross Margin products. Plants were re-laid, contracts were reviewed, and quality data analysis was undertaken to allow initiatives to be put in place in order to reduce scrap across a range of products.

By the end of the first six months, significant increases to the bottom line had been achieved more than a £1.3m annualised improvement.

The Bourton Group were engaged to conduct an end to end lean review of the Fitness to Practise (FtP) process. The intent was to identify and eliminate waste to facilitate a significant reduction in the end to end cycle time.

When Network Rail took on the UK infrastructure in 2002 it faced many demands. But there was one big issue at the top of the agenda: train delays, severely affecting customers and costing hundreds of millions of pounds a year in penalties.

Cavendish Nuclear is the leading UK Nuclear  business focused on  growth in two main markets: Nuclear decommissioning in the UK and internationally, as well as the design and safety justification, construction, commissioning, operational support and maintenance of nuclear power plants in the UK.

NS&I (National Savings and Investments) is one of the largest savings organisations in the UK, with over 25 million customers and more than £100 billion invested. NS&I is an Executive Agency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Our client is a manufacturer of bespoke engineered metal products for a range of industries, based in the South West of England.

The initial aim of the project was to review the business, establishing how much of the margin reduction was due to known changes and how much was related to out of date and inappropriate general business practices, and make recommendations for improvement. A second phase was subsequently agreed in which we helped facilitate the identified improvements.

A major £120 million road improvement scheme to upgrade of the A74 between Carlisle and Guards Mill included converting two lane dual carriageway to a three lane motorway. The project also included the construction of an all-purpose route for non-motorway traffic.

Our approach was pragmatic: work with the team to identify projects with the highest potential value; provide on-the-ground consultancy to support delivery of improvements through the DMAICT methodology; transfer of knowledge and skills, giving our client internal capability for the future.

Carry out radical end to end process review and improvement projects of the operational processes that make up the property lifecycle; Acquisitions, Asset Management, Customer Care, Development, Lettings, Property Management, Property On-Boarding and Sales; as well as cross company, impactful processes including Procure to Pay, Customer to Cash and Cash Management.

Professional Landlord focused on increasing sales and rental income as a means of growing their business, they had never previously carried out improvement work on their procurement, either in terms of the process or the overall cost.

A programme based on Machine shop re-layout, supervisory and management training, leadership coaching and shop floor scheduling. Bourton Group worked closely with the management team over twelve months analysing processes and routines and coaching staff in the new ways of working.

The business was experiencing problems in fulfilling customer orders and achieving financial performance targets, despite having a significant order book.

To uphold its position, it was important to transform ways of working, redefine processes and build capability.

Riverside had grown dramatically over time and there was evidence that the senior leadership group was struggling to share common purpose and to align activity efficiently and effectively across the business.

In order to address waste in its key processes and engage employees in change Kirklees wanted to build its own in-house process improvement capability.

Changes brought by the Welfare Reform Bill spurs a review and need to improve rent collection and debt collection processes.

CPL Products was created as a spin-off from British Coal in the early 1990s and provides home heating solid fuel Briquettes. The plant was originally built by Petrofina in 1985 and the process had not changed significantly since 1997. The review focused on the two production plants MHT1 & MHT2 at the Immingham site with a view to increasing capacity and driving costs down.

The challenge facing the executive team was to create a strong sense of focus and to then align corporate change activity, develop shared approaches to managing transformation and at the same time develop stronger employee engagement.

Bourton were engaged by Riverside on an organisational development and change management programme and were asked to provide organisational redesign consultancy to support the development of their target operating model

The team anticipates a return on investment of 5:1 through product quality improvements alone.

Most areas in manufacturing are facing dramatic changes in market forces. Those like Rolls‐Royce, who are at the leading edge of technological advancement, are facing more changes than most.

Bespoke Support aids Business Performance Improvement

Strategic business performance improvement advice coupled with bespoke coaching developed the senior leadership team beyond the limits envisaged at the start of the project. The business is now on sound footing, with a growing international footprint and business performance improvement strategy.

The M2 business is a relatively new business operating in the managed print services space. The business currently has a turnover of around £35m and is growing at a rate of 30% pa, and is split roughly 70% corporate business and 30% SME’s.

This Global Law firm decided to implement continuous improvement throughout the organisation and appointed Bourton Group as it’s implementation partner.

Our client, a leading manufacturer and distributor of specialist paint and coatings based in the UK, is part of a major global corporation. The site that was the focus of this assignment manufactures over 20 million litres of specialist paint per year. This is distributed to stockists and end-users through seven European Regional Distribution Centres (RDC’s), all managed from the UK site.

Metsä Wood supplies wood-based products, systems, and services to customers in the building and construction, industrial, distribution, and retail sectors.

The business achieved a turnover of EUR 940 million in 2011, employing about 2,900 people.

It is one of the largest companies in the forest products sector in Europe.

When Perenco acquired the Wytch Farm onshore oil production assets from BP, the new
management team were faced with an immediate need to improve production, deal with integrity
issues as well as the to change the culture and develop new ways of working.

Having developed an impressive track record with the Highways Agency, Bourton Group was asked to help Highways England deploy Lean Sigma improvement methodology to bring the project in on time and significantly under budget.

To introduce the ‘One Best Way’ of working for horticultural staff across the Commission, to reduce operational costs and deliver high customer satisfaction to visitors.

Siemens Energy Services (SES) came to us with a Business Transformation challenge.

As a leading provider of Metering Services for the major utility companies, they were delivering a number of fixed-term contracts to customers with very different demands. Being able to demonstrate consistent performance against these current contracts would be critical in the competition for both their renewal and in winning new business.

A business-wide performance management system was needed to help this newly formed MOD trading agency drive the delivery of challenging business goals; meet MOD policy requirements; and support harmonisation.

Zodiac Seats UK designs, certifies and assembles bespoke first class, business class, and premium economy class passenger seats for major
global carriers.

Zodiac Seats UK, has formed part of the Zodiac Aerospace Group since 2012 and has two production sites are Cwmbran and Camberley.

A systematic approach to problem solving increased customer satisfaction and significantly reduced costs, as part of our clients performance improvement programme.

When the French Oil and Gas Company Perenco acquired the gas production assets of BP in the North Sea, the new management team were faced with a need to change the culture and develop new ways of working.

Centrica Energy has started a journey of improving its Operational Excellence within its Power Division, and required expert input to help build its own internal capability, and help in resolving a complex outage issue in one of its new power stations.

Centrica Energy needed to improve it’s uptime and reliability at a key power station.

Lean puts the tenant at the heart of NCH. When the Nottingham City Homes wanted to review their voids process they had some clear objectives: Reduce the ‘key to key’ time, reduce the loss of rental income and delight the tenant.

Bourton Group is supporting Nottingham City Homes, an ALMO with 29,000 homes, diverse stakeholders, a performance challenge, and a complex environment of increasing efficiency pressures. NCH had to raise its organisational performance, change its culture and deliver a challenging agenda over a 10-year partnership with Nottingham City Council.

Leadership skills development programme helps scientists instil performance orientated culture.

Cobham Aviation Services operates and maintains specially modified aircraft using state of the art technology to provide airborne special mission operations and training in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East.

AirTanker is responsible for delivering, maintaining and supporting, the tasking of Voyager to provide a cutting-edge air-to-air refueling (AAR) operational capability to the RAF.

Approximately £450k task value per annum for the deployment of Lean on a combined HE programme of £2 billion (MP and NDD).

Working with our client to design, deliver and support the development of Lean Sigma Capability. Our client is responsible for safely delivering decommissioning, reprocessing, nuclear waste management, and fuel manufacturing activities.