Infrastructure ConstructionOther

Client: UK infrastructure company

Assignment: Lean & continuous improvement drive significant improvements across business

Lean & Continuous Improvement drives significant improvements across business

The Problem

A major UK-based infrastructure company, operating within the transport sector, designs, manufactures, constructs, maintains, and operates a wide variety of projects for both public and private sector clients. Much of their focus is on maintaining and improving assets across highly regulated and safety-critical road and rail infrastructure.

Following a restructuring of the leadership team and the appointment of a new Chief Executive, the company wanted to establish a Lean-based continuous improvement culture to drive improvements in safety, productivity, customer service, and employee engagement.

As an operational improvements consulting firm specialising in Lean and Continuous Improvement Bourton Group was invited to support this.

The Solution

Working alongside the company’s team, Bourton Group focused on several key areas:
  1. Developing a training program to educate and upskill an entire workforce in the Lean approach.
  2. Delivering training and education to the leadership team in the fundamentals of the Lean philosophy and what is required to lead in a Lean environment.
  3. Facilitating and supporting the leadership team in the development of a Lean Strategy that would set the direction and focus for the deployment of Lean across the business, as well as be an enabler to achieving the company’s wider strategic aims.
  4. Supporting the delivery of this program and providing coaching for key individuals to support successful implementation.
The training program developed was based on Bourton Group’s well established Lean Pathway but customised to meet the company’s specific requirements and sector – training focused on two aspects:

All employees to receive basic Lean Awareness training:

This one-day event for small groups provided an understanding of the concept and how it works, as well as the expectations and impact on individual roles.

All first-line team leaders and managers to receive Lean Advocate training:

This two-day event for small groups provided knowledge on implementing a Lean Continuous Improvement approach at the team level.

Training provided a step-by-step approach to implementing and sustaining Lean for their teams.

The coaching aspect of the work focused on two areas:

  • Providing targeted coaching and guidance to help specific leaders understand the requirements and behaviours needed to lead in a Lean environment.
  • Providing coaching and support to enable members of the in-house team to self-deliver training.

 

The Benefits

Core outputs of the Lean Strategy included a Lean vision and specific strategic aims.

Vision:

  • Continuous Improvement will be embedded in the DNA of the company.
  • Lean will be an enabler to achieving the wider business strategy.

Strategic Aims:

  • All team members will be educated in the Continuous Improvement philosophy and trained in the Lean methodology.
  • Lean will be deployed throughout the business.
  • Leadership will promote deployment and high levels of staff engagement.
  • Increasing maturity in the adoption of a continuous improvement philosophy will be objectively measured.

Results To date:

  • Bourton has successfully handed over all training delivery responsibilities to the company’s internal team.
  • Overall, the company has successfully met its target of training all team members in the Lean Continuous Improvement methodology. In addition, around 300 people have been trained to Lean Advocate level.
  • From a wider business perspective, while client specific data has remained confidential, the adoption of Lean and Continuous Improvement is driving significant and sustained improvements across the business.

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