The event focuses on Lean improvement in the construction industries and the role of ISO 18404, as well as the RSS’s involvement in the scheme. Three talks will be presented and followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session.
 
The need for Better Practice in Lean & Six Sigma and the RSS Scheme for ISO18404
Professor Tony Bendell, Fellow of the RSS, past Chair of Quality Improvement Section RSS

Lean and Six Sigma methods have much to contribute to efficiency and quality across all sectors including manufacturing, service and construction but practice has been largely unregulated and of varied quality. Implementation programs have often floundered and lost their way, and in some cases the competence of so-called professionals has been questionable. For this reason, the ISO 18404 standard was developed, and the RSS took on the mantel of scheme owner, working to improve the analytical approach to process, product and service improvement globally. This talk reports progress on this to date.


Piloting ISO18404 in the Construction Sector, an approach to business transformation
Speaker: Dr Steve Ward, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building

Despite significant experience with Lean, the construction sector still fails to grasp the nettle and cannot keep up with other sector’s rates of improvement. Ad hoc deployment of tools and techniques are common, but business transformations are rare. This presentation contrasts Lean Intervention with transformation and explains how ISO18404 can provide a useful roadmap for businesses seeking to embed Lean Thinking, together with a case study of the world’s first business to achieve certification to the new Lean ISO18404 standard.


Transforming from Lean ‘It’s Complicated’ to Lean ‘It’s a Commitment’ through the implementation of the ISO18404 Framework
Speaker: Stuart Anwyl, Balfour Beatty Highways

Culture change requires care, patience, a bottomless energy source, and an iron will to succeed. Or maybe it just feels this way. The point is: culture change typically isn’t greeted with open arms unless there is a crisis to provide for or a sense of urgency.  

Perhaps we are using the wrong word, instead of Culture we should use ‘Commitment’ as commitment is a crucial element that, if missing, spells certain doom for any change initiative. Consciously or not; we follow the examples set by our leadership teams, their actions often determine what we prioritize and how we behave. If your leadership team can’t demonstrate a commitment to change, neither will you.   

In his presentation Stuart will talk about how the ‘Commitment’ of Balfour Beatty Highways Division’s Leadership team to achieve the ISO18404 standard is helping to demonstrate to an industry that still thinks Lean is complicated, how Lean can provide a pathway to real solutions that drive effective, efficient tangible results for our projects, clients and supply chain partners.

The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session.
 

Professor Tony Bendell
Tony is a strategic thought leader, respected academic and international expert speaker, consultant, and trainer, who is the former Rolls-Royce PLC funded Professor of Quality & Reliability Management at the University of Leicester UK. He is a well-known invited keynote speaker at Conferences and Events worldwide.  

As Director & Principal Consultant at Services Limited, and Lead Trainer at the Anti-Fragility Academy, he works with client organisations & their leaders to make them stronger.

He has worked as an associate consultant of Coopers & Lybrand, and subsequently trained management consultants for Deloitte. He has published extensively and is principle author of the bestselling Financial Times book on Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage, available in 6 languages, and the FT book on Implementing Quality in the Public Sector. His most recent book on `Developing Anti-Fragile Organizations; Governance, Opportunity and Risk in Turbulent Times’ was published by Gower in July 2014. He is now working on a new book ‘Time to Rethink Risk Management: Managing Through a Global Crisis’.

Tony chairs BSI Technical Committee MS6, which is responsible for statistical methods in process improvement and wrote ISO 18404. He is also a Fellow of the RSS, serving as chair of QIS for many years and now a member of BIS. He has lead on the RSS scheme and acts as an assessor for RSS assessment centres to check the competence of Lean and Six Sigma personnel, as well as training ISO 18404 Lead Auditors for RSS.


Dr Steve Ward
Steven is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building and holds a doctorate in civil engineering. His research examines critical success factors for the application of lean thinking within the construction sector.

In 1998, working for a Main Contractor he led Lean Construction pilot projects resulting in 30% lead time reductions. In 2004, he joined the BRE’s Construction Lean Improvement Programme, helping them to develop and deliver this initiative which led to savings of £42mil. In 2009 Steve worked as the academic supervisor for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with a public sector organisation. The three year KTP resulted in a five-fold increase in profit against a static turnover, an “outstanding” classification from the Technology Strategy Board and a best of the best finalist. In 2018 he helped the first company in the world achieve certification to the new Lean Standard ISO18404.

He understands the industry at every level and has utilised this knowledge to help many organisations successfully apply lean thinking to the design, construction and maintenance of the built environment. Steven is at home both in the boardroom and the coalface, helping provide both a strategic steer and practical help with the deployment of business improvement.

 
Stuart Anwyl
Stuart joined the Balfour Beatty Highways Division after 4 years with the Design Consultancy Firm Mott MacDonald working on the Highways England Area 10 Asset Support Contract.  During this time Stuart embedded a Lean improvement culture that achieved the highest national Highways England Lane Maturity Assessment (HELMA) score, delivered more than £65m of efficiencies and logged 35 improvement projects on the Highways England Improvement Register.

Stuart is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and achieved the ISO18404 Lean Expert Accreditation earlier this year. He has over 20 years’ experience managing and delivering Lean, Business Improvement and Change Management projects across a variety of industries including Automotive, Aviation, Marine and Construction. He is also the author of the award winning ‘Ascendance’ Lean training programme which is widely used across the construction industry.

Outside of work Stuart is a member of the Constructing Excellence (Liverpool) Board and previously been the Chair of the Lean Construction Institute’s (LCI) North West Community of Practice. He is an active member of Highways England’s Lean Practitioner group and a regular conference speaker at various Operational Excellence, Construction and Highways England events.
 

Dr Andrei Bejan 
Business and Industrial Section, Royal Statistical Society