Streamlining approaches to quality

At the members’ meeting on 11 February 2026, GIRI members heard how a conversation about approaches to quality improvement between National Highways and Network Rail led to opportunities to share learning, streamline data gathering, reduce duplication, and raise quality standards.

That conversation took place when the relatively new National Highway’s central quality team approached colleagues in other sectors about quality, including Network Rail. “From our conversations, it became clear that the two organisations had a bigger opportunity than simply sharing ideas. We had some good foundations for tangible collaboration,” said Rob Andrewes, head of quality for design and standards for National Highways.

Discussions revealed that not only do the two organisations share a common supply chain, but that they also share similar kinds of work with similar scopes in many shared locations, as well as similar ways of working, and similar challenges. “Where there is a road, there is usually a bridge, and where there is a bridge there is usually a railway, so we are working in the same places on the same things,” said Rob.

More than that, there was an opportunity to be missed by not working together, added Rob. For example, sharing learning and innovation and streamlining how data is requested and gathered from that shared supply chain could make it easier to gain meaningful big data insights. “Then there’s the current duplication of activities and requirements,” said Rob. “We set scopes independently to do similar types of work. If we can standardise these things more, it makes it easier for everyone.”

Shared goals

Rob outlined the common goals that came out of the discussions, including:

• Aligning campaigns and culture and behaviour to share similar messages about quality.
• Understanding and clarifying competence requirements.
• Defining consistent performance metrics to drive improved performance.
• Agreeing on common definitions and interpretations for things like ‘non-conformance’ and ‘defect’.
• Sharing good practice.
• Leveraging supply chain crossover.

Rob added that current joint initiatives include sending representatives to each other’s supplier quality forums. “The next stage is to persuade our suppliers to have conversations outside these forums. We are also sharing good practice guides and lessons learned, and we are focused not just on how we can share these things, but how we can align the way we produce and communicate them, with common language, terms and approaches to make information easier to digest. Finally, quality metrics is a big one for us, linking with the work that GIRI is doing with the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI), and we are looking at how we can use that to drive what we are doing.”

Quality culture

Dave Anderson, who recently joined Network Rail as director of quality and business improvement after 35 years working in the supply chain, pointed to quality culture as an area where clients can help drive improvement by setting out their expectations. “What is an acceptable level? What is ok and what isn’t? Quality isn’t a gold standard; quality is what we mean to achieve and achieving that desired outcome, and we need to build that into contracts and into training. 

“There will be variances, because we have to do this within the context of our organisations, but if we can align our expectations and our culture, not just with what we are looking for at Network Rail and National Highways but with what the wider industry and the UK Government is looking for, then that can help gel the whole industry and give us a consistent culture of behaviour.”

Quality metrics

Dave, who has been involved with GIRI since the early days, recalled sitting in a meeting with lots of other tier one contractors, trying to agree on quality metrics for the construction industry. “We couldn’t come up with a single one. Constructing Excellence tried to do the same thing, and as an industry, we have been through this cycle again and again. But I think we have reached a stage where we can move forwards because we have now realised that what the clients are pushing for is different to what contractors and the supply chain are pushing for, which is different to what the UK Government is looking for. By bringing all that together, we are starting to get to a place where we understand the drivers behind quality metrics.”

One of the reasons such initiatives failed before, Dave believes, is because they attempted to assign money to metrics. “If you put money to these things, there will be clients with poor behaviours out there who will start taking that money back. Whatever we do, we need this to be neutral and open so it works for everyone and gives us a quality metric similar to what we have for safety. Good metrics would allow us, as clients, to judge what performance is like, where things are going, and where we need to intervene or collaborate more. And they would give our supply chain similar insight.”

Network Rail and National Highways are sharing their work on metrics with GIRI and the CQI, said Dave. “As clients, we are trying to support the work that industry is doing to drive this change.”

Knowledge sharing

Beyond the National Highways and Network Rail collaboration, the wider construction industry is still missing out on the error-reduction potential of knowledge sharing across and between sectors, said Dave – something they are working on changing within the transport sector. 

“All the work we do as clients is through the Department for Transport so we have looked at what we can do within the DfT family – Network Rail, National Highways, HS2, and Transport for London. For example, we have discussed with the CQI turning the Rail Special Interest Group into a Transport Special Interest Group, which will enable wider collaboration on things like competence. We have the support of CQI and some major clients, and we are looking to engage the supply chain. So if anyone wants to get involved, reach out to us.”