Dalkia, formerly Imtech and part of the EDF Group, provides energy services that help cities, industries, and organisations improve energy efficiency and manage energy infrastructure.
As the organisation expanded its project portfolio, leadership recognised the need for a more consistent approach to managing project delivery across multiple locations. Teams were experienced and committed to delivering for customers, but differences in planning, coordination, and performance visibility made it harder to maintain consistent delivery standards.
Dalkia partnered with S A Partners to develop and deploy a Lean management system that would strengthen planning, improve performance visibility, and create a shared approach to project delivery across the organisation.
The transformation began by defining a clear framework for how projects should be planned, managed, and delivered.
Working alongside leadership, S A Partners helped develop The Imtech Way – a structured approach to project delivery focused on quality, planning, production control, and safety across the project lifecycle.
A tiered management system was introduced to connect leadership priorities with operational routines. This structure created clear communication channels across projects and allowed teams to surface risks earlier and coordinate decisions more effectively.
Through this work, the organisation began to find excellence in the alignment between strategy and daily project delivery.
Once the framework had been established, the focus shifted to embedding the system across the organisation. More than 260 people were trained in The Imtech Way, building internal capability to lead and sustain the transformation while creating a shared understanding of how projects should be managed and improved.
The Lean management system was deployed across 22 projects spanning both construction and pre-construction environments. Tiered management boards were introduced to improve performance visibility and establish a consistent rhythm for reviewing progress, addressing issues, and coordinating activity between teams and leadership.
Process analysis also played an important role in identifying opportunities for improvement. Value stream mapping highlighted more than 32,000 hours of waste within existing processes, creating a clear pipeline of improvement activity and enabling teams to prioritise the areas that would have the greatest impact on project delivery.
Through these systems and capability-building efforts, the organisation was able to nurture excellence by giving teams the structure, visibility, and confidence needed to improve how projects were delivered.
As the system matured, teams gained stronger capability to manage performance and drive improvement across projects.
Regular Imtech Way audits helped reinforce standards and ensure the management system remained embedded in daily work. SIMPLE checks were also introduced to identify unproductive activities and improve efficiency across project processes.
These practices helped surface more than 2,200 unproductive tasks and created a structured approach to addressing them.
Through consistent systems, trained teams, and clear leadership alignment, Dalkia was able to sustain excellence in project delivery and build a stronger foundation for continuous improvement across the organisation.
Excellence in purpose is achieved when strategy is translated into the systems and behaviours that guide daily work.
At Dalkia, establishing a shared way of working created greater visibility into performance, improved coordination between projects, and strengthened internal capability for continuous improvement.
By aligning leadership priorities with structured management systems, the organisation created the conditions to find, nurture, and sustain the excellence already present within its teams.
It’s revealed when clarity, purpose, and systems come together, when every action connects back to why the work matters.
It’s in the people who choose focus over noise.
In the leaders who build belief.
In a culture that learns, improves, and sustains.
That’s where true excellence lives, not in complexity, but in connection.
Our role is simple: to help you find it, nurture it, and sustain it.
Because excellence isn’t somewhere out there… it’s already in here.