Highways England has updated its guidance for supply chain partners on assessing their adoption of Lean ways of working.
The government-owned company has added an example improvement plan to its Highways England Lean Maturity Assessment (HELMA) tool, which aims to help organisations in its supply chain determine the extent to which they have adopted Lean principles.
It says it encourages its supply chain partners to adopt Lean principles and foster a culture of continuous improvement - to mutual advantage.
HELMA has 2 main aims:
- to enable firms to assess their organisation, or the part of it providing products and services to Highways England, in terms of Lean maturity
- to provide a structured method for Highways England to carry out moderation of self assessments
The process includes a completing a HELMA self-assessment using an assessment framework that provides an organisation with a structured means of assessing where it is in terms of implementing Lean.
Following a firm’s self-assessement, a moderation visit takes place on an annual basis.
The guidance states that a supply chain partner’s self-assessment score will not be formally recognised until it has been moderated by the Highways England Lean team.
Following the moderation visit, organisations are sent a copy of a feedback report. This is intended to provide the basis for a HELMA Improvement Action Plan, which should be provided to the Highways England Lean Team within three months of the visit and which will be used in the next assessment to monitor progress.
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