The Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme (HMEP) wants local authorities to use its LEAN toolkit in an effort to improve the condition and upkeep of England’s roads.
The LEAN toolkit, created by HMEP, is a guide that combines case studies with a practical ‘how to’ approach that can be adapted and used by highway authorities and supply chain partners to start or do more LEAN projects, helping you to save money and improve delivery of highway services
Launched today (9 December) at the London Technical Advisors Group’s (LoTAG) annual conference, LEAN is seen by HMEP to be fundamental to improving end-to-end planning and delivery of roads and services to customers.
The HMEP LEAN toolkit is already identifying significant savings that will allow local highway authorities to plan and deliver better roads, more affordably. With a return on investment as high as 10:1 being reported by highway authorities, with immediate cashable savings in year, the potential of this approach for greater efficiencies is significant, and there is scope to do much more across the sector.
According to HMEP, 17 local highway authorities already using LEAN in highways can show savings ranging between £150k and £1m per annum. A recent LEAN pilot by West Midlands Improvement Efficiency Partnership delivered £3.9m per annum efficiencies with projected savings well in excess of £20m up to 2015 – all alongside a range of service improvements for customers.
Matthew Lugg OBE, HMEP advocate, said: “If embraced and used effectively, the HMEP LEAN toolkit is a potential game-changer for the highways sector. The approach starts with the customer and provides tangible information for clients and providers to work together to make the end-to-end savings and improvements needed in highways planning and delivery.”
Dana Skelley, director of asset management, surface transport at Transport for London, added: “HMEP is here to support the sector to transform highway services and LEAN gives a real structure to clients and providers so they can work better, together and to plan roads that are fit for the future.”
The London Technical Advisors Group’s (LoTAG) annual conference welcomed around 120 delegates from the highways sector across London to share good practice for the efficient delivery of highways management.
