Continuous Improvement Cells in the Highways Sector

Abstract

In line with its performance improvement and Lean Construction agenda, the highways supply chain in the UK has commenced many Continuous Improvement (CI) cells in recent years. The CI cell is a small-group work coordination and improvement technique that is frequently used in many industries as part of their lean transformations. The technique has also its links to some key lean concepts and practices like continuous improvement (kaizen), Visual Management and hoshinkanri policy deployment. This paper presents a summary of a detailed research aiming to understand the execution of the CI cells in the highways supply chain in the UK with their associated benefits and challenges through a study of 12 CI cells at the main client organisation. Alongside a set of benefits and challenges, the current CI cell execution mechanism and some suggestions to improve the current practice were also presented in the paper.